BACKGROUND
1) Will Bunch, “The frog of democracy is nearly boiled. We can still jump out of the pot; The slow, seemingly piecemeal march of American dictatorship is trampling colleges and law firms and coming for the rest of us, Philadelphia Inquirer, March 23, 2025 (12:42 pm ET);
2) “Statement: Human Rights Watch declaration on prison conditions in El Salvador for the J.G.G. v. Trump,” Human Rights Watch, March 20, 2025(4:00PM EDT);
3) Mneesha Gellman(Emerson College),”Beatings, overcrowding and food deprivation: US deportees face distressing human rights conditions in El Salvador’s mega-prison,” Houston Chronicle, March 17, 2025
Trump’s police state is here; The useful (if untrue) metaphor of the frog in a boiling pot
On Washington Week on PBS on Friday, March 21, 2025, leading American journalists debated in fine detail whether the United States faces a “constitutional crisis”.
What the ****!
Even leading American journals have been so cowed by Trump that they can’t say the words directly. They have become incapable of reporting the equivalent of the cause of a nuclear explosion being a nuclear bomb.
The coverage in the Washington Post, in particular, has become so anodyne as to be almost meaningless. Think of the investigative journalism the old Washington Post might be engaging in.
The president is engaged in an unconstitutional dismantlement of federal agencies established by Congress.
The president is whisking people away im the middle of the night and deporting them to El Salador and its infamous prisons–with no due process as guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution. In some cases he is detaining individuals in the middle of the night with no charges, with no Miranda warnings, denying them access to lawyers in violation of the Sixth Amendment, and asserting he has the right to deport anyone under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Could this be a constitutional crisis?
Do you think?
El Salvador’s prisons are, as regards deportees, our prisons
Think about this for a minute.
The United States cannot escape its moral and legal obligations, under either domestic or international law, by simply deporting individuals to a foreign country that does not respect such obligations.
Were it otherwise, the U.S. could simply deport an individual to a country where he will be tortured, or murdered. Or forced to live in prison conditions prohibited by U.S. and international law.
As we examine the legal arguments advanced by the Trump administration, we must bear in mind that the Trump administration is engaged across the board in bad faith government, lies, and distortions of the truth.
A central tenet of all legal systems is the obligation of all parties to act in good faith. In judicial proceedings, this obligation is particularly important.
The Trump administration violates this good faith requirement every day, stetching the clear meaning of statutes far beyond any good faith interpretation. Read their legal arguments carefully.
Do they seem to you to be made in good faith?