The administration and the GOP are lawless, and they don't give a damn
Warning, mini-rant follows
TAT readers,
Okay, I admit it, today’s essay is partially a mini-rant. I get it, we’ve all been through so many heinous acts and bizarre conspiracy theories spewing from this utterly lawless and un-American administration, why should one news article last evening be the one that triggers a rant, small or otherwise? There is no good answer. Maybe I just reached my limit or that it’s so grotesquely un-American that I can hardly fathom that I need to say the things in today’s essay, “out loud.” The article that triggered me was an Associated Press piece titled, “Immigration officers assert sweeping power to enter homes without a judge’s warrant, memo says.” This should send every American reaching for their pitchforks, while concurrently raising hell with their Republican Congressmen. The aforementioned, “memo” is a direct violation of our Fourth Amendment and DHS doesn’t give a damn about it.
Fourth Amendment: 'The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Few provisions of the Bill of Rights grew so directly out of the colonial experience as the Fourth Amendment, which protects against the government’s use of writs of assistance.1 Although it does not appear to have been discussed in political tracts published in the colonies until 1772,2 the idea that freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures is a fundamental right had been a long-standing tenet of English political thought. Every man’s house is his castle was a celebrated maxim in England, as demonstrated in the 1603 Semayne’s Case.3" - Amdt4.2 Historical Background on Fourth Amendment - Constitution Annotated - Constitution.Gov
At issue is the type of warrant being employed by ICE and related removal operations. ICE is using and “administrative warrant” vs. the constitutionally required warrant, signed by a Federal Judge. To admittedly oversimply this a tiny bit, it comes down to the fact that historically speaking and via several Supreme Court rulings, the DHS/ CBP “administrative warrants” are not constitutional, with very limited exceptions. The bottom line is, the government cannot barge into our homes and places of work without establishing a solid, evidentiary-based reason to a federal judge. Even the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center teaches this.
At the heart of my anger triggered today, is a whistleblower complaint that details a May letter from Todd Lyons, serving as the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, blatantly conferring unconstitutional authority to use “administrative warrants” to enter homes and search properties without notice and violently, should violence be required to gain entrance and secure the arrest. Like most of what the administration is doing at the moment regarding removal operations, this is patently illegal. Oh well, for a lawless administration, legalities don’t seem to matter anyway. This was really the core issue for me, when I was triggered by this article from the AP. When a government claiming to be “a nation of laws” is lawless, there is no longer a United States of America.
This administration is not only allowing their political brownshirts to violently assault us in the streets, but to violently enter our homes without meeting their constitutional requirements. Taking from us, the electorate is what this administration does. They don’t follow the law and simply take what they please. For example, the case of all of our personal data stolen by the fraudulent entity known as DOGE, with accomplices like Peter Thiel. Their intent, consolidate all of our data in order to compile individual files, on every one of us.
Peter Thiel’s Palantir poses a grave threat to Americans | Robert Reich | The Guardian
DHS’s Data Grab Is Getting Citizens Kicked Off Voter Rolls, New Complaint Says | WIRED
ICE and CBP, Customs and Border Patrol, also now collect our cell phone data in regular operations, which is aligned with their thuggish behavior on the streets of our cities.
To rub salt into the wound, Lyon’s memo is flagrantly unconstitutional according the Fourth Amendment in our Bill of Rights. This isn’t the first set of our constitutional rights trashed by the administration. Our First Amendment is nearly on life-support. Government censorship, assaults on our rights to public assembly, separation of church and state, birthright citizenship and on and on and on. If we tolerate the stripping of our rights, we cease to be Americans. It is that very Bill of Rights, that defines what American Liberty really means. Trump, the Republican Party, SCOTUS and all of their financial backers, are taking a flamethrower named Project 2025 to our constitution, and yet one third of America still sits on the sidelines.
"A FOUNDING FATHER’S FAMOUS USES: “A government of laws and not of men.” John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, politician and 2nd President of the United States Although the basic concept of “a government of laws, and not of men” reflects a political philosophy dating back to the ancient Greeks, Adams gave it lasting fame in those exact words, initially by using it in his 7th “Novanglus” letter published in the Boston Gazette in 1775, then more famously by including it in the Massachusetts Constitution of 1780. The “Novanglus Letters” were a series of essays Adams wrote for the Boston Gazette under the pseudonym Novanglus (meaning “New Englander”). In them, he argued that Great Britain’s treatment of American colonists violated their rights under British law." - A Government and a nation of laws - Quote/ Counterquote - February 14th, 2017
What happened to the US being, “a nation of laws” where, “all men are equal before the law” and so forth? This administration simply ignores the law and even court decisions. A Republican-led Congress, ignores their constitutionally required oversight. Our SCOTUS twists American legal concepts into pretzels, simply to justify White Christian Nationalism and oligarchy, and as we’ve seen with the disastrous ICE assaults on America, violence is not only condoned, but encouraged. Government agents violently assaulting peaceful protesters are human rights violations like something we’d expect to see in N. Korea, not Minnesota.
