SCOTUS Victory for Trump as Lawfare Worsens
A 6-3 Supreme Court win for Trump’s ban on transgender soldiers came on May 6 just as the deluge of liberal lawsuits was worsening. Improper court injunctions have been piling up like cars crashing in a fog on a crowded highway.
Under Trump’s order that the Court just allowed to go into effect, “service members who have a current diagnosis or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with, gender dysphoria will be processed for separation from military service.” This reverses the disastrous pro-transgender policy of Biden.
Lower courts had blocked Trump’s ban on transgenders in the military, just as liberal judges have been enjoining nearly every other initiative by Trump. “By allowing single, unelected federal judges to co-opt entire executive-branch policies at the drop of the hat, they create needless interbranch friction and perpetrate a truly lupine encroachment by the Judiciary on the President’s Article II authority,” Solicitor General John Sauer told the High Court.
By “lupine” the brilliant Sauer, who alone signs many Trump Administration briefs, refers to wolf-like behavior while disguised in sheep’s clothing. The victim of the overreaching judiciary is the American people trying to redirect our country toward prosperity.
John Sauer alerted the Supreme Court that there was “a dramatic upsurge in 2017, followed by an explosion in the last three months” of nationwide injunctions by solitary federal judges against Trump. These injunctions were nearly unheard of for the first 170 years of American history, Sauer points out.
In the short month of February alone, there were 15 nationwide injunctions entered by Democrat-appointed judges against the Trump Administration. This stymies the will of American voters who gave Trump his mandate last November to Make America Great Again.
On May 5, nearly two dozen Democrat state attorneys general filed three new lawsuits against Trump. Despite how these states span our country from coast-to-coast, they filed all of their lawsuits in federal district courts in New England where the district and appellate judges are nearly entirely Democrat-appointed, making this the most one-sided legal venue in our Nation.
The northeast venue is even more partisan than the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit, where at least Trump was able to appoint ten of its 29 appellate judges during his first term. The lower district courts in all the Left Coast states are still reliably Democrat, but the Ninth Circuit could reverse them in up to a third of cases filed there against Trump.
One of the Democrats’ recent lawsuits is to block Trump’s executive orders protecting our environment against clanky offshore windmill boondoggles. While Democrat states refuse to allow offshore drilling for oil, as California has banned for decades, Democrats insist on constructing hundreds of wind turbines within sight of our beaches in the false promise they will produce efficient energy.
Maryland and other liberal states want to construct ugly wind turbines off their coasts, which blight the beautiful views and become a giant killing machine for birds. Trump’s executive order wisely suspends permits for these inefficient monstrosities pending review as to their high costs compared with their dubious benefits.
Twenty Democrat states filed suit in Rhode Island to block the Secretary of Health and Human Services, RFK Jr., from downsizing HHS and laying off federal employees. Rhode Island is hundreds of miles away from where the HHS employees work, and the Democrats’ selection of this court is blatant forum-shopping by the Left.
Federal workers are overwhelmingly Democrat and there is no constitutional or other right for them to be immune from layoffs common in the private sector. If laid-off federal workers cannot find another job, then it raises questions as to why taxpayers were being required to pay them to do nothing productive.
The Fourth Circuit, which presides over states including Maryland and Virginia, has issued four recent rulings in favor of Trump, each of which blocked an anti-Trump order by a separate Democrat-appointed district judge. Two of the district court judges were appointed by Obama and two by Biden.
These hopeful appellate decisions restored Trump’s power to fire probationary workers at 20 federal agencies, terminate federally funded teacher and contractor DEI programs, and reinstate much-needed oversight of USAID programs by Elon Musk and DOGE.
An Obama-appointed judge was assigned to a new lawsuit brought by Harvard University in Boston against Trump to unfreeze $2 billion in federal funds that were flowing to that institution. Harvard requested and received the appointment of this judge to its case, by citing her role in what Harvard asserted was a similar matter.
The third new case brought by many Democrat states on May 5 was to block Trump’s executive order improving election integrity. Trump properly ordered that federal funding be withheld from states that count mail-in ballots not received until after Election Day, which delays counting and reporting of election results.
Trump Steps on the Gas Pedal for English
Trump just accomplished what his Republican predecessor George W. Bush refused to do: make understanding of English a requirement for truck drivers’ licenses. In 2002 Phyllis Schlafly urged GWB to repeal Clinton’s extension of commercial licenses to non-English-speaking truckers, but GWB refused to act.
Clinton opened the southern border to Mexican truckers to carry long loads, potentially including drugs, deep into the U.S. without knowing English. Not only did this take jobs away from Americans and create havoc at checkpoints, but it also resulted in horrific highway accidents that Phyllis wrote about two decades ago.
Trump just delivered again for American workers and highway safety: truck drivers must understand English to drive big rigs across America. In the split-second decisions made by truckers on congested highways, they need to understand road signs without difficulty.
