If Tren de Aragua gang members aren’t “alien enemies” of the United States, aren’t able to be deported by the American president under the ancient Alien Enemies Act, then language itself has lost its meaning. But that’s the world we’re living in.
In a way, it shouldn’t surprise us. The Left, after all, has been at war with the language — and at war with reality — for decades. Indeed, they insist that men can become pregnant, that women can only be described by biologists, that pedophiles are merely minor-attracted persons, and that last year’s version of Joe Biden was the best Biden ever.
Nor should the current judicial war against Donald Trump surprise any of us. All throughout his first term, Trump and his agenda were sabotaged from within by entrenched deep-state leftists and by old-guard establishment Republicans. In this second term, though, with Trump having remade the Republican Party and having cleaned up the executive branch, the attacks are coming from without — from the third and supposedly coequal branch of government that Thomas Jefferson once presciently warned could become despotic: the judicial branch.
Since his inauguration, Trump has been busy trying to unscrew the mess bequeathed him by four years of the Autopen Presidency, but he’s been opposed at nearly every turn — from mass-deporting illegal aliens to ending birthright citizenship to trimming down our grotesquely bloated federal government to imposing tariffs on predatory trading partners — by lower-court judges and, in some cases, by the very Supreme Court justices that he nominated for the bench.
Most recently, an utterly obscure body called the U.S. Court of International Trade struck down much of Trump’s tariff policy, ruling that it constitutes an overreach of executive authority. But as Charlie Kirk rightly points out:
While the Constitution grants Congress the power to impose tariffs, Congress delegated much of that power to the Executive Branch in the Trade Expansion Act of 1962, which allows for adjustments to tariff rates without needing Congressional action. Courts have given the executive branch broad authority to negotiate trade, that is until now.
Leftists are, of course, defending these actions, but this is an extraordinary attack on the Article II authority of the president. Two months ago, Newt Gingrich called these undemocratic actions a judicial coup. More recently, Gary Bauer called them a judicial jihad. Who can argue?
Along the way, Trump has also been beset by the Republican-controlled legislative branch. Executive orders are easily undone by a succeeding administration, but codified law is far stickier, far harder to undo. Yet House Republicans have largely been sitting on their hands so far, seemingly content to watch a term-limited Trump crank out executive orders at a record pace while the minority Democrats go judge-shopping to undo the will of the American people.
As for this complacent Congress, I’ll rework a phrase from a favorite movie: You are the legislators. Go and legislate.
A president may live by the EO, but his hard work will ultimately die by the EO of his successor. Still, this penchant for foiling a president by finding just the right lower-court judge is insane. Search hard enough, and you’ll find a judge to oppose just about any EO, Republican or Democrat. And think of the tit-for-tat precedent it sets. The Democrats will rue this practice when the shoe is on the other foot, just as they rued the day when they changed the Senate’s rules on judicial appointments only to watch as Donald Trump slam-dunked three Supreme Court justices in their collective faces.
As for those judges, Trump no doubt wishes he could take some mulligans. I can understand his frustration. There’s not a moment in American history that resembles this degree of judicial activism against a newly elected president. And this president still enjoys a clear voter mandate: He has good polling numbers and a historically good right-track wrong-track number.
And yet. When Trump was running for president in 2016, he made it clear that he wanted judges in the Scalia-Thomas-Alito mold, but it looks like he’s appointed many who are in the Roberts mold — if not the Souter mold — all up and down the judiciary.
Recently, Trump’s frustration bubbled over in a lengthy Truth post:
The U.S. Court of International Trade incredibly ruled against the United States of America on desperately needed Tariffs but, fortunately, the full 11 Judge Panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit Court has just stayed the order by the Manhattan-based Court of International Trade. Where do these initial three Judges come from? How is it possible for them to have potentially done such damage to the United States of America? Is it purely a hatred of “TRUMP?” What other reason could it be? I was new to Washington, and it was suggested that I use The Federalist Society as a recommending source on Judges. I did so, openly and freely, but then realized that they were under the thumb of a real “sleazebag” named Leonard Leo, a bad person who, in his own way, probably hates America, and obviously has his own separate ambitions. … With all of that being said, I am very proud of many of our picks, but very disappointed in others. They always must do what’s right for the Country! … The ruling by the U.S. Court of International Trade is so wrong, and so political! Hopefully, the Supreme Court will reverse this horrible, Country threatening decision, QUICKLY and DECISIVELY. Backroom “hustlers” must not be allowed to destroy our Nation! The horrific decision stated that I would have to get the approval of Congress for these Tariffs. In other words, hundreds of politicians would sit around D.C. for weeks, and even months, trying to come to a conclusion as to what to charge other Countries that are treating us unfairly. … Radical Left Judges, together with some very bad people, are destroying America. Under this decision, Trillions of Dollars would be lost by our Country, money that will, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN. It would be the harshest financial ruling ever leveled on us as a Sovereign Nation. The President of the United States must be allowed to protect America against those that are doing it Economic and Financial harm. Thank you for your attention to this matter!
Suffice it to say, Leonard Leo won’t be getting any Christmas cards from Donald Trump going forward. My guess is that Leo is an establishment type, and he probably tabbed a bunch of Bush Republicans for that long judicial list that Trump entrusted to him — perhaps because there was no such thing as a Trump Republican on the bench at the time. If that’s the case, then many of those appointments are likely the judicial branch equivalent of the bad appointment advice Trump got all across the executive branch in his first term — such as with globalists like Rex Tillerson at State, James Mattis at Defense, and Gina Haspel at CIA — to say nothing of Chris Wray at FBI. These were all anti-Trump types, and all of them helped thwart his agenda.
Going forward, Congress says it has a plan to stop this judicial tyranny, but plans aren’t policies. We need to see some results.
