DEMOCRACY IN PERIL

 Two cases which are currently before the United State's courts have the potential to completely over-turn two of President Trump's principal election promises, to deport thousands of refugees, asylum seekers and illegal aliens to El Salvador, and that he would impose far-reaching tariffs on imports into the USA.

The first of these cases revolves around a ruling made on the 15 March by Federal Judge Boasberg when he imposed a temporary restraining order on the use, by the Trump Administration, of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act  to deport people to El Salvador and ordered a 14-day halt to the deportations covered by Trump's proclamation.

When told the planes had already departed, the judge issued a verbal order for the flights to be turned around to return to the USA and that people could not be deported without due process of law.

The Trump administration ignored his ruling thus putting them in contempt of court and liable to summery imprisonment.

Judge Boasberg is now starting proceedings to call the Trump administration to justice.

The second case comes from Governor  Gavin Newsom, Governor of California, who has begun a legal action against the Federal Government arguing that Trump has no power to enforce tariffs without the consent of Congress, which Trump has never obtained meaning his entire tariff strategy is illegal.

So how is Trump to going to salvage both his election strategy and stay out of jail?

About 90 days ago Trump signed an order requiring J D Vance and Pete Hegseth, the Secretary of State for Defence, to report on whether there was such an emergency that would justify Trump invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act, which would enable Trump to declare a State of Emergency, suspend the Constitution and the rule of law and govern by military force.

One might reasonable infer that these two Trump acolytes are most unlikely to go against Trump's wishes, which raises the very real possibility that Trump will indeed invoke the Insurrection Act and call out the militia, in effect the National Guard, or even his tens of thousands of MAGA supporters, the same ones who, at Trump's instigation, stormed the US Capitol Building  on 6th of January  2021.

Trump, thus released from any obligation to either the Constitution of the United States, or the rule of law, could imprison any who have dared to question or defy him.

Democracy is a fragile concept and once lost can rarely be recovered but under their current President the American people, for the most part ignorant of either the law or an understanding of what tyranny means, could wake up one morning to a very different America, one where the freedom to speak your mind, to hear both sides of an argument, to enjoy a free press, has disappeared.

Where George Orwell's 'Nineteen Eighty-Four' becomes a reality.