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Category: Law/Crime

Former Supreme Court Justice Kennedy warns ‘democracy is at risk’

Former Supreme Court Justice Kennedy warns ‘democracy is at risk’

Politico reports: Former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy warned Thursday that acrimonious political discourse and threats to judges are eroding the ability of the United States to serve as an example of democracy worldwide. “Many in the rest of the world look to the United States to see what democracy is, to see what democracy ought to be,” Kennedy said during an online forum about threats to the rule of law. “If they see a hostile, fractious discourse, if they…

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Trump’s masked henchmen challenge local police, sowing fear across LA and the rest of America

Trump’s masked henchmen challenge local police, sowing fear across LA and the rest of America

The Los Angeles Times reports: Increasingly aggressive immigration raids carried out by masked federal agents, sometimes using unmarked vehicles, are creating problems for local law enforcement agencies. Police have little or no insight into where the federal enforcement actions are taking place but often have to deal with the aftermath, including protests and questions from residents about what exactly happened. In some cases, local cops have been mistaken for federal agents, eroding years of work to have immigrant communities trust…

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Emil Bove, now a federal court of appeals nominee, proposed defying court orders, former DOJ colleague says

Emil Bove, now a federal court of appeals nominee, proposed defying court orders, former DOJ colleague says

Politico reports: A top Justice Department official who has been nominated for a federal judgeship suggested to colleagues that the administration would defy court orders in order to carry out President Donald Trump’s aggressive plan for mass deportations, according to a whistleblower letter submitted by another attorney who was present. The official, Emil Bove, proposed ignoring court orders as administration lawyers strategized in March over expected legal challenges to the president’s plan to assert wartime powers to rapidly deport some…

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The Supreme Court just stripped thousands of immigrants of their right to due process

The Supreme Court just stripped thousands of immigrants of their right to due process

Ian Millhiser writes: In a short, one-paragraph order, the Republican justices ruled on Monday evening that President Donald Trump may effectively nullify a federal law and an international treaty that is supposed to protect immigrants from torture. The Court’s order in Department of Homeland Security v. D.V.D. does not explain the GOP’s justices’ reasoning, although Justice Sonia Sotomayor responds to their silent decision in a 19-page dissent joined by her two Democratic colleagues. The Court’s order is only temporary, and…

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Why the Senate’s Byrd Rule could mean big trouble for Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

Why the Senate’s Byrd Rule could mean big trouble for Trump’s ‘Big Beautiful Bill’

Time reports: She wasn’t elected and she doesn’t cast votes. But over the past week, Elizabeth MacDonough, the quietly powerful Senate parliamentarian, may have had more influence over Donald Trump’s legislative agenda than anyone else in Washington. After meeting with Republicans and Democrats behind closed doors, MacDonough in recent days has significantly shrunk the size of the President’s sweeping tax-and-spending package known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” by striking several measures that violated an arcane, decades-old Senate rule known…

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Provision in GOP tax bill that would threaten judicial power breaks Senate rules, says parliamentarian

Provision in GOP tax bill that would threaten judicial power breaks Senate rules, says parliamentarian

HuffPost reports: A provision in the GOP’s tax-and-spending bill that would make it nearly impossible for anyone to sue the Trump administration for breaking laws is on track to be stripped from the bill after the Senate parliamentarian said it violates the chamber’s rules. This provision, which is in Senate Republicans’ version of the One Big Beautiful Act, would require anyone seeking an emergency court order ― that is, a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction ― against the…

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‘It felt like kidnapping,’ Mahmoud Khalil says in first interview after release

‘It felt like kidnapping,’ Mahmoud Khalil says in first interview after release

The New York Times reports: Mahmoud Khalil sat in a Manhattan apartment dotted with posters and signs calling for his freedom and described the moment 105 days before when plainclothes immigration agents had handcuffed him in the building lobby. “All the ‘Know Your Rights’ information and fliers I read and familiarized myself with were useless,” Mr. Khalil said. “There are no rights in such situations.” “It felt like kidnapping,” he said. Mr. Khalil, a 30-year-old Columbia University graduate and U.S….

