Well, that didn’t last long. Just a couple of days ago, gullible me was believing that Federalist Society types like U.S. Supreme Court Justices John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett were capable of more than just parroting whatever riff His Orangeness was demanding. Well, that was so 72 hours ago. Yesterday, the Supremes handed down a truly brutal (brutal and disgusting) decision, blandly and impenetrably titled DHS v. D.V.D., all six “conservative” (or should that be “criminal”) justices allowing Captain Two Scoops and his unholy crew to ship hapless child molesters (well, probably) anywhere in the goddamn world they please with no say so to anyone. Furthermore, Slimy Roberts and his slimy Federalist Society crew didn’t even bother to explain their “decision”, probably because they were too ashamed of themselves to do so. (Well, that’s assuming they are capable of feeling shame, which is appearing less and less likely every goddamn day.)
The full horror of this silent decision is demonstrated in awful detail by Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s brilliant and profound dissent, which Philip Rotner cites in his own excellent treatment, SCOTUS to Trump: Deport, Deport, Ignore the Courts, for the Bulwark.
The bottom line here is that despite the fact that the Trump administration’s third-country removal program is on the shakiest of legal grounds and has in fact been repeatedly found to be unlawful, the Supreme Court has, without explanation, given it a green light. It has effectively decided the case in the Trump administration’s favor without even addressing the merits. It easily could have—and should have—left the district court’s order in place without causing the government any harm other than the cost of keeping a handful of noncitizens in custody until their challenges to removal to third countries has been ruled upon by the courts.
Instead, Silent John and his gang of cutthroats have allowed the Trump administration to send any noncitizen to any country that will take them—any country, in other words, run by one of The Donald's cronies—any country, that is to say, run by a corrupt and ruthless dictator. Good times!
When and if this nation ever comes to its senses, Justice Sotomayor’s memorable dissents, both here and in the Court’s most horrible decision of all (to date), Trump v. United States, ably discussed here by George Mason University law professor Ilya Somin, will likely form the basis for a “new” Constitution to replace the old one the Roberts Court has destroyed. In the meantime, I guess, it’s just going to get uglier.
