7 Islands and 3 Branches
There has been considerable discussion of the phrase “an island in the Pacific”. With that phrase, Sessions made it clear that he considers Hawaii to be a second class state — not a real American state like Alabama. I have no doubt at all that he believes this largely because a majority of residents of Hawaii aren’t white. Our Attorney General is deeply racist and only sometimes able to hide this fact.
A Justice Department spokesperson added insult to insult by saying that Hawaii is indeed an island in the Pacific. This is true. Also Bora Bora is an Island in the Pacific. But Judge Watson didn’t issue his order while sitting on Bora Bora or the Island called Hawaii. he was sitting on Oahu, not Hawaii. The US State of Hawaii is an archipelago including 7 large islands only one of which is the island called “Hawaii” in the Pacific.
Sessions personally displayed spectacular geographic ignorance saying “I wasn’t diminishing the judge or the island of Hawaii, that beautiful place, give me a break.”
None of this is very important. What is important is that Sessions challenges the authority of a judge to declare an executive order to be unlawful. ““I was just making the point that’s very real: one judge out of 700 has stopped the President of the United States from doing what he believes is necessary to protect our safety and security.” Sessions has abandoned his claim that his view of what appears statutory and constitutional should count for more than a judges — that an attorney should be able to over rule a judge. Now he claims that the President’s judgement should count more than any (single) judges view of what the law says.
Judicial proceedings start with a single judge (whose judgments can be appealed). Plaintiffs do not have direct access to panels of judges. As noted by Hobbes roughly 370 years ago, the law without a judge amounts to mere ink on paper. Sessions’ clearly stated view is that the President should not be subordinate to any law or statute whatsoever. If no single judge can even temporarily stop him, the law can’t stop him. If no single judge can issue a preliminary injunction or a decision, then no panel of judges can hear the case.
Sessions declares that the USA is, and should be, an absolute monarchy.
He is an enemy of the constitution.
However, he has not committed treason (which requires making war not just declaring it) and has not committed another impeachable offence (he did commit perjury during his confirmation hearings and, of course, should be impeached, convicted, removed from office and, I think, disqualified “to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States”).
Well, Sessions is certainly a deplorable, but he really fits into the WH.
” To put that another way, not only is Hawaii not an actual state, according to the chief law enforcement officer of the United States, but Judge Derrick Watson, the federal judge from Hawaii who put his travel ban on hold, is not an actual federal judge. The soft bigotry of soft bigotry marches ever onward.
Perhaps this shouldn’t surprise us. Remember when Trump almost managed to derail his candidacy as the most racist presidential aspirant in history by calling an American-born judge of Mexican heritage a “hater” and a “Mexican” unfit by race to oversee his Trump University lawsuit? Remember when candidate Trump warned that “They ought to look into Judge Curiel,” and Paul Ryan called this the “textbook definition of racist comments”? ”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2017/04/jeff_sessions_thinks_hawaii_is_not_a_real_state.html
And I can think of no better word to call these people:
” Donald Trump is a celebrity and has met his fair share of the same while in the Oval Office. On Thursday, a photo from one of those meetings made the rounds. It shows the president at his desk with five visitors. To his right, musician Kid Rock with fiancée Audrey Berry. To his left, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, musician Ted Nugent, and Nugent’s wife, Shemane Deziel.
If cultural representation is part of what the president does, then these visitors reflect Trump’s base, nothing more and nothing less. Palin rode her paeans to “real America” in the 2008 presidential election to a reality television career before settling as a frequent presence in conservative news and entertainment. (She was also an early and barely coherent endorser of Trump.) Kid Rock is a staple of the white, blue-collar entertainment circuit, and Nugent is a vocal advocate for gun ownership and hunting, who roots his message in a kind of white rural identity (and who also, you may have heard, wrote “Cat Scratch Fever”).
Donald Trump built his political brand on racist conspiracy theories.