What about troops in the streets for made-up boogieman hunts. There is no Antifa and no, they are not rounding up the “worst of the worst.” They are arresting US citizens, legal residents and even deporting legal residents. Less than a quarter of those detained have a criminal record, let alone a violent felony. Their ICE narratives are not only false, but they are overt lies. The Hatch Act is violated daily by pumping out DHS’ Republican propaganda, on the taxpayer’s dollar.
It seems that even when our courts do work, either SCOTUS rescues the administration, or the administration simply ignores the ruling. There are currently hundreds of lawsuits filed against the president and the administration. Many represent challenges to constitutional norms and precedent, precisely the intentions of this Project 2025 run administration. After all, both Project 2025 and January represent insurrections or coups, depending which definition you wish to use, so why shouldn’t they burn down the rest of our constitution too?
Look at the lawlessness in our militarized streets! Masked, ID-less marauders in tactical gear roam our streets, proactively assaulting American citizens, legal residents and the undocumented alike, destroying property etc. Ask the simple questions of your congressmen, like, “is it legal for ICE et.al. to proactively and physically assault peaceful protesters? If they don’t get you real answers and acknowledge their culpability if it continues, ensure that your entire district knows about it. Loudly demand results, before there is a sixth killing due to ICE operations.
The militarization of our streets, strictly illegal under the circumstances claimed by the White House. Violence against peaceful protesters, illegal too, just like disappearing prisoners, children, US citizens, legal residents etc. How about denying due process and especially the administration’s crusade for a state religion? I often wonder, what will it take to motivate those mostly apathetic middle voters, to act on their own behalf, and ours? Yes, these things and far more, make me very angry and of course frustrated. I confess.
The bottom line to this short rant is that we must be honest with ourselves, there is for all intents and purposes, no longer any real law for anyone except you and me. We must still follow the law, because the law-breakers said so and are ready and willing to punish us, for their sins.
My friends, nothing about this administration is legal and a good bit of it, unconstitutional. In our “nation of laws” if there is no law, there is no nation. With our Bill of Rights as severely depleted as it is now, there is no longer a definition of what American liberty looks like or in a sense, a big piece of our national identity. Without a nation or an identity, there is no America. If you are feeling unmoored at the moment, this is why. We will not feel like Americans again until we begin acting like it, rowing together with a defended constitution for our sails. If not, America will become just one more shipwreck of state, on the endless seas of failed previous democracies, dating back to the ancient Greeks.
In the past couple of months, there has been progress in the resistance to the administration and their enablers. Our numbers grow on a parallel track as well. These are hopeful signs. Let them inspire you towards continued growth. Knowledge is power and I hope that by sharing my “mini-rant” today, I’ve also provided a bit of inspiration as well. We are doing this and for the right reasons, not for party. We are defending, “who we are as Americans.” It’s just us doing what Americans have done from the very beginning, defending liberty. We may occasionally err, but we always pick ourselves up and then move the country a little bit closer to the “better angels of our nature,” as so eloquently expressed by president Lincoln, at Gettysburg.
It’s true that I am ranting a bit today and yet, I feel my anger righteous. So is yours. Everything this administration is and does, flies in the face of our American values and our heritage. Even worse, most of their intentions are equally immoral. They are without the slightest hint of hyperbole, dismantling our republic, the very one I swore to, “protect and defend, from all enemies foreign and domestic,” while in uniform.
Our law and the constitution it is based upon, along with its checks and balances in a fully functioning government, are or more correctly were, the safeguards of our republic. A lawless Republican Party, is steadily removing those safeguards and selling political power to the highest bidders. Look, there’s plenty of corruption in Washington and in all parties, but only today’s GOP is tearing down our republic.
We cannot and must not allow this administration to take or significantly reduce our constitutionally guaranteed human rights. The full-frontal assault on the Fourth Amendment by Todd Lyons and DHS, is no different than the Republican Party, sneaking into your home, and stealing one of your most precious possessions, while claiming to have plan to help you find it. Our fundamental rights are priceless, paid for in American blood over two and a half centuries. I’ll be damned if those currently running our nation, can have mine.
My very best to all,
Paul