Donald Trump just lost again
When Donald Trump announced he was going to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in order to deport innocent people from countries he doesn’t like, it brought with it the usual dread: did Trump finally find the magic wand that’s going to let him carry out his deranged dictatorial fantasies? It’s easy in these moments to lose hope and give up. But as it turns out, the answer once again appears to be “no.”
The federal courts have almost immediately shut Trump down, issuing a temporary injunction against Trump’s attempted use of the obscure law. It’s not difficult to see why Trump lost. The law has only ever been invoked three times in all the centuries it’s been on the books, and those instances were all during wartime. Trump can’t make the argument that deporting people based on their nationality is constitutionally justified under current circumstances.
Of course each time Trump loses in court, it brings two followup questions. First, will the Supreme Court just turn around and bail him out? And second, what if Trump simply decides to ignore the courts and do what he wants?
Thus far we’ve only gotten one Supreme Court ruling in the Trump 2.0 era, and it was against him. So we already know that the Supreme Court isn’t entirely in Trump’s pocket, and that Trump is going to end up losing at least some of these legal battles.
As for the notion that Trump will ignore court rulings and do whatever he feels like, there’s nothing yet to indicate that he has the muscle to pull it off and get away with it. Ignoring a lower court ruling is a good way to virtually guarantee you’ll lose again in appeals court, and even in the Supreme Court. Given how sour the economy is turning and how ugly his approval numbers are getting, Trump is going to be less likely to have that kind of muscle going forward.
This doesn’t mean that everything is magically okay. In this era nothing is okay. The fight continues. But we should take a moment to celebrate the fact that Trump has indeed lost yet again. The best that his administration could come up with to justify his agenda was something from the eighteenth century, and that didn’t last five minutes in court.
Each time Trump loses it makes him a little weaker in terms of political muscle. And it makes him look weaker, which turns more people against him and becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. So let’s enjoy each and every one of the wins that we’re notching against this monster, and then get back to the fight. IF we keep fighting, we’re going to win a good percentage of these battles.
