The Battle Between Executive and Judiciary

Tuesday was a big day in the back-and-forth play between the Executive branch and an increasingly testy Judiciary. Not only did Chief Justice John Roberts have to slap the president’s hand verbally, but lower court justices delivered more decisions that pushed back on the president’s slash-and-burn agenda. On one hand, we can feel good that, so far, the separation of powers strategy is doing exactly what it’s supposed to do. At the same time, however, the chaos grows as GOP minions look for new ways to subvert the law.

Late last evening, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes in Washington, D.C., ruled that Trump’s order to exclude transgender troops from military service likely violates their constitutional rights. Reyes postponed her order until Friday to give the administration time to appeal, because you know that’s going to happen anyway. “The court knows that this opinion will lead to heated public debate and appeals. In a healthy democracy, both are positive outcomes,” Reyes wrote. “We should all agree, however, that every person who has answered the call to serve deserves our gratitude and respect.”

Of course, you know the White House had to mouth off in return. Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen [Weasel] Miller, posted about the ruling on social media, writing, “District court judges have now decided they are in command of the Armed Forces…is there no end to this madness?” Yeah, it’s an empty response from an empty head. Apparently, that was the best anyone could come up with at that hour.

The judge’s decision is in response to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issuing a policy that presumptively disqualifies people with gender dysphoria from military service. Plaintiffs’ attorneys contend the order violates transgender people’s rights to equal protection under the Fifth Amendment. Hence, the current fight.

Earlier in the day, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang in Maryland declared that DOGE’s and Muskrat’s fast-moving destruction of USAID likely harmed the public interest by depriving elected lawmakers of their “constitutional authority to decide whether, when, and how to close down an agency created by Congress.” Within that decision, the judge ruled that rejected the Punk administration’s position that Musk is merely President Felonious Punk’s adviser. Muskrat’s public statements and social media posts demonstrate that he has “firm control over DOGE,” the judge found pointing to an online post where Muskrat said he had “fed USAID into the wood chipper.”

Oxfam America’s Abby Maxman in a statement urged all staffing and funding to be reinstated. “The funding freeze and program cuts are already having life or death consequences for millions around the world,” said the chief executive of the humanitarian group. The White House, however, has yet to respond. They’re too busy saying unintelligible things on Faux News.

While those two matters are significant signs that at least lower-level courts are willing to uphold the law, there are still plenty of other situations that are waiting for the courts’ opinions.

The Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) “issued a Geographic Targeting Order (GTO) to further combat the illicit activities and money laundering of Mexico-based cartels and other criminal actors along the southwest border of the United States,” according to the announcement. “The GTO requires all money services businesses (MSBs) located in 30 ZIP codes across California and Texas near the southwest border to file Currency Transaction Reports (CTRs) with FinCEN at a $200 threshold, in connection with cash transactions.”

Stop and think about that one a little bit. If you’re going out for the night, how much cash do you need? Sure, it depends on where you’re going, but $200 isn’t all that much if you’re going out for drinks or any place where one might want to use cash tips. Never mind that the current order is limited to 30 specific areas. If the administration is allowed to get away with this kind of crazy limitation on one’s personal finances at even one location, the option is then open to implement the same limitation everywhere for everyone. A lawsuit has been filed but not yet heard.

Getting through all the red tape and memos takes a lot of time and it’s easy to overlook things. Yesterday, it became public knowledge that a memo issued in February omitted a requirement that unequivocally prohibits contractors from having segregated restaurants, waiting rooms, and drinking fountains. This immediately violates the Civil Rights Act of 1965.

 “As our nation unfortunately becomes more divided and polarized, the last thing we need is any effort that could be perceived as allowing racial segregation,” Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said in a statement. Lawsuits on this matter could be filed as early as today.

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) provoked uproar by unveiling a list of 31 regulations it will scale back or eliminate, including rules limiting harmful air pollution from cars and power plants; restrictions on the emission of mercury, a neurotoxin; and clean water protections for rivers and streams. But the rules targeted have immediate, measurable benefits to Americans’ health even without considering the longer-term impacts of the climate crisis. In total, the regulations on the hit list will prevent nearly 200,000 deaths over the next 25 years, by helping avoid an array of heart, respiratory, and other health problems worsened by air and water pollution, according to assessments conducted by the EPA itself.

William Reilly, who was EPA administrator under George HW Bush, said that such a vision is a “catastrophe” and threatens to plunge the US back into a pre-1970s era when cities were routinely shrouded by dangerous smog and rivers were so polluted by chemicals and waste that in some cases they caught fire. “We are almost going to an honors system where we are going to trust corporations behave as if there are laws when there are no laws,” Reilly said. “I honestly wonder if the malefactors are going to give us more burning rivers.”

Overwhelmed yet? The hits, they just keep on coming.

One of the most disturbing things we have seen this week is an accusation that 48 New Mexico residents “disappeared” after their arrests by federal immigration enforcement agents this month. Immigration and Customs Enforcement “has not indicated where any of them are being detained, whether they have access to counsel, in what conditions they are being held, or even which agency is holding them,” according to a federal complaint from the American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico. They have been “effectively forcibly disappeared from our communities,” attorneys wrote.

Remember that whole mess over the weekend about Venezuelans being deported despite a judge’s ruling? A catch was revealed yesterday: many of those deported had ZERO criminal records! People who were just here, living their lives, suddenly snatched up and deported to one of the worst prisons in the world in El Salvadore.

Now, pay attention here. In a sworn declaration, ICE Acting Field Office Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations Robert Cerna argued that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”

Are we understanding what Cerna is saying? Not having enough information about a person is cause to arrest and deport them? Hello, just how much information is enough? Does ICE need this information on everyone? Should we be calling the FBI and asking for a copy of any records they have on us?

We know that case is far from being over. The judge has ordered another hearing on Friday and we assume this matter will be a topic of conversation. If it’s not, we need to make it one through other channels.

At the moment, the Judicial Branch of the government is the only thing standing between Punk and a complete overthrow of the United States. If anything that we mentioned in this article is ignored, and we only listed a few of the items we know about, then the concept of a free country as we’ve known it is gone.

If you haven’t read our concept for resisting, perhaps now would be a good time to do so.