Road signs are commonly in English, and the driver of an 18-wheeler must be able to read what he sees. If there is a shortage of English-speaking drivers then wages should increase to attract more, rather than endangering other travelers with truck drivers who cannot read the signs.
On April 28, Trump signed an Executive Order stating that truck drivers “should be able to read and understand traffic signs, communicate with traffic safety, border patrol, agricultural checkpoints, and cargo weight-limit station officers. Drivers need to provide feedback to their employers and customers and receive related directions in English.”
“Every day, truckers perform the demanding and dangerous work of transporting the Nation’s goods to businesses, customers, and communities safely, reliably, and efficiently,” Trump stated. In March Trump also made English our official language, which other Republicans failed to do for decades.
To the dismay of liberals opposed to English as our official language, the president of an association of 150,000 truckers immediately applauded Trump’s Executive Order. Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association President Todd Spencer stated, “Basic English skills are essential for reading critical road signs, understanding emergency instructions, and interacting with law enforcement.”
Meanwhile, Democrat-appointed federal judges in California continue to drive the wrong way on immigration-related issues. San Francisco Federal Judge William Orrick, known for spending years pushing the abortion industry agenda against the young man David Daleiden for exposing its alleged trafficking in fetal tissue, recently ordered Trump not to withhold funds from sanctuary cities.
On Trump’s first day he signed an Executive Order commanding that his incoming Attorney General Pam Bondi and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stop the flow of federal taxpayer funds to sanctuary cities that defy federal law by harboring illegal aliens. The unlawfulness of these cities results in heinous crimes against innocent Americans.
“Here we are again,” Judge Orrick brazenly declared in issuing an injunction on April 25 against Trump to keep the gravy train flowing to many cities that sued in his courtroom, including faraway Santa Fe, New Mexico. Numerous cities picked this San Francisco venue to sue because its judicial bench is composed nearly entirely of Democrat appointees.
But an appeal by the Trump Administration will go immediately to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, where Trump appointed 10 judges during his first term out of 29 active judges today. The Ninth Circuit is no longer the Leftist paradise it once was, and even Democrat-appointed judges have already reined in a nationwide anti-Trump injunction emanating from Seattle.
Democrat-appointed Judge Jamal Whitehead in Seattle blocked Trump’s suspension of the refugee program with a nationwide injunction in February. But on appeal to the Ninth Circuit, a 2-1 Democrat majority into effect against all refugees who did not already have confirmed travel tickets by January 20, when Trump was inaugurated and issued his Executive Order.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Trump’s ban on travel from seven specific countries during his first administration, in a lawsuit liberals filed in Democrat-dominated Hawaii. The Supreme Court confirmed that the president has broad authority over matters related to foreign policy and national security, in which courts should rarely interfere.
Almost immediately after Trump began issuing these Executive Orders upon his inauguration, the crisis at our southern border evaporated. News photos of long lines of migrants have disappeared, and migrants are staying in their native countries where they should remain.
The same liberals who complained about Trump separating families during his first term now whine that children are being deported with their mothers. At her mother’s request, a 2-year-old child born in Louisiana was sent back to Honduras with her mother as she was being deported, and the child was not given a hearing on the issue.
Trump officials acted properly in keeping this family together as much as possible, and federal courts should not try to act like family courts when issues of deporting illegal aliens with children arise.
More Trump than Trump at the White House
A surprise visit by the president of El Salvador to the White House on April 14 was like a breath of fresh air from south of our border. Nayib Bukele, recently reelected by a landslide as Latin America’s most popular leader, was more Trump than Trump in defying media demands to return to the U.S. a Salvadoran whom Trump recently deported.
Federal judge Paula Xinis had ordered the return to the U.S. of the deported Salvadoran, to which Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi replied that it is “up to El Salvador if they want to return him.” Identified as Kilmar Abrego García, he had been allowed in 2019 to remain in the U.S. based on his alleged fear of retaliation by a gang in his homeland.
“How can I return him to the United States?” El Salvador President Bukele responded to the liberal media. “I smuggle him into the United States or what do I do? Of course, I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.”
Bukele’s charming graciousness at the White House stood in stark contrast with other foreign visitors. Bukele declared that it is an “honor to be here” and that “we’re very eager to help” President Trump reduce terrorism and all crime.
Bukele praised Trump’s work on the border as “remarkable.” Bukele himself has achieved a sharp reduction in crime in El Salvador, which he attributes in part to prayer.
Trump effusively praised Bukele prior to their meeting, in a posting on Truth Social. “President Bukele has graciously accepted into his Nation’s custody some of the most violent alien enemies of the World and, in particular, the United States,” Mr. Trump posted.
Trump’s Department of Justice has informed Judge Xinis of El Salvador’s unwillingness to return this illegal alien to the United States. Attorney General Bondi pointed out to the press that this alien was in our country unlawfully, so what’s the big fuss about trying to return him to his homeland?
