{"id":15012,"date":"2025-03-17T09:01:30","date_gmt":"2025-03-17T14:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/?p=15012"},"modified":"2025-03-17T09:01:25","modified_gmt":"2025-03-17T14:01:25","slug":"democrat-lawfare-and-trump-admin-now-super-steroids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/?p=15012","title":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Democrat Lawfare And Trump Admin  Now Super Steroids<\/b><\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15015\" src=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Screen-Shot-2025-03-17-at-9.56.41-AM.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"574\" height=\"475\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Screen-Shot-2025-03-17-at-9.56.41-AM.png 574w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/Screen-Shot-2025-03-17-at-9.56.41-AM-300x248.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 574px) 100vw, 574px\" \/><\/p>\n<figure class=\"StoryImage_caption__HRtkC m-0\" data-cy=\"au-image\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-15017\" src=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1742153837559-1024x576.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1742153837559-1024x576.webp 1024w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1742153837559-300x169.webp 300w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1742153837559-768x432.webp 768w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1742153837559-1536x864.webp 1536w, https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/1742153837559.webp 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><figcaption class=\"pt-3 font-sans text-caption text-secondary\" data-cy=\"image-caption\">Stephen Miller in the Oval Office. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds\/AFP via Getty<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<div class=\"DraftjsBlocks_draftjs__fm3S2 [&amp;_figure&gt;figcaption&gt;span]:font-sans\" style=\"box-sizing: border-box; border: 0px solid; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; grid-column: 1 \/ 13; color: #333335; font-family: Atiza, ui-serif, Georgia, Cambria, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant-ligatures: normal; font-variant-caps: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; white-space: normal; text-decoration-thickness: initial; text-decoration-style: initial; text-decoration-color: initial;\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\">\n<p>The\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" target=\"_self\" data-vars-link-text=\"Trump\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/politics-policy\/donald-trump\" data-vars-content-id=\"9b7195aa-c238-43f6-844e-39ba8ea1d75d\" data-vars-headline=\"Exclusive: How the White House ignored a judge's order to turn back deportation flights\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">Trump<\/a>\u00a0administration says it ignored a Saturday court order to turn around two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members because the flights were over international waters and therefore the ruling didn&#8217;t apply, two senior officials tell Axios.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Why it matters:<\/strong>\u00a0The administration&#8217;s decision to defy a federal judge&#8217;s order is exceedingly rare and highly controversial.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Court order defied. First of many as I&#8217;ve been warning and start of true constitutional crisis,&#8221; national security attorney Mark S. Zaid, a Trump critic,\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MarkSZaidEsq\/status\/1901298029916815731\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-vars-link-text=\"wrote\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/x.com\/MarkSZaidEsq\/status\/1901298029916815731\" data-vars-content-id=\"9b7195aa-c238-43f6-844e-39ba8ea1d75d\" data-vars-headline=\"Exclusive: How the White House ignored a judge's order to turn back deportation flights\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">wrote<\/a>\u00a0on X, adding that Trump could ultimately get impeached.<\/li>\n<li>The White House welcomes that fight. &#8220;This is headed to the Supreme Court. And we&#8217;re going to win,&#8221; a senior White House official told Axios.<\/li>\n<li>A second administration official said Trump was not defying the judge whose ruling came too late for the planes to change course: &#8220;Very important that people understand we are not actively defying court orders.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>State of play:\u00a0<\/strong>Trump&#8217;s advisers contend U.S. District Judge James Boasberg overstepped his authority by issuing an order that blocked the president from deporting about 250 alleged Tren de Aragua gang members under the\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/03\/14\/trump-alien-enemies-act-deportations\" target=\"_self\" data-vars-link-text=\"Alien Enemies Act of 1789\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/03\/14\/trump-alien-enemies-act-deportations\" data-vars-content-id=\"9b7195aa-c238-43f6-844e-39ba8ea1d75d\" data-vars-headline=\"Exclusive: How the White House ignored a judge's order to turn back deportation flights\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">Alien Enemies Act of 1789<\/a>.