We are tottering on the edge of dictatorship. Powerful voices across institutions, from politics to academia and religion, must speak out

The US constitution is in peril. Civil and human rights are being trampled upon. The economy is in disarray.

At this rate, we will not make it through the second 100 days.

Federal judges in more than 120 cases so far have sought to stop Trump – judges appointed by Republicans as well as Democrats, some appointed by Trump himself – but the regime is either ignoring or appealing their orders. It has even arrested a municipal judge in Milwaukee amid a case involving an undocumented defendant.

Recently, Judge J Harvie Wilkinson III of the court of appeals for the fourth circuit – an eminent conservative Reagan appointee who is revered by the Federalist Society – issued a scathing rebuke to the Trump regime. In response to its assertion that it can abduct residents of the US and put them into foreign prisons without due process, Wilkinson wrote:

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.

  • teawrecks@sopuli.xyz
    2·
    7 days ago

    I don’t see it explained what he means by “US won’t survive Trump’s next 100 days”?

    The Trump administration has made a series of Executive Orders. State judges have deemed several of them unconstitutional and issued an injunction, legally pausing them until SCOTUS can rule them. In response, Trump has complained to SCOTUS that no single “activist judge” should be able to impede him like this. They will hear that case soon, and one of two things will happen:

    1. SCOTUS rules in favor of the Executive branch, and judges can no longer block federal behavior, meaning the only way for unconstitutional actions taken by the federal govt to be heard by a court is for the affected individual to file a lawsuit in federal court.

    2. SCOTUS rules in favor of the states, BUT trump legitimately believes he is allowed to commit crimes as president, so he’ll just continue ignoring everyone.

    I think what he really means is that democracy in USA won’t survive.

    That’s the same thing. No democratic republic, no constitution, no USA. Trump might continue using the name, he might even come up with a new constitution and say that it’s the same one with a few improvements, but the US as we knew it would be dead and gone.

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
      1·
      7 days ago

      That’s the same thing.

      No.
      Did for instance Hungary cease to exist when it became Communist?
      Did it cease to exist again when it became democratic?
      The answer to both is obviously no.

      Same with USA, just because it becomes a totalitarian dictatorship is not the same as not surviving as a country.
      When that happened to Germany it didn’t mean Germany ceased to exist as a country either.

      For that you have to speculate that something more happens afterwards. Which isn’t mentioned in the article at all.