Another judge in the same courthouse temporarily blocked implementation of two provisions in another Trump order that threaten trans women's safety in prison.
Lin’s new DoJ theory should not really be a surprise: If Trump 2.0 can reinterpret the Constitution to gibberish, it can pervert the words of their confusing laws to say anything they want.
I foresee Trump’s lawyers (I hesitate to call them government lawyers as there is no proper government going on here) being put in many more such difficult positions in the near future. They will have to get used to it.
I had trans and transitioning coworkers in the mid 1970s and it was not an issue. People should be treated as their phenotype (gender appearance). There are people born with ambiguous genitalia (features of both genders), peopje with XY chromosomes who are born looking completely female (testicular feminization) who don't respond to testosterone and cannot become male in appearance, people born with 2 complete sets of chromosomes which may be of opposite sexes, and true hermaphrodites. There are many other conditions that require genital surgery, including gender dysphoria. This politicization of medicine as a culture war issue ignores reality and is purposely cruel.
That was a trip. To contemplate being a lawyer who may have to be complicit within a system that allows them to or battle within to make a difference. This is why I ended up a computer professional and not a lawyer when I was young. I couldn't see myself defending guilty people, nor could I see myself prosecuting innocent people. I suppose I was thinking about criminal law because I didn't know there were other kinds of law in my teens. So, I left the battle, joined the service who trained me in computers, and it ultimately ended up my career. 😁
I hadn't read the EO text until you quoted it here, Chris. I cannot think of more bigoted, nasty, ignorant language in a government document since the Islamophobic days of the early 00s. How absolutely disgusting. Fortunately, as you note, since the EO is so blatant about its animus, that made it harder to defend. Sometimes it's better for the bigots if they don't say the quiet parts out loud.
Why is there no effort to put all of the Traitors in the Trump Mafioso in prison as our Constitution calls for in the 14th Amendment, §3? I've asked this question countless times and no one has the guts to answer. Are those lunatics really going to get away with their stealing of our government?
I suggest everyone read the latest post by Heather Cox Richardson regarding how Musk and others are changing the ability to get into Federal sites with private information that can be used against every safety net previously set up in our system. This includes certain foreign governments having access.
Also note that immigrants are being flown to the "terrorist" camp in El Savador instead of to their homeland; that Trump's meeting with Netanyahu is an agreement to allow the United States to own the entire Gaza Strip and turn it into a billionaires' playground.
Wake the hell up, people! Trump is already taking over the world. Denmark thinks it's okay for Trump to station American troops in Greenland although Greenland is against the idea because they say that America is all about money, not the people.
I'm no longer well enough to get out and protest but most of America is. Project 2025 is the building block for the Donald Trump Fourth Reich. Diversity beware!
Yes to all of this. Heather Cox Richardson also points out in today's post that Rubio's agreement with El Salvador also covers "criminals" who are American citizens. It's hard to even summarize her summary, because the Trump fascists are trying to "move fast and break things", assuming that at least some of their blatantly illegal changes will stick.
"Why is there no effort to put all of the Traitors in the Trump Mafioso in prison as our Constitution calls for in the 14th Amendment, §3? I've asked this question countless times and no one has the guts to answer."
I'm not sure if your question is rhetorical or not, and I do agree with your general concern about the state of things, but if you are seeking a legal explanation the reason is because SCOTUS ruled that individual states cannot enforce the the insurrection provision of the 14th amendment, only congress can. And without Republicans, the votes to do so before the election, or now, simply aren't there.
There have been numerous changes to §3 of the 14th Amendment over the years. From what I could get out of the most recent changes is that only two Congress persons need to start the charge of Treason. I guess everyone is too goddamned terrified of what Trump will do to them and their families if they try to topple him from his Fourth Reich throne.
I totally agree. Biden appointed more judges than Trump and the judges pre-Trump 1.0, even the republican appointees have been pretty skeptical so far of Trump's nonsense prior to these EOs.
Granted, Trump will be appointing more judges, so we need to move fast and retake the senate in 2026, though I keep hearing it's a "bad map" again. But if he screws up badly enough, who knows...it was a "bad map" year for the senate in 2020 too.
the actual proportion of trans people to the general population is minuscule. this is a division tactic, to rile and separate we the people, as well as to set (what would be valuable) precedent for further actions.
