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It Took Donald Trump 8 Days To Bring The U.S. To The Brink Of A Constitutional Crisis
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-courts-constitutional-crisis_us_588ea5bfe4b0176377953710[font face=Serif][font size=5]It Took Donald Trump 8 Days To Bring The U.S. To The Brink Of A Constitutional Crisis[/font]
[font size=4]“Obedience to specific court orders is what keeps us from being a banana republic or fascist dictatorship. That’s a really big deal.”[/font]
01/29/2017 10:34 pm ET
Nick Baumann | Senior Enterprise Editor, The Huffington Post
[font size=3]It took little more than a week in office for President Donald Trump to thrust the nation to the brink of a constitutional crisis.
Late Friday, Trump issued an executive order forbidding millions of refugees, hundreds of thousands of visitors and 500,000 legal immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States. Over the following 48 hours, massive protests erupted in cities and airports nationwide, courts temporarily blocked major parts of the order, the administration defied the courts and Democrats called for an investigation into the administration’s defiance. As the weekend drew to a close, an anonymous White House official proclaimed the whole episode a “massive success story.”
The federal courts thought otherwise. On Saturday night, a judge in Brooklyn ordered the Trump administration to stop deporting refugees and visitors immigration authorities had previously cleared to enter the country. Two judges in Massachusetts ordered that travelers who were legally authorized to be in the United States shouldn’t be detained at or deported from Logan International Airport for a period of seven days. A judge in Seattle halted the deportation of two travelers. And a judge in Virginia issued an order requiring the administration to allow lawyers access to lawful permanent residents — also known as green card holders — whom Customs and Border Protection agents had detained at Dulles International Airport on Trump’s instructions.
When federal judges rule, government officials — up to and including the president — are supposed to obey or risk being held in contempt of court. A government that ignored the courts would be able to violate the law and the Constitution at will. So for more than two centuries, the nation’s courts have had the last word on what’s legal and constitutional — and what is not.
…[/font][/font]
[font size=4]“Obedience to specific court orders is what keeps us from being a banana republic or fascist dictatorship. That’s a really big deal.”[/font]
01/29/2017 10:34 pm ET
Nick Baumann | Senior Enterprise Editor, The Huffington Post
[font size=3]It took little more than a week in office for President Donald Trump to thrust the nation to the brink of a constitutional crisis.
Late Friday, Trump issued an executive order forbidding millions of refugees, hundreds of thousands of visitors and 500,000 legal immigrants from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the United States. Over the following 48 hours, massive protests erupted in cities and airports nationwide, courts temporarily blocked major parts of the order, the administration defied the courts and Democrats called for an investigation into the administration’s defiance. As the weekend drew to a close, an anonymous White House official proclaimed the whole episode a “massive success story.”
The federal courts thought otherwise. On Saturday night, a judge in Brooklyn ordered the Trump administration to stop deporting refugees and visitors immigration authorities had previously cleared to enter the country. Two judges in Massachusetts ordered that travelers who were legally authorized to be in the United States shouldn’t be detained at or deported from Logan International Airport for a period of seven days. A judge in Seattle halted the deportation of two travelers. And a judge in Virginia issued an order requiring the administration to allow lawyers access to lawful permanent residents — also known as green card holders — whom Customs and Border Protection agents had detained at Dulles International Airport on Trump’s instructions.
When federal judges rule, government officials — up to and including the president — are supposed to obey or risk being held in contempt of court. A government that ignored the courts would be able to violate the law and the Constitution at will. So for more than two centuries, the nation’s courts have had the last word on what’s legal and constitutional — and what is not.
…[/font][/font]
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