Alito: The Monster Behind the Mask

 

Reading Justice Samuel Alito's dissent in the case of Trumpist deportations of Venezuelans to that same gulag in El Salvador where the Maryland man abducted by Trump's masked ICE agents was dumped does not take long.

A Reliable Vote for Despotism

Justice Alito found that there was no justification for the Court to prevent further illegal abductions because:

1. The United States lacks jurisdiction: i.e. it's not our problem any more. There's lots of historical precedent for this idea of course: the United States sent a boatload of Jews back to Europe because they did not have paperwork signed by the local Gestapo attesting to their good character, and once those boats left American ports, well, there was no way the American government could help them--not our jurisdiction.

2. Stopping deportations means the government has to be given time to argue why its current program should continue, but in the meantime the government should not be thwarted from the kidnapping program they've rushed into. If Justice Alito had been asked to stop Adolph Eichmann from loading all those Jews into cattle cars in Holland, France, Poland and shipping them off to the camps in Germany, he would presumably have found Mr. Eichmann should be given time to prepare his case, but in the meantime keep those railroad cars rolling.

3. There is not enough evidence the men in question are really being harmed: Just because a man is thrown into a gulag in Central America is no reason to suppose he's not having a good time.

The essence of Alito's objection is: "What's the rush?" 

American Justice 

My favorite sentence in Justice Alito's decision is the last:

"I refused to join the Court's order because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate. Both the Executive and the Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law."

We can count ourselves fortunate Justice Alito is not a trauma surgeon--just because a felon stabs some poor passerby on the street, and the victim is rushed to the emergency room does not mean the surgeon should be roused from sleep at midnight to attend to the bleeding. The insurance card has to be examined, and the insurance company phoned, and if the hour is late, well, we'll just have to wait until tomorrow morning, so we do not violate the prescribed procedures.

And now, Justice Alito can go back to bed.  Heaven forbid the system should be pushed to act with urgency!

When I heard two justices had voted to keep these criminal governmental acts going, sending victims to  El Salvador, imagine the look of surprise on my face to learn which two justices those might be!  

Could it be Justice Alito and, wait for it, Justice Thomas?

American Justice

Which is not to say that Justices Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett and Roberts were sure things when it came to voting to correct an illegal act--kidnapping, abducting and imprisoning. In roughly descending order of Trumpism, those four are only usually reliable in finding that whatever President Trump wants to do is just fine--he can get money in any way he pleases; he can do whatever he wants as long as he says it's part of his job as President, and he can never be tried in any court for any crime--even murdering someone on Fifth Avenue. The only way to depose the President is for the Senate to convict him after the House of Representatives impeaches him.

Not Going to Save Democracy

So, as long as the American public votes Republican, there is no controlling Mr. Trump, and abductions, imprisonment, extortion and bribery are just fine with the American voter and with the Supreme Court of the United States.