Well, all well and good, but what happens when the tRump administration decides to plainly ignore any and all TROs and just plow ahead regardless? Because that WILL happen, and happen soon, as the tRump crowd are threatening to break the Constitution, "separation of powers" be damned, as we have seen already in the usurpation of Congressional Art. I powers. The courts? Fuck the courts, where's their army?
The judge issuing the TRO will issue an order to a specific government employee or group of employees (i.e. middle management) who are responsible for taking the specific actions or failing to take the specific actions that are the subject of the TRO. For example, the employees directly responsible for dispersing funds for federal grants.
If the government employees don't comply, a contempt hearing will be scheduled. If the employee shows up for the hearing and is found in contempt, and the judge orders jail time, the bailiff will take the employee into custody on the spot and lock them in a cell in the courthouse. The bailiffs work for the courthouse.
If the government employee ignores the order to appear for the contempt hearing, perhaps because their superiors told them to ignore it, the Judge will issue a bench warrant for their arrest. Here's where the wheels start to come off the wagon. The bench warrant would be send to federal law enforcement.
If federal law enforcement refused to serve the warrant, because the AG ordered them not to, then the executive branch is in full-fledged open defiance of the judicial branch. The constitutional remedy for that is congressional impeachment and removal.
Exactly...I'm afraid we're heading toward "extralegal" - wink-wink, nudge-nudge - responses to the outright theft of our Constitution and our government, with high-profile goniffs getting targeting. I mean, if one steals another person's livelihood, that calls for extraordinary actions, which includes 2nd Amendment "solutions", mark my words.
You may be right that we quickly reach para 4. I'm very concerned about it, though I still think there is some uncertainty along the path and a lot depends I think on which court order he chooses to defy (if he does that), how soon he does it, and does he screw up in other ways (like pissing off most of the country by Musk illegally defunding federal programs they don't know they benefit from). In other words, we might get lucky. But I'm very concerned.
In any event, to answer your question, the only remedy in the constitution past Para 4 is voting the President out at the next election. Clearly there are some problems with that remedy as well if said President has ignored the courts and congress has failed to impeach/remove, and he has X years to stack the deck before the next election. This circumstance has the added twist of a term limited President and an 80 year old one at that. Is the hold the Trump has on the people and on congress transferable to another? That remained to be seen.
Regardless, if we reach para 4 and it fails, I think our republic and the rule of law would be catastrophically damaged, perhaps mortally damaged.
What people don't seem to realize is that we've already lost. We tried to tell you before the election that fascists almost ALWAYS come into power via democratic/pseudo-democratic/shady but palatable enough elections, and here we are. We HAD a chance to stop the Musk-Trump oligarchy, but now they control all the levers of power and can no longer be held accountable by our captured courts, lickspittle press, corrupt civilian police, or supine DOJ/FBI. THEY now own ALL those things, not YOU, not ME. The only way to restore democracy is by a military coup and I don't see that happening either.
So.
Everyone, your bed is made, enjoy it.
I have the privilege of not giving a damn, because as a transgender American, I'll be dead soon.
We'll see what happens in 4 years, but I too am extremely skeptical. It'll be especially interesting to see what happens in 20 years when enough people of a certain generation have passed. But if things do continue like this and attempts at enforcement are made in places like California, I could see an eventual balkanization if not outright secession.
I'm curious about what'll happen to Illinois, surrounded by red states. Will blue Milwaukee, St. Louis, Iowa City/Quads, NW IN, all join the Prairie State, while the southern 26 counties that have voted to secede from Illinois because they're poor, rural, declining in economy and population, and have fewer than 10% educated inhabitants join Missouri and Kentucky?
Or will Trump federalize troops and invade, burning and looting all of Illinois' cities and "liquidating" its "surplus" populations of "libtards", "undesirables", Dems, immigrants, and LGBTQ folk?
He'll use the techniques of urban warfare and "population reduction" perfected in conquering Canada, Panama, Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard, and the Eastern Mediterranean Riviera US Territory, formerly known as Gaza.
