“You can’t do this in a nation of laws.”
Said everyone who’s so far failed to stop the Trump administration from doing things which appear manifestly at odds not just with law in a statutory sense, but with the rule of law, as an ordering concept for society.
In addition to serving as a summary of Donald Trump’s first nine months (back) in office, the complaint quoted above is an actual, verbatim excerpt from a temporary restraining order issued Wednesday by a federal judge in San Francisco.
Trump’s being sued by at least a couple of unions over Russ Vought’s controversial layoffs which began late last week, impacting more than 4,000 people.
On Wednesday, Vought appeared on “The Charlie Kirk Show” (which is now filming from The White House, by the way) to revel in the firings. “We want to be very aggressive where we can be in shuttering the bureaucracy, not just the funding,” Vought said, calling the shutdown “an opportunity” to lay people off.
If that strikes you as comically nefarious, that’s Vought for you. That’s why Trump gleefully depicted him last week on social media as the Grim Reaper. “I think we’ll probably end up being north of 10,000,” Vought went on, musing about how many federal employees he might be able to fire as a result of the shutdown.
Of course, a lot of people suspect any and all such firings are illegal, and US District Court Judge Susan Yvonne Illston seems to agree. “The activities that are being undertaken here are contrary to the laws,” she said Wednesday.
In the same order, Illston said she suspects Vought’s OMB has “taken advantage of the lapse in government spending to assume all bets are off [and that] the laws don’t apply to them anymore.” That’d be easier to dispute had Trump and Vought not spent the last two weeks effectively asserting as much themselves, just not in so many words.
It seems (more than) obvious that the unions have the better case, but I’m not an attorney. And if it turns out that Illston’s decision is reversed and/or that ultimately, Vought succeeds in permanently dismissing several thousand people as a result of the shutdown, it won’t be the first time the administration’s prevailed despite what I’ll generously describe as the appearance of extra-legality.
Illston was certainly right about one thing: She called the layoffs “capricious.” I don’t think Vought would necessarily disagree.
UGH Spoken as a true democrat. Or should I say help!
Rule of law speaks to the laws in the legal system, but also to the way the entire system is managed. Rule of law demands some consistency over time. If laws are continually struck down or defanged, precedent ignored, and most rulings based on a new interpretation of existing law, then there are laws only, no rule. Might be why more countries are busily establishing new business and financial relationships that exclude the US. If you don’t have to, who in their right mind wants to work for Donald, Man of Peace. Unless you stand to make many many millions or get to inflict pain on everyone perceived to have aggrieved you during your formative years – I’m looking at you Mr. Miller.
Actually, you can’t do this in a nation of “norms”. We thought there was existing legislation to protect us from the willful destruction that the White House is engaged in, but we were wrong. If the Dems are worth anything, between now and next fall they’ll come up with a “swing for the fences” plan to fix a lot of stuff, and fast. Then, they’ll have to sell that plan in as full-throated a way necessary to retake the House, and then they’ve got to begin the impeachment of Pam Bondi, and she’s just the first of a half dozen. They’ll want to keep their hands off Trump because the impeachments inside his cabinet and senior staff will neuter him with less hassle. And because at least a few of them are spinless enough to scald him on the way out, he may be forced to resign.
We’ve already gone a long way toward losing our Democracy…it’s time to bring on the scorched earth.
The Supreme Court is poised to overturn part of the Voting Rights Act before the midterms. That will impact another 16 House seats that are currently majority minority districs. The math is going to get exceedingly difficult.
First, ax a chunk of the voting rights act, then declare some form of martial law for all cities over 1 million or so. Send out the troops to all those spots, and Bob’s your uncle, cancel the 2026 elections, dump the Congressional democrats and there you’ve got it a country with no laws run by …. wait for it …. JD Vance (Donald J is running short on time these days.
Are employees legally guaranteed a job in the private sector in “right to work” states or non-unionized industries in US? Asking for a friend.
Tell your friend, not as far as I know. No one anywhere in the US is guaranteed a job for any reason. The right work just means you can’t make employees pay union dues or join the union in those states.
I think it’s high time that we stop calling our made up rules that we apply when we feel like it and completely ignore when we don’t, “laws”. Gravity is a law, it’s always true and always present and while you can generate enough force to counter it, it never ceases to exist. The stuff people write down and tell each other is a law is absolutely not that.
Walter Peck (Russ Vought) shutting down the containment unit. We all know how that worked out. Who ya gonna call this time?!