Evening Roundup, May 16!
Featuring breaking SCOTUS news, Leah Litman & Jen Rubin, Frederic Frommer, Carron Phillips, Meredith Blake, Harry Litman & Sen. Van Hollen, Democracy Index, & Marissa Rothkopf
Katie Phang, Steve Vladeck and Norm Eisen react to Supreme Court bombshell!
Late Friday afternoon, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump Administration could not justify the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants with the Alien Enemies Act. Norm, Steve Vladeck, and Katie Phang immediately went live to give their reaction and explain what it all means.
Something's rotten at the Supreme Court: Leah Litman on the lawlessness embraced by conservative justices
Because they are human, and because humans are suspect to biases and unconscious beliefs, Supreme Court justices may falter in their duty to rule objectively on cases. It is not difficult to imagine how personal ideology or politics could occasionally seep into their judgements.
Trump is running a reverse by appealing to the football world
By Carron J. Phillips
The president used to be a nuisance to the NFL. It’s just another Hail Mary.
Why Eurovision matters
This week, artists representing 37 countries have gathered in Basel, Switzerland for the Eurovision Song Contest, a glitzy annual competition to find the best, catchiest, and most irresistible song in the world…
The Democracy Index
The Trumpian kleptocracy approached full flower this week. As the president took the first major foreign trip of his second term, heading to the Middle East, the brazenness of his corruption repelled even his most ardent supporters and revealed one of the core features — and weaknesses — of his regime: corruption.
Will Abrego-Garcia Ever See the Light of Day Again: A Discussion with Sen. Chris Van Hollen
Harry talks with Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, who has been at the forefront of the efforts to keep attention on the nightmarish treatment of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia. Abrego-Garcia was pulled from the car he was driving and next thing he knew was in a notorious prison in El Salvador, the very place that a judge had ruled he could not be sent because o…
Transformation sauce
I published this recipe a year ago on my Substack—before The Contrarian was a glimmer in anyone’s eye—and though I’m known for my baking, this sauce recipe quickly became one of my most popular. It’s a simple, healthy green sauce that transforms the plain into fancy and the fancy into amazing.
Contrarian Pet of the Week
We told you we wanted to have fun, and we take fun seriously at The Contrarian. Each week we will share The Contrarian pet(s) of the week. (The pet need not be contrarian.) Subscribers are invited to submit their furry friend!
Trump's Sleight of Hand Before the Supreme Court
Trump’s DOJ lawyer is arguing before the Supreme Court that a federal judge's authority to rule on a Constitutional issue should have no effect beyond the physical boundaries of that Judge’s district
A decision that a federal judge's order could not extend beyond the boundaries of his or her district could have catastrophic consequences, especially during Donald Trump's tenure in which abuses run rampant in his cascades of executive orders that choke our Constitutional rights
Here is a hypothetical should the Supreme Court side with Trump’s lawyer: If Trump issued an executive order requiring ICE agents or US marshals to seize all suspected illegal immigrants and ship them directly to a Libyan prison without any judicial intervention, and authorize them to use deadly force if necessary upon resistance, it would enable Trump's goons to ship as many people as possible throughout the U.S. to Libya, other than the ones living in the federal district where the Federal District Judge issued a restraining order.
And Trump could implement and expedite this as quickly as possible in each and every district in the country before complainants have the opportunity to seek judicial intervention.
This is not speculation. This is a sleight of hand. This is a ruse to confine the enforcement of Constitutional rights to limited jurisdictions while Trump and his thugs run rampant throughout the U.S. This is precisely the argument that Trump's Solicitor General is making before the Supreme Court. It's a trick to confine the enforcement of Constitutional rights to a handful of federal districts while Trump's storm troopers violate the rights of all others throughout the country.
And if Trump wins on this issue, Heaven help us on how far and how fast Trump will expand his Gestapo-like tactics throughout the U.S. before a judge in each individual federal district throughout the U.S. will have the right and opportunity to rule on it, though it would only apply to those within his or her district.
Where's the Contrarian pet of the week!!