And that'll be the end of the blue island in a sea of red!
No more Chicago!
Maybe the GOPMAGAs will rename Illinois "Trumpland" and found a new city on Lake Michigan named after Co-President Musk, "Muskville"!
Coincidentally, had the Nazis won WWII, Moscow was going to be renamed "Reichstadt" and Volgograd "Hitlerstadt".
Well, I had started a lengthy conversation as a farewell to giving a fuck what happens but my phone stopped me due to a lack of time.
That's fine. In short I was explaining why the votes for DJT were illegal because his intentions were and are as a Party not listed on any ballot: the Fascist Authoritarian Party.
When you separate the MAGA CULT votes from the votes by actual Republicans, the latter were the only legal Republican Party votes, do the math. Trump's illegal votes cannot be accepted.
Here's the good news: Kamala Harris is our Legally elected President by the largest landslide in American history!
Now, do something about it. I'm finished being a member of any political parties. I voted for Nixon twice and will never forgive myself for that. Then I quit voting, went to Vietnam, and only voted again in the hopes of keeping GWB from winning because of chads in Florida's cards. Another disappointment.
Now I'm saying buh-bye to politics and politicians and won't give a damn what happens from now. I tried and tried to pound the truths about Donald's past, present, and future but too many of the people don't allow unpaying members to comment on their frustratious wonderings of what in the hell should be done and how they think to handle it all by the suggestions by your paying members who also lost out on the advice of others like me who tried to give you the goddamned answers.
Like the people of Greenland opine, they don't like America because we're all about the money. Donald wants to take Greenland from Denmark.
Hilariously, Denmark has offered to buy California! We are the world's 5th largest economy. If only it could happen.
BTW, has anyone donated a headstone for Ivana's grave beside a sidewalk at one of the Orange golf courses? I think she deserves a nice one considering she told about his 'Book of Hitler's Speeches' in an article in September 1996 in Vanity Fair entitled, "After the Gold Rush".
It's a great article about their marriage and a whole lot of Donald's disgusting history.
Richard, I'm grateful for your post. If only the Republicans had had that civil war they should have had, but all the old schoolers, fiscal Republicans, defense hawks, pro-business GOPers, just retired, quit, went home. They were irritating, soulless bastards, hated workers and the environment, but they weren't entirely stupid or diagnosable as having parted ways with reality. I expected them to fight, but they just went home.
I haven't seen it covered much outside the employment law blogosphere, but I think we have a real chance to get ahead of a tidal wave. Trump's firing an NLRB member and an EEOC commissioner leaves those agencies without a quorum. Until he gets at least one person confirmed for each, both agencies are unable to take significant steps to violate workers' rights and civil rights. So this is the time to organize opposition to confirmation of anybody Trump nominates (including if he manages to reincarnate St. Francis and Mr. Rogers). The longer we can drag out the confirmation process, the longer Biden-era rules can't be axed by the agencies.
I mean, of course he could eliminate the agencies, but that hasn't happened yet.
Yes! What you said about "this is the time to organize" reminds me of this quote, from Chris's interview yesterday -
"How this story comes out does depend to a great degree on what we do right now" - Shannon Minter, transgender Legal Director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. February 4, 2025.
This has become my mantra. Now is the time to act!
I can barely tolerate reading about these things as I watch this country head towards genocide of trans people and I'm a veteran. I see the horror from the inside, so it's not easy watching stupid arguments that are nonsensical in favor of stripping my rights and throwing me away like I'm trash. It's making me hate this country.
"Lin told Reyes, “You’re putting me in a difficult position,”"
Boo fucking hoo. You're an adult now.
Hey, Lin, how do ya think trans ppl feel?
Lin’s new DoJ theory should not really be a surprise: If Trump 2.0 can reinterpret the Constitution to gibberish, it can pervert the words of their confusing laws to say anything they want.
I foresee Trump’s lawyers (I hesitate to call them government lawyers as there is no proper government going on here) being put in many more such difficult positions in the near future. They will have to get used to it.
"Lin told Reyes, “You’re putting me in a difficult position,”"
Lin really expected ANY sympathy for that? They should have stuck with the first response "I don't have an answer".
