Lawblr side of Tumblr, here. I don’t think anybody even understands how terrifying this is. If the Executive can ignore the Judiciary, then we have a full-on Constitutional Crisis on our hands. Our country immediately falls apart. The only options for enforcement of judicial orders are 1) U.S. Marshals (which are ordered around by the Judiciary but ultimately still a part of the Executive as part of the Department of Justice), in which case we have an ACTUAL ARMED CONFLICT BETWEEN TWO BRANCHES OF GOVERNMENT, or if the Marshals refuse to comply, 2) the Governor of the state, say Virginia, sends in the National Guard of the state, which leads to AN ARMED CONFLICT BETWEEN A STATE MILITIA AND THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
In case you weren’t getting the picture, let me be blunt and dramatic: this is literally Civil War-level shit right here.
And Trump has been in office a week.
This is fucking terrifying.
I spent the day at SeaTac (Seattle-Tacoma International Airport). We got very little done because CBP refused to talk to us at all. When one of the attorneys with us annoyed them so much that they finally answered their office door (she literally knocked on it for 10 minutes straight), they directed her to the press release on their website (side note: I don’t know if there even is a press release on the CBP website). They told her they don’t care how many attorneys show up, they don’t take orders from attorneys or judges. Senator Patty Murray showed up just after 4:00 & CBP refused to talk to her, too. I will repeat that: Customs and Border Patrol refused to talk to a sitting United States Senator. They refused other senators at other airports, too, according to a WaPo article I read earlier.
I had to return to Portland tonight because I have work tomorrow. ACLU & International Refugee Assistance Project attorneys will be back at SeaTac tomorrow at 5:30 a.m. (including my law school bestie, I am so proud).
There were 13 people detained at SeaTac yesterday who were secretly transferred to a detention facility in Tacoma, so the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project is working with attorneys to straighten that right out.
Basically: Shit is going down, y’all. The women I went up with today? Both were Arabs. One was from Pakistan, the other was from Lebanon (a Christian, a Muslim and a Jew walk into an airport…). When I asked them if I was overreacting by feeling like this was a coup-in-progress, they said no. That’s precisely what this is.
I thought we had a coup-proof system. I was mistaken.
Keep fighting the good fight, lawyers. And if you’re in Portland, I’ll see you at Perkins-Coie tomorrow at 5:30 for the L4GG meeting.
Ok…I was just wondering why the Judicial branch wasn’t involved, so that answers my question.
So this is baaaaaaaaad. As we all know, this is supposed to be a rock-paper-scissors means of government, but now it’s become a supremacy. The only way we can stop this now, based on politics, is to vote 2 years from now…
But we don’t have enough time for that shit, so somebody tell me I’m wrong and come up with an alternative, please and thank you.
For starters, what is impeachment? Why haven’t we done it before, and how can we do it?
Who’s in charge in the event of an impeachment? Should that be cause for concern as well?
I’ve been hearing lately that Pence isn’t that bad. That can very well be wrong.
(I want opinions or statements of fact, not finger-pointing. I’m a sensitive baby for the next 6 days if you know what I mean)
Impeachment is a hearing held in the House of Representatives to determine if the president is guilty of breaking the law.
The important thing that a lot of people don’t get is that impeachment does not mean the removal of the president from office. In the event that the president is found by the House to have broken the law, the Senate then votes on whether or not to remove him from office. Bill Clinton was successfully impeached by the House but the Senate did not remove him from office.
In the event that the president is impeached AND the Senate votes to remove him from office, the normal line of succession comes into play: Pence would become president and would nominate a new Vice President who would then, I believe, be confirmed by the Senate.
During the impeachment proceedings, the president stays the president unless he decides to resign instead. Nixon, for example, resigned before impeachment proceedings could begin. Clinton stayed president the whole time and did president stuff, as far as I remember.
Pence is terrible, politically speaking. However, I don’t think at this point that he would be worse than Trump, because based on his performance as governor of Indiana I don’t think he would ignore the rule of law. He’s signed some terrible misogynist homophobic laws, but he hasn’t, to my knowledge, ever just said “fuck it” and done whatever he liked regardless of court orders and legislative action.
(I am doing this off the top of my head, haven’t slept in two days, and have more cold medicine in my system than I probably should, so if any of this seems wrong to please chime in and ask questions and/or correct me. Also [citation needed] acknowledged.)
Published
Overdressed & Underappreciated 