46 Comments
User's avatar
Katharine Hill's avatar

Thank you,Steve, for all your hard work. That video of masked men grabbing someone off the street is horrific. I hope Tufts University fights back.

Expand full comment
David Smith's avatar

Yes. That purportedly legal kidnapping is horrifying. How can anyone not see that? That only happens (and always happens) in countries that do not have the rule of law.

Expand full comment
Linda MacDonald's avatar

68 days...I would say everyone should have begun digesting Project 2025 as soon as it hit the internet. The speed, the cruelty, the caving of some in the legal, educational, and media sectors continues to horrify and galvanize citizen pushback. We are in for a very long struggle.

Expand full comment
Russ Wiecking's avatar

Yes. And Trump can’t read and doesn’t care. Some blend of that applies to the vast majority of his supporters. Of the remainder: cognitive terrorists.

Expand full comment
Dan Bielaski's avatar

Project 2025 was, in my opinion, covered quite extensively by reputable media well before the election. Whether or not voters (especially in the MAGA camp) bothered to familiarize themselves with it, is something I wonder about.

Expand full comment
Kathleen Weber's avatar

Democracy is NOT a spectator sport.

💥💥💥 DONT MISS THIS!!! “Hands Off” 🧨🧨🧨

🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️ Gigantic nationwide demonstration! 🙋‍♂️🙋‍♀️🙋‍♂️

Saturday April 5 National “Hands Off” Day of Action

on the National Mall and 657 local demonstrations

I believe that this will be the big demonstration and will be long remembered.

Click this link to find a “Hands Off” demonstration near you.

https://handsoff2025.com/

Expand full comment
David Smith's avatar

Yes, and because Trump Lacks the sophistication and subtlety to design everything that is happening, it seems obvious that someone else is calling the shots.

Expand full comment
Ann Higgins's avatar

The video of the Turkish student being lifted from the street by what looked like a kidnapping gang was indeed horrifying in its banality but just as horrifying is the picture of a broadly smiling Kristi Noem standing in front of a cage apparently holding detainees sent to El Salvador by the USA.

She could just as easily have been standing in front of a cage at the zoo.

Which I surmise is the point.

Expand full comment
Lance Khrome's avatar

Those prisoners assembled for Noem's sadistic photo op were in fact El Salvadorans, unrelated at all to the Venezuelan intake, and chosen for their garish "tats" to emphasize the "criminal foreign gang invaders" spin...so fecking disgusting on so many grounds,

Expand full comment
B. Calbeau's avatar

While wearing a $40,000-$60,000 gold Rolex…https://www.thedailybeast.com/category/politics/

Expand full comment
David Smith's avatar

Great contrast.

Expand full comment
MissNumbersNinja's avatar

Yes. That was horrifying. It broke my heart to see that and how terrified she was.

Expand full comment
David Smith's avatar

Yes. The thuggery is becoming increasingly obvious.

Expand full comment
Nancy The K's avatar

Thanks for the scorecard, Steve. Oh how I hope we will soon be able to breathe again. As a retired lawyer and Paul Weiss alum, the past 68 days have been beyond horrendous. The attempts to negate the civil rights movement, and destroy Americans’ rights under so many constitutional provisions, are just intolerable. At least today it is good to see that there are some law firms out there that are not spineless and still have principles. We can only pray that the same is true of SCOTUS.

Expand full comment
RICHARD JOHNSON's avatar

Just the thought of some green card holder or student visa recipient landing in a far off prison with no voice in defense is like some dystopian nightmare

No argument of criminals amongst them but where is American justice?

I guess will find out just how corrupt Roberts court is fast

Expand full comment
Nancy Bainter's avatar

I’m expecting a “come to Jesus” moment for each and every case before them! It’s the LEAST Roberts’ court can do for me and the struggling citizens (new and old)!

Expand full comment
Rebecca Bartlett's avatar

There's a category that is missing from this analysis but there'll be a case soon: free speech. Can Trump deport people for what they believe, write or say?