I had trans and transitioning coworkers in the mid 1970s and it was not an issue. People should be treated as their phenotype (gender appearance). There are people born with ambiguous genitalia (features of both genders), peopje with XY chromosomes who are born looking completely female (testicular feminization) who don't respond to testosterone and cannot become male in appearance, people born with 2 complete sets of chromosomes which may be of opposite sexes, and true hermaphrodites. There are many other conditions that require genital surgery, including gender dysphoria. This politicization of medicine as a culture war issue ignores reality and is purposely cruel.
The cruelty is the point.
Lin needs to listen to this talk by Eric Muller about lawyers who worked for the Nazis. https://youtu.be/dui-0v81Z7U
Jos1463, very educational video, thanks.
Eric is a great follow on BlueSky
That was a trip. To contemplate being a lawyer who may have to be complicit within a system that allows them to or battle within to make a difference. This is why I ended up a computer professional and not a lawyer when I was young. I couldn't see myself defending guilty people, nor could I see myself prosecuting innocent people. I suppose I was thinking about criminal law because I didn't know there were other kinds of law in my teens. So, I left the battle, joined the service who trained me in computers, and it ultimately ended up my career. 😁
I hadn't read the EO text until you quoted it here, Chris. I cannot think of more bigoted, nasty, ignorant language in a government document since the Islamophobic days of the early 00s. How absolutely disgusting. Fortunately, as you note, since the EO is so blatant about its animus, that made it harder to defend. Sometimes it's better for the bigots if they don't say the quiet parts out loud.
Why is there no effort to put all of the Traitors in the Trump Mafioso in prison as our Constitution calls for in the 14th Amendment, §3? I've asked this question countless times and no one has the guts to answer. Are those lunatics really going to get away with their stealing of our government?
I suggest everyone read the latest post by Heather Cox Richardson regarding how Musk and others are changing the ability to get into Federal sites with private information that can be used against every safety net previously set up in our system. This includes certain foreign governments having access.
Also note that immigrants are being flown to the "terrorist" camp in El Savador instead of to their homeland; that Trump's meeting with Netanyahu is an agreement to allow the United States to own the entire Gaza Strip and turn it into a billionaires' playground.
Wake the hell up, people! Trump is already taking over the world. Denmark thinks it's okay for Trump to station American troops in Greenland although Greenland is against the idea because they say that America is all about money, not the people.
I'm no longer well enough to get out and protest but most of America is. Project 2025 is the building block for the Donald Trump Fourth Reich. Diversity beware!
Yes to all of this. Heather Cox Richardson also points out in today's post that Rubio's agreement with El Salvador also covers "criminals" who are American citizens. It's hard to even summarize her summary, because the Trump fascists are trying to "move fast and break things", assuming that at least some of their blatantly illegal changes will stick.
"Why is there no effort to put all of the Traitors in the Trump Mafioso in prison as our Constitution calls for in the 14th Amendment, §3? I've asked this question countless times and no one has the guts to answer."
I'm not sure if your question is rhetorical or not, and I do agree with your general concern about the state of things, but if you are seeking a legal explanation the reason is because SCOTUS ruled that individual states cannot enforce the the insurrection provision of the 14th amendment, only congress can. And without Republicans, the votes to do so before the election, or now, simply aren't there.
There have been numerous changes to §3 of the 14th Amendment over the years. From what I could get out of the most recent changes is that only two Congress persons need to start the charge of Treason. I guess everyone is too goddamned terrified of what Trump will do to them and their families if they try to topple him from his Fourth Reich throne.
MAGA doesn't own all the judges. Yet.
I totally agree. Biden appointed more judges than Trump and the judges pre-Trump 1.0, even the republican appointees have been pretty skeptical so far of Trump's nonsense prior to these EOs.
Granted, Trump will be appointing more judges, so we need to move fast and retake the senate in 2026, though I keep hearing it's a "bad map" again. But if he screws up badly enough, who knows...it was a "bad map" year for the senate in 2020 too.
the actual proportion of trans people to the general population is minuscule. this is a division tactic, to rile and separate we the people, as well as to set (what would be valuable) precedent for further actions.