But there’s more at work in this picture than just representation—additional meaning that isn’t too hard to extract. As a candidate for vice president, Palin wasn’t just an avatar of folksy traditionalism, she was a demagogue who attacked Obama as a racialized other, a quasi-foreigner who “palled around with terrorists.” And with these attacks, Palin presaged Trump’s rise to prominence on the strength of “birtherism,” the conspiracy theory that Obama is not an American citizen and is also possibly a Muslim. Kid Rock wasn’t as outwardly hostile to the former president—though, in one interview, he knocked him as “Obummer”—but his image is rooted in a similar culture of opposition and resentment, where you fly the Confederate flag and tell black protesters to “kiss my ass.”
Then there’s Nugent, who made racism his signature during the Obama years. In 2012, he wondered if it would have been better for the Confederacy to have won the Civil War, thus saving “limited government.” In 2013, he blasted Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for speaking in “Ebonic mumbo-jumbo.” That same year, writing for right-wing conspiracy website World Net Daily, Nugent blamed Trayvon Martin’s death on “the same mindless tendency to violence we see in black communities across America.” He later called Martin a “dope smoking, racist gangsta wannabe.” On Twitter, he’s called Obama supporters “subhuman varmints,” adding that “Pimps, whores & welfare brats & their soulless supporters have a president to destroy America.” Most infamously, he denounced Obama himself as a “subhuman mongrel.” And this is not to detract from a litany of misogynist, homophobic, and anti-Semitic comments. That is who the president brought to the White House. And like other presidential meetings, it means something.”
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2017/04/why_donald_trump_invited_a_racist_celebrity_to_the_white_house.html
And Sessions received the vote of every Rep Senator and one Dem Senator, Joe Manchin III W.Va., for this position.
The number of deplorables is adding up.
That judge on Oahu is trying to shutdown a clearly constitutional order, and he is protected from the effects of his decision by benefit of being on an island in the Pacific.
Your last paragraph, Robert, confuses me. You declare “…and has not committed another impeachable offence (he did commit perjury during his confirmation hearings…”
Seems as if that should be “…but has committed…”
Ken, I think Robert’s aiming for a little dry humor here. As in:
… he hasn’t committed another murder (he did shoot that guy in the back though, and ought to go to the slammer for that).
Heh.
Warren, one presumes you agree that the decision as to whether this judge blocked a constitutional order is itself in the hands of judges, right? That it can’t be in the hands of the executive, since …. well, that would mean the executive gets to decide which orders are reviewable, and which are not. Yes?
What Chetan Murthy said. I think Sessions has committed an impeachable felony. However, the Island on the Pacific comment was legally made. So it isn’t an additional (second ? third ?) impeachable offence.
Also yes indeed, we can’t allow the President (or commenters on blogs) to decide what is and isn’t constitutional. If one thinks that a judge misinterpreted the constitution one should appeal to a higher court. If one thinks that the Supreme Court has done so, then one might consider amending the constitution but first one should think of a better system. Notably this hasn’t been done yet.
I have three final thoughts & a bit of cognitive dissonance
1) good thing for Judge Watson that there isn’t an international airport on Uahu.
2) he is very safe because enemies of the USA never attacked Uahu. What never ? Well hardly ever.
3) don’t feed the trolls
No prosecutor who really intends to get a conviction charges Sessions with perjury. But the House of Representatives can set their standards for impeachment. Trump has good chances to win his case. While not truly a partisan issue, chances are good Democrats will own the behavior those admitted who would not have been but for the overturned judgement. If you think Trump won’t win this I advise reviewing the final legal opinions issued concerning the original EO. There in confirming the situation had moved on and no action was needed, 9th circuit judges took the very unusual step of blistering the legal analysis of their panel….’guys, are you trying to make us all look like fools here?’. And this was before Gorsuch was confirmed. I voted for Clinton. I want Trump to be a one-termed. If nothing happens it is because Trump is ‘terrific’. If something does then those crazy liberals hate America. Wonderful options.