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The war-time law gives the executive extreme immense power to deport noncitizens without a judicial hearing. But it has been little-used, particularly in peacetime.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;It&#8217;s the showdown that was always going to happen between the two branches of government,&#8221; a senior White House official said. &#8220;And it seemed that this was pretty clean. You have Venezuelan gang members &#8230; These are bad guys, as the president would say.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>How it happened:\u00a0<\/strong>White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller &#8220;orchestrated&#8221; the process in the West Wing in tandem with Homeland Security Secretary Kristy Noem. Few outside their teams knew what was happening.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>They didn&#8217;t actually set out to defy a court order. &#8220;We wanted them on the ground first, before a judge could get the case, but this is how it worked out,&#8221; said the official.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The timeline<\/strong>: The president signed the\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/03\/invocation-of-the-alien-enemies-act-regarding-the-invasion-of-the-united-states-by-tren-de-aragua\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-vars-link-text=\"executive order\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/presidential-actions\/2025\/03\/invocation-of-the-alien-enemies-act-regarding-the-invasion-of-the-united-states-by-tren-de-aragua\/\" data-vars-content-id=\"9b7195aa-c238-43f6-844e-39ba8ea1d75d\" data-vars-headline=\"Exclusive: How the White House ignored a judge's order to turn back deportation flights\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">executive order<\/a>\u00a0invoking the Alien Enemies Act on Friday night, but intentionally did not advertise it. On Saturday morning, word of the order leaked, officials said, prompting a mad scramble to get planes in the air.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>At 2:31 p.m. Saturday, an immigration activist who tracks deportation flights,\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/thcartwright\/status\/1900978293492379881\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-vars-link-text=\"posted on X\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/x.com\/thcartwright\/status\/1900978293492379881\" data-vars-content-id=\"9b7195aa-c238-43f6-844e-39ba8ea1d75d\" data-vars-headline=\"Exclusive: How the White House ignored a judge's order to turn back deportation flights\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">posted on X<\/a>\u00a0that &#8220;TWO HIGHLY UNUSUAL ICE flights&#8221; were departing from Texas to El Salvador, which had agreed to accept Venezuelan gang members deported from the U.S.<\/li>\n<li>Hours later, during a court hearing filed by the ACLU., Boasberg ordered a halt to the deportations and\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/camiloreports\/status\/1901044515407876567\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-vars-link-text=\"said\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/x.com\/camiloreports\/status\/1901044515407876567\" data-vars-content-id=\"9b7195aa-c238-43f6-844e-39ba8ea1d75d\" data-vars-headline=\"Exclusive: How the White House ignored a judge's order to turn back deportation flights\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">said<\/a>\u00a0any flights should be turned around mid-air.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately,&#8221; he told the Justice Department, according to the Washington Post.<\/li>\n<li>At that point, about 6:51 p.m., both flights were off the Yucatan Peninsula, according to flight paths\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/thcartwright\/status\/1901043693269680301\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-vars-link-text=\"posted on X\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/x.com\/thcartwright\/status\/1901043693269680301\" data-vars-content-id=\"9b7195aa-c238-43f6-844e-39ba8ea1d75d\" data-vars-headline=\"Exclusive: How the White House ignored a judge's order to turn back deportation flights\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">posted on X<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Inside the White House<\/strong>, officials discussed whether to order the planes to turn around. On advice from a team of administration lawyers, the administration pressed ahead.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;There was a discussion about how far the judge&#8217;s ruling can go under the circumstances and over international waters and, on advice of counsel, we proceeded with deporting these thugs,&#8221; the senior official said.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;They were already outside of US airspace. We believe the order is not applicable,&#8221; a second senior administration official told Axios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Yes, but:<\/strong>\u00a0The Trump administration was already spoiling for a fight over the Alien Enemies Act \u2014 one of several fronts on which they believe legal challenges to the president&#8217;s authority will only end up strengthening it when the Supreme Court rules in his favor.