"led Reyes to shoot back that there are often difficult questions in the practice of law and that that is why we went to law school."
BRAVO Reyes. I suspect a LOT of DOJ lawyers actually hate what they are now required to argue.
Cue, however, attacks on Reyes as a "DEI hire."
Well, all well and good, but what happens when the tRump administration decides to plainly ignore any and all TROs and just plow ahead regardless? Because that WILL happen, and happen soon, as the tRump crowd are threatening to break the Constitution, "separation of powers" be damned, as we have seen already in the usurpation of Congressional Art. I powers. The courts? Fuck the courts, where's their army?
The judge issuing the TRO will issue an order to a specific government employee or group of employees (i.e. middle management) who are responsible for taking the specific actions or failing to take the specific actions that are the subject of the TRO. For example, the employees directly responsible for dispersing funds for federal grants.
If the government employees don't comply, a contempt hearing will be scheduled. If the employee shows up for the hearing and is found in contempt, and the judge orders jail time, the bailiff will take the employee into custody on the spot and lock them in a cell in the courthouse. The bailiffs work for the courthouse.
If the government employee ignores the order to appear for the contempt hearing, perhaps because their superiors told them to ignore it, the Judge will issue a bench warrant for their arrest. Here's where the wheels start to come off the wagon. The bench warrant would be send to federal law enforcement.
If federal law enforcement refused to serve the warrant, because the AG ordered them not to, then the executive branch is in full-fledged open defiance of the judicial branch. The constitutional remedy for that is congressional impeachment and removal.
We will quickly reach your Para 4, and you say "impeachment"? When that fails, what's Para 5?
Second Amendment.
Exactly...I'm afraid we're heading toward "extralegal" - wink-wink, nudge-nudge - responses to the outright theft of our Constitution and our government, with high-profile goniffs getting targeting. I mean, if one steals another person's livelihood, that calls for extraordinary actions, which includes 2nd Amendment "solutions", mark my words.
Well, as conservatives never cease reminding us, that's why it's there.
You may be right that we quickly reach para 4. I'm very concerned about it, though I still think there is some uncertainty along the path and a lot depends I think on which court order he chooses to defy (if he does that), how soon he does it, and does he screw up in other ways (like pissing off most of the country by Musk illegally defunding federal programs they don't know they benefit from). In other words, we might get lucky. But I'm very concerned.
In any event, to answer your question, the only remedy in the constitution past Para 4 is voting the President out at the next election. Clearly there are some problems with that remedy as well if said President has ignored the courts and congress has failed to impeach/remove, and he has X years to stack the deck before the next election. This circumstance has the added twist of a term limited President and an 80 year old one at that. Is the hold the Trump has on the people and on congress transferable to another? That remained to be seen.
Regardless, if we reach para 4 and it fails, I think our republic and the rule of law would be catastrophically damaged, perhaps mortally damaged.
What people don't seem to realize is that we've already lost. We tried to tell you before the election that fascists almost ALWAYS come into power via democratic/pseudo-democratic/shady but palatable enough elections, and here we are. We HAD a chance to stop the Musk-Trump oligarchy, but now they control all the levers of power and can no longer be held accountable by our captured courts, lickspittle press, corrupt civilian police, or supine DOJ/FBI. THEY now own ALL those things, not YOU, not ME. The only way to restore democracy is by a military coup and I don't see that happening either.
So.
Everyone, your bed is made, enjoy it.
I have the privilege of not giving a damn, because as a transgender American, I'll be dead soon.
We'll see what happens in 4 years, but I too am extremely skeptical. It'll be especially interesting to see what happens in 20 years when enough people of a certain generation have passed. But if things do continue like this and attempts at enforcement are made in places like California, I could see an eventual balkanization if not outright secession.
I'm curious about what'll happen to Illinois, surrounded by red states. Will blue Milwaukee, St. Louis, Iowa City/Quads, NW IN, all join the Prairie State, while the southern 26 counties that have voted to secede from Illinois because they're poor, rural, declining in economy and population, and have fewer than 10% educated inhabitants join Missouri and Kentucky?