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The people being disappeared by ICE in Los Angeles

The people being disappeared by ICE in Los Angeles

Emily Witt writes: On Tuesday, June 17th, Nancy Urizar was at her job working in the fund-raising department of a Jesuit boys’ high school in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts when her phone rang. “It was just a normal day for me,” she said. “It was twelve, and I had just come back from lunch.” On the other end of the line was her father’s landlord. Some friends of her dad’s had come over, the landlord told her, and…

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Israel’s attack on Iran is illegal

Israel’s attack on Iran is illegal

Adil Ahmad Haque writes: Israel’s use of force against Iran was and remains plainly unlawful and a manifest violation of the United Nations Charter. The Charter prohibits the use of force except with the authorization of the UN Security Council or in the exercise of the right of self-defense “if an armed attack occurs.” No armed attack by Iran against Israel was occurring on June 12, or was about to occur, or was bound to occur unless prevented by the…

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The Trump regime has unleashed an unaccountable secret police force

The Trump regime has unleashed an unaccountable secret police force

Garrett Graff writes: Day by passing day, we are watching what amounts to a national police riot by ICE. Social media is filled with disturbing videos of masked ICE officers — or, I should say, people suspected of being or self-identifying as ICE officers, since for the most part they’re not wearing any identifiable police insignia — manhandling people, including the comptroller of New York, US citizens, suspected aliens, and even journalists alike. In recent days, ICE has also begun…

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Federal judge appointed by Reagan: ‘I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this’

Federal judge appointed by Reagan: ‘I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this’

Politico reports: A federal judge appointed by Ronald Reagan on Monday accused the Trump administration of “appalling” and “palpably clear” discrimination against racial minorities and LGBTQ+ Americans. “I’ve never seen a record where racial discrimination was so palpable. I’ve sat on this bench now for 40 years. I’ve never seen government racial discrimination like this,” said U.S. District Judge William Young, a Massachusetts-based jurist who took the bench in 1985. Young’s sweeping rebuke during a court hearing was a reference…

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How the Trump regime is emulating the Pinochet regime

How the Trump regime is emulating the Pinochet regime

HuffPost reports: The only information Ysqueibel Yonaiquer Peñaloza Chirinos’ family has received about him in the past three months came from former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz. Gaetz probably didn’t mean to help. But last month, as part of a propaganda video for the far-right One America News Network, he took a tour of the infamous Salvadoran prison to which President Donald Trump has sent hundreds of U.S. immigrants for indefinite detention, without charge, trial or sentencing: El Centro de Confinamiento…

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Stephen Miller overrules Trump and insists ICE be given free rein to meet immigrant arrest quotas

Stephen Miller overrules Trump and insists ICE be given free rein to meet immigrant arrest quotas

The Washington Post reports: The Department of Homeland Security on Monday told staff that it was reversing guidance issued last week that agents were not to conduct immigration raids at farms, hotels and restaurants — a decision that stood at odds with President Donald Trump’s calls for mass deportations of anyone without legal status. Officials from Immigration and Customs Enforcement, including its Homeland Security Investigations division, told agency leaders in a call Monday that agents must continue conducting immigration raids…

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Open door to discrimination: New rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans

Open door to discrimination: New rules allow VA doctors to refuse to treat Democrats, unmarried veterans

The Guardian reports: Doctors at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospitals nationwide could refuse to treat unmarried veterans and Democrats under new hospital guidelines imposed following an executive order by Donald Trump. The new rules, obtained by the Guardian, also apply to psychologists, dentists and a host of other occupations. They have already gone into effect in at least some VA medical centers. Medical staff are still required to treat veterans regardless of race, color, religion and sex, and all…

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Budget bill would make courts powerless to protect constitutional rights

Budget bill would make courts powerless to protect constitutional rights

Arizona Supreme Court Justice Clint Bolick writes: Like a well-armed drone flying beneath the radar, the latest assault on the independent judiciary is dangerous and stealthy. A short and easily overlooked passage in Section 70302 of the behemoth budget reconciliation bill, it created hardly a ripple of attention as it passed in the House of Representatives and awaited action in the Senate. In the past few days, however, the Senate rewrote the provision in a way that arguably makes it…

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