Update 2 21 2025 Trump even asserts he is above all laws. He quotes Napoleon. Trump suggests he’s above the law with ominous Napoleon quote “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law,” the president wrote on Truth Social and X. The most recent person to use that quote was the neo-nazi mass killer in Norway. Opinion | Be Terrified Trump Is Using the Same Bonaparte Quote as This Right-Wing Mass Murderer | Common Dreams
Continuing with original post. Welcome to the brave new world of immunity from the rule of law, a power granted to Trump and, in turn, to his violent followers who act in his name while abusing its interpretation and application. . As a stated public policy, the law is to be used as a tool for political advancement and revenge on political enemies. Following, abiding by, and respecting law and order are required of everyone else who is not an important Trump supporter in Trump's world. It is not just freeing the Jan. 6 law rioters from being punished for breaking the law. It is abusing the use of the legal system for Trump's political benefit. It is also a matter of granting immunity, whether gifted by the Supreme Court or on day one, by Trump himself by abusing pardon powers. It is abusing the legal system to take revenge on political enemies by ignoring the standards of probable cause. It declares faux national emergencies so that the law can be ignored. It may be abusing the rights of immigrants and even immigrant American citizens, either by cruel intent or thinking one can use a stroke of a pen to overturn provisions of the Constitution or laws passed in a democratic process. The Colorado AG and other AGs are joining in a lawsuit to stop such action as overturning birthright citizenship by executive order. https://www.denver7.com/news/politics/colorado-ag-joins-other-states-in-lawsuit-to-block-trumps-order-banning-b The first federal judge to review Trump's day one executive order to overturn the 14th Amendment to the Constitution's right to birthright citizenship was tossed out as "blatantly unconstitutional."
Besides abusing pardon powers to release all of the January 6 rioters, including seditious ones and leaders of violent militias, or trying to amend the constitution with an executive order to overturn birthright citizenship, Trump also abuses the power of declaring a national emergency in order to circumvent laws, court rulings, and administrative law. If he finds the rule of law a barrier to his plans, will he just declare some bogus national emergency to get around it? He is already done it with his two recent orders: "drill baby drill" to screw environmental laws and regulations and preparing to ignore federal posse comitatus laws to send active troops to the border to enforce US domestic laws. In both cases, the US does not need to drill for oil because we have more oil than there are customers for it and 40 years' worth of leases held by oil companies with verified oil underneath yet to be drilled and illegal border crossing due to Biden and Mexico now 73% down in one year. Both "national emergencies are bogus, but his voters backed him as campaign promises they expected him to enact day one. He and has ardent supporters dismissed fact and data that showed the improvement in the price of gas at the pump and the fear of more "dangerous" brown people populating America after he tanked a bi-partisan funding bill that would have finished the wall and funded personnel to catch illegal border crossers.
Note: I am using the Brave New World quote from Shakespeare's The Tempest: "It is used ironically as the brave newm world, presented as a utopia, turns out in fact to be a nightmare in which human beings are trapped in a society.that there are societal changes that also may turn out badly." from https://nosweatshakespeare.com/quotes/famous/brave-new-world How Trump's soaring rhetoric of promises his second inaugural address turns out badly will occupy the message of the opposition's resistance which will illustrate this irony. Trump's promised utopia after trashing America with "America carnage" in his first address are these words in his promises in his second:."Together, We Will Make America Strong Again.We Will Make America Wealthy Again. Will Make America Proud Again.We Will Make America Safe Again.And, Yes, Together, We Will Make America Great Again."
Words in Trump's second inaugural are promises that "we will never forget you", to Americans who feel left behind in the economy and social values. What Trump's way of "not forgetting you", is to immediately pledge to upend the rule of law and democracy with the actions to turn America into the rule of person, a dictatorship, that suppresses the will of the people and their ability to govern themselves. Of essential to democracy is the rule of law, not the rule of a ruler, dictator, autocrat, or "strong man." Without adherence to the rule of law, we are no longer a democracy of by and for the people because the constraints of law to a law-breaking leader are key to keeping our republic. One glimmer of hope is that the Robert's Court also gets the danger. Chief Justice Roberts recently warned against attacking the rule of law. What happens if an emboldened Trump even defies his own Court appointees? At that point, we will know our democracy is irreparably dead. https://www.courthousenews.com/roberts-points-fingers-at-judicial-critics-warns-of-threats-to-independence-and-r
The green light has been given to Trump's violent supporters to ignore courts, juries of peers, confessions, and laws if they are acting on Trump's behalf. Trump has institutionalized criminal lawlessness by promising and then granting pardons to those who committed crimes in his name. In effect: " If you get caught acting on my name, you will not need to endure your punishment." There is now de facto immunity from prosecution for violent militias acting in his name, brutalizing cops, and committing seditious conspiracy, the equivalent of wartime treason in peacetime on January 6. On Day One, Trump signed an executive order releasing and/or pardoning 1,500 January rioters as an attack on the rule of law. It is abhorrent for the message it sends. Also abhorrent is the Supreme Court's gift of immunity from criminal prosecution to Trump acting in this official duty. Both Trump and his violent militias got the memo: They are now above the law if they break laws on Trump's behalf in the future, too.
