Week 18

Court decisions continue to go against Donald Trump and his administration, although the Supreme Court remains solicitous of his ability to cause chaos.

There was more court action around the desire of the administration to shackle people into airplanes and send them to undesirable destinations without due process. The courts seem to be holding firm on due process, but none of this has really reached the Supreme Court yet. The birthright case did get to the Court, but they chickened out and stuck to the details.

It’s pretty clear to me, anyway, that Stephen Miller is directing these renditions. The legal basis is shaky, and the legal defenses are bullshit. Courts are losing patience, but none of them have resorted to contempt proceedings yet.

Someone linked to a Wired article from April that purports to have a service agreement for DOGE with the Department of Labor. I haven’t read it yet; my real life is presenting more and more requirements. The status of DOGE and its legality is something that the major news media seem not to want to dig into. There are a few intrepid reporters who are continuing to try to find out, but the secrecy is pretty thick. One court decision (Supreme Court?) this week said that DOGE does not have to disclose through FOIA, which seems wrong.

Follow the court-watchers for the details of the lawsuits, now up to 249, including 9 closed.  Chris Geidner (LawDork, Bluesky), Roger Parloff (Lawfare, Bluesky), and the Just Security tracker.

As usual, keep it to things that have actually happened, not hypotheticals. What is actually happening is bad enough.

Tomorrow (May 25) is Gotcha Day for my kittens. They are now almost Zooey’s size, although their bodies retain some kittenish characteristics. Jose is very long-legged. Luca is robust, with large paws. I think Luca may actually be bigger than Zooey. They were eight weeks old when I got them from the Espanola Humane Society. The photo above is an early interaction among all three.

Caring for yourself and loved ones is resistance too. I took yesterday off as a mental health day. Post your pets.

Here’s what the Trump administration did this week, in no particular order

• Removed protection from Venezuelans; also removes sanctions on Venezuela. None of this makes sense if Venezuela and its supposed military arm Tren de Aragua are invading the US, as the administration claims is the basis for their use of the Alien Enemies Act.
• Sent a group of people to Djibouti en route to South Sudan. This is part of the campaign to render people to arbitrary countries without due process.
• Announced that “Golden Dome” will be operative in three years. “Golden Dome,” of course, is Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars (yes, SDI) rebranded “Trump.”
• Removed Harvard’s ability to enroll international students.

Continuing

• Trump’s losses in the courts.

Pushback

• ICE will restore the status of thousands of college students.
• Court decision that the Department of Education cannot be dissolved by an Executive Order.
• Bruce Springsteen made some good comments.
• Harvard rapidly got a stay to continue to enroll international students.

Splits in the Coalition

• Sohrab Amari, who had joined up with Bari Weiss, is tired of the Right (long Bluesky thread).

To balance my optimism (which is slightly down this week), Sherrilyn Ifill has a thread of events just through Tuesday.

190 more weeks to go. What are you doing?

Previous weeks: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3, Week 4, Week 5, Week 6, Week 7, Week 8. Week 9, Week 10

Week 11, Week 12, Week 13, Week 14, Week 15, Week 16, Week 17