Everybody on the Right is absolutely bubbly with the actions taken by Donny and his move against immigrants.

There does not seem to be any rhyme or reason for his deportations other than the misuse of the ‘Enemy Aliens Act’ from our early history.

That Act has been batted around liberally by the Far Right and even some of the dolts in the media….but I do not believe the ‘Act’ says what they think it says.

President Donald Trump claims that the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 grants him the power to deport certain Venezuelan-born aliens without due process, based on the mere allegation of membership in a criminal street gang.

But the text of the Alien Enemies Act does not allow the president to do anything of the sort. “Whenever there shall be a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion shall be perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States, by any foreign nation or government,” the act states, the president may direct the “removal” of “all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United States, and not actually naturalized.”

The crimes of the alleged members of the street gang Tren de Aragua do not meet this legal standard. There is no “declared war” between the United States and Venezuela, and there is no “invasion or predatory incursion” of the U.S. by “any foreign nation or government.” The gang is not a foreign state, and the gang’s alleged crimes, heinous as they may be, do not qualify as acts of war by a foreign state. Trump’s frequent talk about a rhetorical “invasion” of the U.S. by undocumented immigrants utterly fails to satisfy the law’s requirements.

The fatal defects of Trump’s position are further illuminated when you compare his stance with James Madison’s “Report of 1800,” which critiqued the Alien and Sedition Acts. (The Alien Enemies Act was one of the three laws that comprised the Alien and Sedition Acts.)

As Madison explained, there are two categories of “offences for which aliens within the jurisdiction” of the United States “are punishable.” The first category involves “offences committed by the nation of which they make a part, and in whose offences they are involved.” In this case, “the offending nation can no otherwise be punished than by war.” In other words, the aliens are citizens of an offending nation that has committed an act of war against the United States. The aliens who fall within this category are “alien enemies.”

https://reason.com/2025/05/26/dont-use-the-alien-enemies-act-on-alien-friends/

Of course under normal circumstances this would be a Constitutional issue….but when the legal system is being choked by nothing more than political hacks anything can be made possible.

Was Hamilton Right?

Alexander Hamilton described the judiciary as “beyond comparison the weakest of the three departments of power.” He reasoned that the court only has the power of judgment. Its authority relies not on coercive ability, but rather on the trust of both the other branches of government and the public in its integrity as an impartial arbiter of the law.

I think he was mistaken…..maybe in his day it may have held true but today it is not for the rulings of SCOTUS seem to indicate that it is one of the power centers of the government.

Class Dismissed!

I Read, I Write, You Know

“lego ergo scribo”