Trump's promised use of the DOJ to get revenge and retribution on political rivals is an attempt to end the rule of law that once was constrained by the justice system demanding some evidence that there was probable cause a crime was committed by the accused before charging. Just filing frivolous and unevidenced charges will be used as a cudgel to make the political lives and finances hell on those who crossed Trump by even investigating him/ That is not only revenge; it is making any opposition think twice before taking that risk. That is an abuse of power worthy of a dictator's justice system.
Trump's pardons and prison release of those 1500 convicted or those who admitted to breaking the law through vandalism and violence and/or found by trial guilty of sedition conspiracy on January 6 will go down as one of the most epic abuses of pardon powers in American history. Juried verdicts are overturned with a pen stroke. Biden issued preemptive pardons to relatives and others who led the January 6 Congressional investigations into Trump's actions, but he did it because of Trump's threats to use the DOJ to get revenge on those Trump considered his enemies. It not only mocks the justice process, but it also makes those who will be outspoken in the future shut up out of fear of his abuse of power. Reform of pardon laws is needed.
Trump's lawlessness extends past the justicial justice system. He is using Day One executive orders to declare a national emergency in an attempt to ignore laws, rules, the Constitution, and legislation enacted through democratic processes. He is declaring a national emergency to justify ignoring environmental regulations and laws. He is applying this via his Day One executive orders to "drill baby drill oil" and using the active military to enforce domestic laws at the border, possibly violating the Posse Comitatus Act. In both cases, the national emergencies are faux. The USA has a surplus of crude oil, which is more oil than is in demand by customers. The number of illegal border crossings is already down 70% in the past year. .There were other ways to increase enforcement for illegal border crossing and finish building the wall Mexico did not pay for, but the bi-partisan legislation, including more enforcement methods and personnel and finishing the wall, was tanked by Trump so he could keep his main issue alive through the November elections.
https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2025/01/trump-challenges-10th-amendment-by.html by threatening state and local officials who refuse to go along with his demands and conditions.
With Trump's much-touted mass deportations, we can all agree those adjudicated and charged with crimes who are without "papers" or violating terms of refugee-protected status can and should be deported. The law is clear on that. However, caught up in his racist lust to save the US from our blood being poisoned by "illegal border crossings', otherwise law-abiding residents without papers will be caught up in cruel deportations and concentration camps deprived of civil and human rights. Families with mixed-status members will be put through hell and made as an example to scare off even those lawfully seeking refuge in the US in the future. Breaking apart families is simply dismissed by Trump with "citizens can just self-deport with their deported family members to keep the families together." The ACLU is set to provide legal assistance to those caught up in this to make sure their civil rights and due process are enforced. There is a question of whether voters will be outraged at the unfairness and videos of the victims suffering through Trump's cruelty. I doubt it. Polls indicate Trump's cruel deportation policies are popular with 55% of Americans. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/18/us/politics/trump-policies-immigration-tariffs-economy.html
Likely, given his disagreement with Gen. Milley, he can be expected to use the active military to put down civic unrest and demonstrations. This was not included in his Day One edict, but he threatened to do it in his first term, including calling in the military to shoot in the legs the Black Lives Matter, mostly peaceful demonstrators. Milley called such orders unconstitutional. Just wait when angered citizens rally to object to his racist and lawless acts. Expect him to declare some faux national emergency so he can ignore laws that would restrain such actions that would be unconstitutional.
If this smells like a potential fascist takeover or at least the destruction and abuse of the rule of law, it is. If it looks like a duck, quacks like one, it is. In his charges of "treason" against Trump against Gen. Milley, saying he ought to be hanged, the definition of fascism became a brief topic for discussion, dismissed by many for being too inflammatory and calling Trump a Hitler. What is the definition of fascism, anyway? MUFTIC FORUM BLOG: With General Milley calling Trump "fascist to the core", what's a fascist?
- The act was created to prevent the military from being used regularly for civil law enforcement
- It was a response to abuses of the military during the Civil War and Reconstruction
- The act prohibits the military from being used as a posse comitatus to enforce laws, except in certain circumstances
- A posse comitatus is a group of people mobilized by a sheriff to suppress lawlessness
- The act does allow for some exceptions, such as:
- Domestic violence
- Protection of federal property
- Enforcement of some federal laws and court orders
- When the President determines that the military is needed to respond to a serious emergency
- Violating the act can result in a fine, imprisonment, or both
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