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Tom Berry of Kennebunk is a retired public school special educator.
Is the Supreme Court beginning to wake up? For the sake of our democracy, let us hope so.
With a recent decision, the court has finally taken the first tentative step to try to rein in our extremist president. In an unusual midnight ruling, the court issued a 7-2 decision that forbids President Donald Trump — temporarily — from sending any more Venezuelans from a Texas detention facility to prisons outside of the U.S.
Thanks to its firm conservative majority, this supposedly co-equal branch of the government has — for years — shielded this president from facing justice and has nurtured his fondest autocratic ambitions.
And now the chickens, as they say, have come home to roost.
Trump has unequivocally positioned himself above the law by refusing to comply with a specific Supreme Court directive — directly challenging our Founders’ establishment of the separation of powers with three co-equal branches of government. This unanimous Supreme Court decision sided with lower court findings that Maryland legal resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia was unlawfully arrested and rendered to a prison in a foreign country and stipulated that the administration must “facilitate” his return to the U.S. so he can be afforded the due process to which he is entitled.
Legal due process for all persons within the U.S. — including non-citizens — is a core principle in our Constitution, our nation’s foundational document that all government officials — from the president and members of Congress down to your local mayor — take a solemn oath to support.
To restore the federal government to an entity that can function within the framework of the Constitution and be free from the chaotic descent into authoritarianism that I think has been the hallmark of this presidency, both the Supreme Court and both chambers of Congress need to vigorously assert themselves.
I applaud Sen. Angus King and Rep. Chellie Pingree for condemning this president’s unconstitutional actions and I urge them to continue to do so. It is way past time that we’ve heard anything I would consider substantive from Sen. Susan Collins and Rep. Jared Golden on this grave matter.
Before he embarks on an illegal (or even just unethical) action, Donald Trump tends to speak openly about it. He is now publicly musing about the possibility of sending “homegrown” criminals — i.e., U.S. citizens — to the El Salvadoran prison where Abrego Garcia now languishes.
Will we have to wait until he actually does this before the Supreme Court — and a strong majority of our members of Congress — are stirred to action? Will they do it even then?