It is unclear what Judge Xinis’ next move will be, and she held a hearing late in the afternoon of April 15 to indicate that she would elaborate on her court order for the Trump Administration to “facilitate” the return of Garcia from El Salvador. Courts rarely order a president to do something, particularly something that may not even be within the president’s power to do, and whatever she orders will surely be appealed back to the Supreme Court.
Courts do not have any way to enforce their orders without the support and cooperation of the Executive Branch, as run now by President Trump. So far he has promised to obey the law, but many federal courts have been continuing to issue orders that test Trump’s willingness to cooperate, and deportation pits federal courts directly against Trump’s authority as president.
In Maine, a federal court ordered Trump to restart federal funding of Maine schools despite how they are defying his Executive Order against transgender athletes playing in girls’ sports. This was the focus of a sharp exchange between Trump and the Democrat Maine governor during a luncheon at the White House on February 21st.
Subsequently a federal judge ordered Trump to jump through some bureaucratic hoops before even trying to cut off this federal money from Maine schools. Neither Trump nor our country has the time for that as transgender activism swiftly marches ahead.
A total of 11 states have announced that they will not comply with directives from Trump’s Department of Education to stop using DEI or else lose federal funding, which sets up additional lawsuits against presidential authority.
In Ecuador, voters just elected their own conservative equivalent of Trump on April 13. The liberal media laments how successful the conservative movement is in sweeping across Central and South America today.
Less than a generation ago, the countries south of our border were fertile ground for the spread of communism. Hugo Chavez rose to become a communist dictator in 1998 in Venezuela and ruined it before succumbing at a young age to cancer, as hospitals in communist countries including Cuba were ill-equipped from the poverty that communism causes.
The news show 60 Minutes analyzed the backgrounds of the group of Venezuelans and El Salvadorans deported by Trump to El Salvador, and about a dozen have been charged with murder, rape, assault, or kidnapping. More than one-fifth of the group has a criminal record somewhere, although mostly for non-violent crimes.
Courts are forcing our president to spend an inordinate amount of time on the fate of a few hundred illegal aliens who never should have been here in the first place. Recent surveys show that most American citizens are concerned about the economy, and it is not helping to keep illegal aliens here when jobs are scarce for Americans.
Is the New Pope a Conservative?
The conclave that elected the new pope met, discussed, and voted entirely in secret, just as our Constitutional Convention was in 1787 to write our U.S. Constitution. This denied the liberal media the exaggerated influence that it has over nearly everything else.
The convening cardinals took an oath of confidentiality and seclusion in the Sistine Chapel, below the depiction by Michelangelo of God’s creation of Adam on the ceiling. None of our Founding Fathers breached their oath of secrecy during our Constitutional Convention, and none of the cardinals in a modern conclave has either, despite leakers in every government today.
The deliberations are face-to-face and the casting of ballots is in-person, not by proxy or mail-in voting that have recently undermined American elections.
The vast majority of the conclave were picked by the late Pope Francis himself, which ensured his successor would be supportive of him and probably from South America, as he was.
But the outcome of this process was a complete surprise, as announced by the traditional white smoke that emanated from the chimney of the 500-year-old chapel in the Vatican. On merely the second day of voting the conclave had selected an American born in Chicago, Robert Prevost.
The dominating South American voting bloc supported him because most of his career has been spent in Peru, and thus they felt he was one of them. The conservative Africans supported him perhaps in fear that an alternative from South America would have been more liberal.
Because of Prevost’s occasional tweets critical of the Trump Administration, liberals immediately declared him to be on their side. Indeed, many speculated that anti-Trump fervor among some, particularly in South America and Europe, may have boosted Prevost as an American who could stand against Trump.
But those hopes faded when Prevost, who has taken the name Pope Leo XIV, quickly issued a strong statement against abortion and same-sex marriage. He implored governments to strengthen societies by “above all by investing in the family, founded upon the stable union between a man and a woman.”
Pope Francis had approved blessings for same-sex couples, which Catholics in Africa repudiated and refused to do. While Pope Francis did discipline others during his tenure, he declined to retaliate against the conservative African cardinals on this (or any other) issue.
About 200,000 people attended Pope Leo’s official installation on Sunday, May 18, in St. Peter’s Square. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, respectfully greeted the new pope on behalf of the many Americans present for the occasion.
The ceremony was marred by the intrusion of the seemingly ubiquitous Ukrainian leader Zelensky, who does not practice any religion but nevertheless insisted on being photographed with Pope Leo as well as with Vice President Vance. Last year Zelensky signed a law that bans an entire Christian denomination, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, from operating in his country.
“In thinking about the laws recently adopted in Ukraine,” the late Pope Francis declared at the regular Sunday Angelus on August 25 last year, “I fear for the freedom of those who pray, because those who truly pray always pray for all. So let those who want to pray be allowed to pray in what they consider their Church.
“Please, let no Christian Church be abolished directly or indirectly,” Pope Francis concluded. “Churches are not to be touched!”