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Between the lines:<\/strong>\u00a0Officially, the Trump White House is not denying it ignored the judge&#8217;s order, and instead wants to shift the argument to whether it was right to expel alleged members of Tren de Aragua.<\/p>\n<div class=\"gtmView\" data-vars-experiment=\"mid_story_ad\" data-vars-experiment-variant=\"ad\" data-vars-sub-category=\"non-braze\" data-vars-product=\"core\" data-vars-page-type=\"story\" data-vars-sub-product=\"national\" data-vars-latitude=\"30.48\" data-vars-longitude=\"-84.22\" data-vars-postal-code=\"32308\" data-vars-event-name=\"cta_view\" data-vars-deprecated-category=\"cta\" data-vars-deprecated-experiment=\"mid_story_ad\" data-vars-deprecated-experiment-variant=\"ad\" data-vars-deprecated-label=\"cta\/view\/mid_story_ad\/ad\">\n<div class=\"mt-6 mb-6\">\n<div class=\"gtmView midStoryAd grid justify-center items-center py-2 up-to-lg:overflow-hidden\" data-cy=\"mid-story-ad\" data-vars-event-name=\"ad_view\" data-vars-product=\"core\" data-vars-page-type=\"story\" data-vars-sub-product=\"national\" data-vars-latitude=\"30.48\" data-vars-longitude=\"-84.22\" data-vars-postal-code=\"32308\" data-vars-sub-category=\"mid_story\" data-vars-content-id=\"9b7195aa-c238-43f6-844e-39ba8ea1d75d\" data-vars-headline=\"Exclusive: How the White House ignored a judge's order to turn back deportation flights\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;If the Democrats want to argue in favor of turning a plane full of rapists, murderers, and gangsters back to the United States, that&#8217;s a fight we are more than happy to take,&#8221; White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told Axios when asked about the case.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s unclear how many of the roughly 250 Venezuelans were deported under the Alien Enemies Act and how many were kicked out of the U.S. due to other immigration laws.<\/li>\n<li>It&#8217;s also not clear whether all of them were actually gang members.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>What they are saying:<\/strong>\u00a0On Sunday morning, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted a\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nayibbukele\/status\/1901245427216978290\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-vars-link-text=\"video on X\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nayibbukele\/status\/1901245427216978290\" data-vars-content-id=\"9b7195aa-c238-43f6-844e-39ba8ea1d75d\" data-vars-headline=\"Exclusive: How the White House ignored a judge's order to turn back deportation flights\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">video on X<\/a>\u00a0hailing the arrival of the Venezuelans in his country. Bukele also mockingly featured an image of a New York Post story about the judge&#8217;s order halting the flights.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;Oopsie &#8230; too late,&#8221; Bukele\u00a0<a class=\"gtmContentClick\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nayibbukele\/status\/1901238762614517965\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" data-vars-link-text=\"wrote\" data-vars-click-url=\"https:\/\/x.com\/nayibbukele\/status\/1901238762614517965\" data-vars-content-id=\"9b7195aa-c238-43f6-844e-39ba8ea1d75d\" data-vars-headline=\"Exclusive: How the White House ignored a judge's order to turn back deportation flights\" data-vars-event-category=\"story\" data-vars-sub-category=\"story\" data-vars-item=\"in_content_link\">wrote<\/a>\u00a0on X with a crying-laughing emoji<\/li>\n<li>U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio retweeted the post.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Update:\u00a0<\/strong>After publication, Leavitt issued a statement: &#8220;The Administration did not &#8216;refuse to comply&#8217; with a court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory.&#8221;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;The written order and the Administration&#8217;s actions do not conflict. Moreover, as the Supreme Court has repeatedly made clear \u2014 federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President&#8217;s conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion,&#8221; she wrote.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft carrier full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><em><strong>Editor&#8217;s note:\u00a0<\/strong>This story was updated with the White House official&#8217;s claim that the administration had ignored the ruling but not defied it, because it came too late, and with Leavitt&#8217;s updated statement.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>___<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/03\/16\/trump-white-house-defy-judge-deport-venezuelans\">https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/03\/16\/trump-white-house-defy-judge-deport-venezuelans<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}