Yesterday’s News 2025 04 15


If the U.S. government is going to take the position that, once removed from the United States, folks can’t be brought back, then it sure seems to me that federal courts should be reflexively and categorically barring *all* removals until they’re 100 percent certain that the removals are lawful.

Steven Beschloss: “Home-Growns Are Next”

Donald Trump is not just hungry to kidnap migrants without due process. He said out loud today he’s ready to deport American citizens. We’ve been warned.

(Steven Beschloss more…)

Robert Reich: The two tipping points for when we officially become a dictatorship could occur this week

  1. The first way the Trump regime openly becomes a dictatorship is by directly defying a Supreme Court order.
  2. The second way we officially become a dictatorship is if the Trump regime can accuse any American citizen of being so dangerous as to justify being sent to a foreign prison, without any independent court reviewing the regime’s evidence.

(Robert Reich more…)


On the White House’s theory, if they abduct you, get you on a helicopter, get to international waters, shoot you in the head, and drop your corpse into the ocean, that is legal, because it is the conduct of foreign affairs.

Heather Cox Richardson: Letters from an American – April 14, 2025


Bukele was livestreaming the event on his official X account and wearing a lapel microphone as he and Trump walked into the Oval Office, so Trump’s pre-meeting private comments were audible in the video Bukele posted. “We want to do homegrown criminals next…. The homegrowns.” Trump told Bukele. “You gotta build about five more places.” Bukele appeared to answer, “Yeah, we’ve got space.” “All right,” Trump replied.

Rather than being appalled, the people in the room—including Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Attorney General Pam Bondi—erupted in laughter.

At the meeting, it was clear that Trump’s team has cooked up a plan to leave Abrego Garcia without legal recourse to his freedom, a plan that looks much like Trump’s past abuses of the legal system. …
(Heather Cox Richardson more…)

Mother Jones: Trump to the USA: There Is No Rule of Law

Daily Beast: Pam Bondi Gives Stunning Response When Asked if Trump’s Plan to Jail Americans Abroad Is ‘Legal’

CAGEY
Even Jesse Watters wants to know.

Bondi refused to answer.

“Jesse, these are Americans he is saying who have committed the most heinous crimes in our country,” she said. “Crime is going to decrease dramatically because he has given us a directive to make America safe again.”
(Daily Beast more…)

Lucian K. Truscott IV: John Roberts created this monster. What is he going to do about him?

Law Dork: DOJ ends a key racial discrimination case, signaling an end to the Civil Rights Division as it existed

The lawsuit alleged a brazen pattern of racial discrimination against a Black woman, but AAG Harmeet Dhillon ended the case. Also: A look at the bigger picture at DOJ.

Allison Gill: The Supreme Court’s Redistribution of Rights

It’s almost unfathomable to me what the Supreme Court has done to us in the last 15 years, but we all should have seen it coming.
(Allison Gill more…)

John Pavlovitz: If Your Church Won’t Speak Out About a Deported Father (and Thousands More Like Him)—It May as Well Cancel Easter