Or will Trump federalize troops and invade, burning and looting all of Illinois' cities and "liquidating" its "surplus" populations of "libtards", "undesirables", Dems, immigrants, and LGBTQ folk?
He'll use the techniques of urban warfare and "population reduction" perfected in conquering Canada, Panama, Iceland, Greenland, Svalbard, and the Eastern Mediterranean Riviera US Territory, formerly known as Gaza.
And that'll be the end of the blue island in a sea of red!
No more Chicago!
Maybe the GOPMAGAs will rename Illinois "Trumpland" and found a new city on Lake Michigan named after Co-President Musk, "Muskville"!
Coincidentally, had the Nazis won WWII, Moscow was going to be renamed "Reichstadt" and Volgograd "Hitlerstadt".
We Americans have such interesting times ahead!
Well, I had started a lengthy conversation as a farewell to giving a fuck what happens but my phone stopped me due to a lack of time.
That's fine. In short I was explaining why the votes for DJT were illegal because his intentions were and are as a Party not listed on any ballot: the Fascist Authoritarian Party.
When you separate the MAGA CULT votes from the votes by actual Republicans, the latter were the only legal Republican Party votes, do the math. Trump's illegal votes cannot be accepted.
Here's the good news: Kamala Harris is our Legally elected President by the largest landslide in American history!
Now, do something about it. I'm finished being a member of any political parties. I voted for Nixon twice and will never forgive myself for that. Then I quit voting, went to Vietnam, and only voted again in the hopes of keeping GWB from winning because of chads in Florida's cards. Another disappointment.
Now I'm saying buh-bye to politics and politicians and won't give a damn what happens from now. I tried and tried to pound the truths about Donald's past, present, and future but too many of the people don't allow unpaying members to comment on their frustratious wonderings of what in the hell should be done and how they think to handle it all by the suggestions by your paying members who also lost out on the advice of others like me who tried to give you the goddamned answers.
Like the people of Greenland opine, they don't like America because we're all about the money. Donald wants to take Greenland from Denmark.
Hilariously, Denmark has offered to buy California! We are the world's 5th largest economy. If only it could happen.
BTW, has anyone donated a headstone for Ivana's grave beside a sidewalk at one of the Orange golf courses? I think she deserves a nice one considering she told about his 'Book of Hitler's Speeches' in an article in September 1996 in Vanity Fair entitled, "After the Gold Rush".
It's a great article about their marriage and a whole lot of Donald's disgusting history.
Goodbye all!
Thanks for reading.
Richard La France
Richard, I'm grateful for your post. If only the Republicans had had that civil war they should have had, but all the old schoolers, fiscal Republicans, defense hawks, pro-business GOPers, just retired, quit, went home. They were irritating, soulless bastards, hated workers and the environment, but they weren't entirely stupid or diagnosable as having parted ways with reality. I expected them to fight, but they just went home.
Now we're stuck with the MAGA.
There is NO MORE GOP, there is only MAGA.
Thank you Richard.
I needed the humor and the sanity.
I haven't seen it covered much outside the employment law blogosphere, but I think we have a real chance to get ahead of a tidal wave. Trump's firing an NLRB member and an EEOC commissioner leaves those agencies without a quorum. Until he gets at least one person confirmed for each, both agencies are unable to take significant steps to violate workers' rights and civil rights. So this is the time to organize opposition to confirmation of anybody Trump nominates (including if he manages to reincarnate St. Francis and Mr. Rogers). The longer we can drag out the confirmation process, the longer Biden-era rules can't be axed by the agencies.
I mean, of course he could eliminate the agencies, but that hasn't happened yet.
Yes! What you said about "this is the time to organize" reminds me of this quote, from Chris's interview yesterday -
"How this story comes out does depend to a great degree on what we do right now" - Shannon Minter, transgender Legal Director at the National Center for Lesbian Rights. February 4, 2025.
This has become my mantra. Now is the time to act!
I can barely tolerate reading about these things as I watch this country head towards genocide of trans people and I'm a veteran. I see the horror from the inside, so it's not easy watching stupid arguments that are nonsensical in favor of stripping my rights and throwing me away like I'm trash. It's making me hate this country.
If Lin cannot answer the judge‘s question, maybe Lin should find another profession.