Blue Press Journal

Tag: Alien Enemies Act

  • Trump DOJ’s Attempt to Block Testimony in Contempt Inquiry Signals Deepening Crisis

    Blue Press Journal – In yet another troubling chapter of the Trump-era Justice Department’s record, lawyers representing Donald Trump’s DOJ are reportedly scrambling to block their own officials from testifying in a contempt of court inquiry. The case, which stems from Judge James Boasberg’s investigation into potential contempt in the original Alien Enemies Act litigation, has now reached the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals — a sign of the high stakes involved.

    The extraordinary lengths to which the Trump DOJ is going to shield its attorneys from questioning underscores a familiar pattern: obstruction, delay, and a disregard for judicial oversight. Rather than cooperating in a straightforward inquiry meant to uphold the rule of law, the department under Trump appears intent on keeping potentially damaging information from ever surfacing in court.

    Such stonewalling corrodes public trust in government institutions. The judiciary’s contempt power exists precisely to hold officials to account when they defy lawful orders. By fighting to muzzle its own lawyers, the Trump DOJ is sending a clear message — loyalty to the president and his political agenda takes precedence over adherence to the law. 

    This behavior is not an aberration, but part of a consistent ethos that defined the Trump administration: an executive branch unwilling to submit to checks and balances, willing to claim sweeping immunity, and quick to cry political persecution when pressed for transparency. That the issue here arises under the Alien Enemies Act case — a law with its own fraught history — only heightens the stakes for civil liberties and constitutional governance.

    As the D.C. Circuit weighs the DOJ’s appeal, it faces a choice that will reverberate beyond this single case. Siding with secrecy would embolden future administrations to defy court oversight; insisting on testimony would reaffirm that no president, and no government lawyer, is above the law.

  • Supreme Court’s Hasty Ruling denies Law and Justice

    The President of the United States has invoked a centuries-old wartime statute to transport individuals to a notoriously brutal, foreign-run prison. For those who cherish freedom and justice, this should be deeply troubling. The statute in question is the seldom-used Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which was infamously utilized by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1941 to justify the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans in camps during World War II. It took the court nearly 75 years to acknowledge the grave error of this decision.

    This action sets a dangerous precedent.  The District Courts ruling had temporarily halted the deportations and ordered the return of Venezuelan migrants to the United States. The Trump administration has labeled these migrants as dangerous gang members, without providing concrete evidence, while the lawyers for many of these individuals have attested to their lack of criminal history. Shockingly, some were detained and sent to a notorious Salvadoran prison simply because of their tattoos.

    The Supreme Court has now intervened, hastily dismissing the District Court’s order in a brief, four-paragraph opinion. They refused to hear arguments or breifs and in the shows of the night cooked up their opinion.  This decision was based solely on a new legal pronouncement, which one would assume would require careful consideration and deliberation. Justice Jackson expressed her dismay, stating, “I lament that the Court appears to have embarked on a new era of procedural variability, and that it has done so in such a casual, inequitable, and, in my view, inappropriate manner.”

    It is now painfully evident that the Supreme Court has transformed from a bastion of law and justice into a mere reflection of personal political beliefs and agendas!