Events in America should give us cause to reflect on how fortunate we are to live in a country where governments accept the opinion of the courts. Donald Trump is essentially trashing the US Constitution and the law routinely and on almost a daily basis. He is demolishing agencies created by Congress, defunding universities he doesn’t like, going after his political enemies, subverting legal firms to his will, threatening his neighbours, talking about impeaching judges and a host of other serious breaches of the law. Not only does he think himself above the law, he genuinely believes he IS the law. There seems to be no restraining him.
His administration seems fully intent on ignoring a clear ruling by the Supreme Court to return Filmar Abrego Garcia back to US soil from the El Salvadoran prison he was sent to “by mistake.”
The Senator from Garcia's home state Maryland has been in El Salvador and has met with Garcia in prison. The authorities won't release him although he's committed no crime. This is reported by the BBC, with a comment from the White House that his visit was "disgusting."
A spokesman is reported saying: "Chris Van Hollen [the Senator] has firmly established Democrats as the party whose top priority is the welfare of an illegal alien MS-13 terrorist."
The Attorney General, America's most senior law officer, Pam Bondi, asked earlier about comments that Garcia is a member of the M-13 gang and a terrorist, openly said: “Well, he is an illegal alien who has been living illegally in our country from El Salvador ... He is not coming back to our country.”
REPORTER: Why not show the public the evidence? BONDI: Well, he is an illegal alien who has been living illegally in our country from El Salvador ... He is not coming back to our country R: But the evidence. We're not gonna see the evidence? BONDI: We have the transcripts from the court hearings— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 16 April 2025 at 14:03
This directly contravenes a decision by a District Court and the Supreme Court that his return must be “facilitated” and that he must be brought back so that he can obtain the ‘due process’ he’s entitled to under the Constitution. Garcia may well be a member of M-13, I don’t know, but that isn’t the point, he has to be given the chance to prove he isn’t and to challenge whatever evidence the government claims to have against him.
The US government is making a bigger and bigger issue out of this case. Having been ordered by the District Court to cooperate with a short (two week) but wide-ranging inquiry about why it hasn’t sought the return of Garcia, they government actually appealed the judges decision! Garcia was deported on 15 March despite a 2019 court order saying he couldn’t be sent back to his native country.
In a blistering opinion, the appellate court ruled the Justice Department must abide by District Judge Paula Xinis’s order. The ruling contains some incredible statements:
"The [US] government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done."
"If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home? And what assurance shall there be that the Executive will not train its broad discretionary powers upon its political enemies? The threat, even if not the actuality, would always be present, and the Executive’s obligation to 'take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed' would lose its meaning."
And on the point about US citizens being unlawfully deported, the New Republic reports of a case of a Georgia man detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) for entering the state of Florida as an “unauthorized alien.” He is in fact an American citizen.
Lopez Gomez, 21, appears to have been arrested and charged under an “anti-immigration” law hurriedly passed in Florida two months ago, even though the law is currently under a temporary restraining order (TRO) and isn’t supposed to be enforced. At a court hearing his mother provided his American birth certificate and the judge accepted it, but said she had no authority to order his release!
Apart from apparently being in clear contravention of the US Constitution, the arrest and detention of both men seems also to be against Article 9 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile."
It is now orders of magnitude worse than it has ever been.
In an interview this week, (HERE 3:42 minutes in) Nigel Farage said the first thing he would do if he became prime minister is to leave the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in Strasbourg. This perhaps doesn’t surprise you, since it’s precisely the sort of thing you expect from him. However, since Reform U.K. at the moment are doing well in the polls we need to take him seriously
Being a member of the ECHR may not protect us if a government headed by Farage ever came to power. If Trump can ignore the US Constitution and the UDHR, Farage could easily do the same here to judgements of the ECHR. But, having an opinion from a panel of international judges, on the whole, is more likely to carry some weight and find against a government that deprives people of their human rights, rights set out after the Second World War to prevent the horrors of that conflict being repeated.
If you want to know how all of this happens, watch this clip of the Republican Senator for Alaska, Lisa Murkowski, at a meeting of charity leaders in her state:
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R): "We are all afraid…I am oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real."— The Bulwark (@thebulwark.bsky.social) 17 April 2025 at 15:02
It is fear. When lawmakers from the ruling party are afraid to speak out, we are all in serious trouble.
When it comes to a battle between Trump and the law, the law must win.