“an island”
wow. just, wow.
Hey, Warren, there’s a more serious problem. How do we keep good old boys from blowing away innocent black folks in church, or gun enthusiasts from blowing away kids in school?
Eric377
I’m not a lawyer but … (sensible people will cease reading)
I was surprised by the numerous stays, temporary restraining orders and such stopping Trump’s temporary travel bans. My ignorant reading of (bits of ) the law (published in newspaper articles) is that it gives the President a huge amount of discretion. That is, I think that Trump’s orders (which I abhor) are within his legal authority, so I (ignorantly) disagree with the many judges who have held that plaintiffs have a reasonable chance of prevailing.
I’d guess there will be no final decision. The 2nd order is temporary. The case will be moot in 3 to 5 months (depending on whether the second order reset the no refugees for 6 months clock — I don’t even know).
Not being a lawyer, I think that district court judges have to hear the actual case, reach a decision, have it appealed, have the appeals court decision appealed … Supreme Court for there to be a nationwide binding precedent. I guess that’s not gonna happen.
I agre on the politics of admitting refugees, immigrants and tourists. I think it is the right thing to do and the potential political costs should be born, but I don’t pretend they don’t exist. On the other hand, I note that there were large spontaneous demonstrations against the orders. I think Trump and the GOP will lose votes from people who are pro-immigrant and care. Polls don’t encourage pessimism. But in any case, even if the political cost is heavy, I think it should be born.
On Sessions we agree. He sure won’t be impeached by a Republican House. He probably wouldn’t be convicted by a jury. He might be impeached by a Democratic House (“might” makes right — the qualifiers “might” makes my claim so weak it can hardly be false). I think he should be impeached (my personal opinion).
Jack, just because there are larger problems does not mean that we should ignore the smaller.
Perhaps if the innocent Black folk had also been armed….
Warren, those innocent black folk were Christians. They didn’t believe in violence or killing. Suckers, I guess. As for the school kids, I guess we could have the teachers trained in close combat and qualified on automatic weapons. Hmm, why does that sound more like basic training than school?
No Christians have concealed carry permits? No Christians own guns?
Georgia, at least, had changed their law the year before to allow churches to decide their own concealed carry policies, but they are still treated differently than all other institutions. Rather than having the “default allow,” churches have “default deny.”
Schools should also allow concealed carry, or have hall monitors:
http://68.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbm50pUPsC1r18uik.png
Warren, didn’t say any of that but you knew that.
So is it Christians that don’t believe in violence and killing, or just “innocent black folk”?
Some Christians; some innocent black folk.
Easy access to guns of all kinds for violent weirdos of all kinds doesn’t seem to be solving any of our problems.
Chicago, Baltimore, and DC have some of the strictest gun laws in the country. How’s that working out?
With the proliferation of guns among law-abiding citizen, violent crime has fallen considerably. The biggest murder risk to Blacks is not “good old boys,” but other Blacks.
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/htius.pdf
But again, the existence of that problem is no reason that U.S. government should not address other threats.
Chicago’s gun laws have been eviscerated by the courts. Gun shops in the surrounding suburbs make arming whoever wants to be armed easy.
You do know that one needs a LICENSE to buy a firearm in Illinois, right?
http://smartgunlaws.org/gun-laws/state-law/illinois/
Persons having an Illinois firearms owners identification card can buy unlimited firearms and ammunition of most descriptions without background checks from informal dealers outside Chicago in the suburbs or Indiana and then distribute them pretty much as he/she wishes (usually for under the table dollars). Yeah, that’s a serious restriction.
“Informal dealers”?
Gun clubs and gun shows just like all over the country.
Wrong again.
http://smartgunlaws.org/gun-shows-in-illinois/
Tell it to the Chicago police Dept.
Jack
Do not feed the troll . . .