Injustice for All is a weekly sequence about how the Trump administration is attempting to weaponize the justice system—and the people who find themselves combating again.
On April 30, the Supreme Courtroom heard arguments in Oklahoma Statewide Constitution Faculty Board v. Drummond, a case about whether or not the state of Oklahoma should give the Catholic church tax {dollars} to run a public non secular constitution faculty.
This must be a slam dunk.
Keep in mind studying in junior excessive that there’s a separation between church and state, so tax {dollars} can’t be used for non secular functions? Effectively, which will have been true then, however it’s trying much less and fewer true now.
The Supreme Courtroom’s conservative non secular majority has been on a tear relating to inserting faith into public life—so long as it’s their faith. So that they’ve been whittling away on the separation of church and state, ruling in earlier circumstances for tax {dollars} to go to tuition help applications for non secular colleges in Maine and that having a big-time Christian prayer jamboree led by a public highschool soccer coach is completely dandy and constitutional.
The oral arguments on April 30 regarded bleak, with the conservative appointees signaling that they’re fairly open to disregarding an enormous chunk of the First Modification, pretending that they don’t know that constitution colleges are public colleges. However they know precisely what they’re actually doing: paving the best way for state-funded, state-run non secular colleges.
Conflicts of curiosity are not any massive deal
Not content material to let multibillionaire Elon Musk be the face of blatant conflicts of curiosity on this administration, the Trump household trekked to Dubai to let everybody know that President Donald Trump is open for enterprise. Personal scammy crypto enterprise, that’s.
At a cryptocurrency convention in Dubai earlier this week, the founding father of the Trump household crypto firm, World Liberty Monetary, introduced that a state-backed Abu Dhabi funding agency would use Trump’s meme coin, $TRUMP, to make a $2 billion enterprise deal.
The New York Instances reported on the complicated particulars about what stablecoin and alternate are getting used … blah, blah, blah … when you’re the type who follows the glorified on line casino that’s the crypto financial system. However right here’s the underside line for everybody else: That is just about precisely what it appears to be like like—a international authorities directing tens of millions of {dollars} to the president’s personal firm.
This association is so dangerous that even the Instances needed to acknowledge it: “Virtually every detail of Mr. Witkoff’s announcement, made during a conference panel with Mr. Trump’s second-eldest son, contained a conflict of interest.”
If solely we’d recognized this is able to occur. Oh, wait. We did.
Trump’s former legal lawyer continues to lift hell for everybody else
It’s one other week of Emil Bove behaving badly. Final week, we discovered that extra profession Justice Division prosecutors left the workplace following Bove’s demand for New York Metropolis Mayor Eric Adams’ legal prices to be dismissed.
This week, we found that Bove was behind a current push to research pupil protesters at Columbia College. After a February incident by which some college students pushed previous a safety guard, Bove ordered an investigation. He informed profession civil rights prosecutors on the DOJ to acquire an inventory of members of Columbia College Apartheid Divest.
Sure, an inventory. Of members. To analyze. DOJ officers needed to clarify that investigating folks based mostly on their membership in a corporation sorta kinda runs afoul of the First Modification. He additionally wished to show the checklist over to ICE, when you’re questioning if issues may worsen.
You possibly can’t simply stroll as much as brown folks and say, “Give me your papers.”
That’s actually what U.S. District Decide Jennifer Thurston mentioned on April 29. The American Civil Liberties Union sued after the Border Patrol carried out a three-day sweep in Kern County, California, that may solely be described as “papers, please.”
As a lot because the Trump administration would love it to be in any other case, the Border Patrol is simply allowed to cease folks if they’ve an affordable suspicion that they’re violating immigration regulation. And, no, that commonplace shouldn’t be happy by simply rolling as much as any immigrant staff or day laborers and demanding proof of citizenship.
Thurston issued a preliminary injunction overlaying a portion of California that bars Border Patrol from these ways whereas the case proceeds.
For conservatives, it’s doxing for thee however not for me
Just a few months in the past, indicators with names, photos, and potential telephone numbers of ICE and Homeland Safety brokers have been posted throughout Los Angeles. The inclusion of telephone numbers—assuming they’re actual—constitutes a federal crime, however it’s not the crime of the century.
However you wouldn’t know that from how ICE dealt with this. On Could 1, ICE despatched greater than a dozen automobiles to storm the streets of Irvine, California, to arrest Michael Chang, who they allege put up the fliers. As an alternative, they terrorized Chang’s dad and mom, since he doesn’t even reside there anymore.
That is nothing however political theater, contemplating that ICE gave its drone footage on to Fox Information so the right-wing community may breathlessly report on immigration brokers principally jackboot-thugging their approach into Chang’s dad and mom’ house. The performing director of ICE confirmed up! To serve a warrant! For a random man who might or might not have put up some posters!
That is wealthy coming from an administration run by a man who loves when his personal supporters are doxing pro-Palestinian college students or concentrating on the decide and jury in Trump’s legal case. However immediately they’re all very involved about how corrosive and scary it’s when individuals are focused for doing their jobs.
