Look-Another “victory”! Appeals Court Lifts Block On Trump’s Orders Restricting DEI Programs | HuffPost Latest News
^The essence of this thread in a mere two posts. Save 519!
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As for “the courts HAVE this” as a comforter to those still clinging to It Can’t Happen Here:
(I quoted the headline because the Internet is being weird—just here, I hope.)
https://www.npr.org/2025/03/16/g-s1-54154/alien-enemies-el-salvador-trump
The taste of “victory”.
More and more, court orders don’t mean jack shit: Brown Medicine professor, doctor deported to Lebanon despite having valid visa, court filings claim
A few hours ago Trump tweeted (Xed?, Truthed? Not sure if the correct verb) that he was voiding all of the pardons issued by Biden during the latter’s final days in office.
Voice Of America was shuttered today due to its “radical” and “anti-Trump” (yes, the official WH statement used the words “anti-Trump”) programming.
I’m just curious about whether the OP is still really fucking bored.
I’m 100% sure that that’s not even remotely something the president has the power to do.
ETA: Here’s the tweet;
He’s completely wrong about this - almost every president since Truman has used autopens to sign official documents including legislation, and the DOJ issued an opinion in 2005 that it was completely legal and constitutional to do so.
Snopes even debunked this a few days ago;
Nothing will come of this.
Since when has Trump cared about that?
Ever notice how Trump’s arguments are just like a grade school kid’s? “The teacher didn’t write my report card, the auto pen wrote it! So that F isn’t valid! Waaaah!”
So does this mean he’s been stopped? Or does it mean he’ll have to find another excuse? Because I am sure he can find another one. “Since Joe Biden stole the Presidency in 2020, all of his executive orders are null and void”. That’s such low hanging fruit I’m somewhat amazed he didn’t start with that one. I’m sure that like any child he can come up with an endless list of reasons why Biden is a poo-poo head and nothing Biden ever did counts for anything. This of course assumes he feels the need to replace one excuse with another. He might just stomp his feet and say everyone else is wrong. That has paid huge dividends for him in the past.
Executive orders are just directives on how the Cabinet departments should execute the law - they do not have force of law themselves and can be revoked by any subsequent president, so it would be fully within his power to do so. At this point it’s pretty much tradition that the first act of an incoming president is to either reinstate or rescind the Mexico City Policy depending on what party they are, for instance.
Pardons, on the other hand, are irrevocable and not subject to judicial review. There’s nothing he can do to un-pardon anyone no matter who he yells at about it. His particular objection to the use of an autopen is particularly stupid, because if non-handwritten signatures are no longer valid than pretty much everyone who’s applied for a credit card in the last quarter-century is now debt-free.
He’s not necessarily trying to reverse the pardon; he’s laying the groundwork for ignoring the pardon, and ignoring the parts of the Constitution he doesn’t like. And he’s daring the Legislative and the Judicial Branches to stop him.
Well, if there is part of the process that says it isn’t subject to judicial review, that’s the only part Trump needs. He decides the previous ones aren’t valid because he’s the President so he’s the only one who gets to make that decision (see also classified documents, Trump’s handling of) and when some court tries to step in they get reminded that they aren’t invited. It’s the kind of rules-lawyering Trump loves. “He can’t do it” versus “no one can stop him” seems to favor Trump if not all the time then certainly far more often than it should. How this one will play out depends on how badly he feels the urge to throw Liz Cheney in jail I guess.
This kind of got my attention. He isn’t even pretending any more.
What’s the over/under he forgets it the first time Roberts rules against him?
I think setting odds would require actual uncertainty.
I’ll say one thing: if I internalized everything I read online (both here and elsewhere), I would’ve blown up my life by now in some unreversable way. I’m sure most of the people who post the kinds of things I’m thinking of would say that they’re not trying to influence others to take such extreme measures, but I’d hope they at least acknowledge the effective result. To deny that would seem like MAGA level denial to me.
Sometimes I wonder if people forget that we’re all just average bears, and our guesses - while educated - carry no more validity than anyone else’s.
I fall into the catastrophe stew myself sometimes; how can one not?
I don’t “know” that anyone can stop donnie and his minions, but I’m doing my small part, I’m sure many others here are doing theirs. Lot’s of resistance is unfolding across the country and, as insulated as we can be sometimes, we are not alone in this fight. In these unprecedented times, it’s natural that some will choose fear and resignation. I hope they remain in the minority.
When you’ve been shoved off a high cliff you don’t need to be all that perceptive to realize that you’ll be hurt when you hit bottom.
So said The 300.
It isn’t that nobody can stop Trump, it’s that the ones can stop Trump won’t. I’m referring to the legislative branch, all the members of which should be standing as one against Trump’s trespassing on functions which rightfully belong to the legislaure alone. But the Republican members are so blindly loyal to Trump that the checks and balances ain’t checking and balancing.
I would say even that is only true to a limited extent, and only for now.
Yes if all senior republicans in unison decided Trump has gone to far and make a public attempt to block him, it might be effective. But, in the real world, no-one wants to be the first to put their head over the parapet. And, as time goes by, it gets ever more risky.
Plus of course most of the principled people resigned or retired already.