Expand full comment
jpickle777's avatar

I agree. The INA language on which Rubio based his "determination" that individual LEGAL noncitizens said or did things adverse to US foreign policy interests is constitutionally VAGUE and should be challenged. (I read a report today quoting Rubio that 300 noncitizens have been affected by these recent detentions.)

Expand full comment
David Smith's avatar

Yes. The things that they are "doing" that are contrary to US foreign policy interests is they are speaking disapprovingly of American foreign policy. Aka, free speech.

Expand full comment
David Smith's avatar

That is what they are already doing.

Expand full comment
EmiM's avatar

Steve, Thank you. So much. We “out here” in the land of ordinary folk, watch what bits of news are presented in 45 second sound bites, with very little explanation of how this all can be allowed to be happening: Thousands instantly removed from their jobs, by an unelected and uniformed person, people with no training in the depths of knowledge needed to understand the roles they are playing destroying computer systems, erasing needed data, destroying agencies… and we need desperately ongoing information on what is occurring in the One functioning branch of our government left that can Stop This Madness — and that is The Law. We want to know where these cases are — how we are faring. Are the courts containing this deadly virus, or is it going to kill us all? We are afraid. The world order is shifting. Please keep us informed. We need you. Very grateful. We are.

Expand full comment
David Smith's avatar

As has has been commented by others, if someone were trying to vandalize our government and our country, it would not look any different than what this Administration is already doing. That's a big part of the reason why some cynics think that Trump might be following orders from some other country. Personally, I find that doubtful, but how would it look any different?

Expand full comment
Michael Scheinberg's avatar

I wonder whether judicial efficiency will matter in the Court's consideration of nationwide injunctions? Will every immigrant picked up by ICE have to sue separately to prevent his or her deportation to a foreign prison while waiting for the case to get to the Supreme Court to decide? How many people would be deported to a foreign prison between the beginning of illegal deportations and a Court decision? And if the Court decides that immigrants are allowed due process, will it order Trump to bring back to deportees?

Expand full comment
David Smith's avatar

If this Administration gets it way, there won't be any lawsuits or hearings, only summary deportations.

Expand full comment
Barbara Woodward's avatar

Thank you for summarizing all together!

Expand full comment
Marina Oshana's avatar

“The reckoning the Court now faces is thus not just about how much it is willing and able to stand up to President Trump, but how committed, at the most basic level, the justices are to standing up for a government of laws, and not of men.” Following the disgraceful, dangerous and constitutionally tortured 2024 ruling on presidential immunity, I am not confident that a majority of the Supreme Court will demonstrate that commitment.

Expand full comment
David Smith's avatar

Exactly.

Expand full comment
Jessica Holliday's avatar

Does anyone know if they managed to deport any actual members of TDA? Apparently, there is a small teardrop tattoo next to the eye which signifies TDA members. Not the hummingbird, palm tree, other tattoos shown in the Kristi Noem pictures.

Expand full comment
Jessica Holliday's avatar

Apparently, Noem is standing in front of El Salvadoran prisoners, not Venezuelan prisoners.

Expand full comment
David Smith's avatar

The teardrop tattoo is a very common one among criminal defendants in this country. It is in no way limited to members of one specific gang.

Expand full comment
Marina Oshana's avatar

I have been trying to follow the development of these cases as best I can. This is hugely helpful. Thanks 🙏🏽.

Expand full comment
Robert  Taylor's avatar

Just 6?

Expand full comment
RICHARD JOHNSON's avatar

Yes it seems like there should be a lot more

Expand full comment
Michael Kupperburg's avatar

We either have the Rule of Law or the Rule of Men, so far no other form has emerged.

Expand full comment
State of the American Union's avatar

The evil and cruelty underlying Trump's malfeasance is more than most people are willing to look at. It's painful to think we are losing our country to a convicted felon and a gang of Republican criminals.

Expand full comment
Trudy Bond's avatar

Thank you for this extra article today. A great template to keep some of the many lawsuits organized, which I'm try desperately to do. Much appreciated.

Expand full comment