TRUMP AND THE LAW

As a Brit I am amazed at the on-going row between the Trump Administration and the Governor of California.

I can't imagine a situation in the UK where a judge could rule that the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom committed an illegal act. Should such a situation occur it would result in the resignation of the Prime Minister and probably the fall of the Government virtually immediately.

Yet a lower court federal judge, Judge Breyer, rules that Trump committed an illegal act - violated the 1903 Militia Act and violated the 10th Amendment of the United States' Constitution and that pending a preliminary injunction hearing on Friday the matter is now before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal.

And Trump is still President, having been told, in court, by a federal judge, that he violated the 10th Amendment of the United States' Constitution which he swore on Inauguration Day to ' preserve, protect, and defend'.

I cannot conceive of anything even remotely similar occurring in the UK, the national government at war with a section of its own country  and being dragged before the courts for its actions.

How has this great country, the defender of democracy throughout the 20th century, sunk so low?

Is this truly what Americans voted for, is this the kind of country they want?

  A FAIR TRIAL? THE EXECUTION OF ANTHONY WAINWRIGHT

Carmen Gayheart was raped and murdered in April 1994 and her assailant,  Anthony Wainwright, was convicted of the crime and sentenced to death on May 30, 1995.

To my mind, there is something wrong with a justice system where Wainwright spent  over 30 years on death row before being executed by lethal injection on June 10, 2025.

A system which allows appeal after appeal, to the Florida Supreme Court, three times,  to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, twice, and to  the U.S. Supreme Court, all with little or no chance of success, cannot be either fair or just.

By comparison, when the United Kingdom enforced the death penalty execution was carried out after the elapse of three clear Sundays after sentence was passed. Appeals could be made to the Court of Appeal, only once, and if that failed to the Home Secretary.

If that was unsuccessful the file was annotated with the words, "The law must take its course", and the execution then went ahead, at the most three weeks after conviction and sentence.

I won't pretend that the United Kingdom's system was perfect, and yes! Miscarriages of justice did occur, which with a protracted stay between sentence and execution may have been prevented, such as the case of Timothy Evans, wrongly hanged for the murder of his daughter in 1950, a murder carried out by his landlord John Christie, which became clear at Christie's own trial three years later.

Had Evans still been on 'death row', although there was such thing in the UK,  then he may well have been pardoned, or at least afforded a re-trial.

Evan allowing for such infrequent cases I still feel that justice should not only be fair, but swift, sparing the condemned the agony of years of living in limbo, denying the relatives of the victims closure ( both Carmen Gayheart's parents died never knowing if her killer faced the ultimate punishment), and saving the state a fortune in both the costs of incarceration and of prolonged and repeated legal proceedings.

       In remembrance of the victims of Air India flight AI171

 To Cross the Rubicon.

In ancient Rome, it was illegal for a provincial governor to lead his army into Italy without the Senate's permission. 

The Rubicon River was the boundary between Italy and the province of Gaul, where Julius Caesar, serving as governor of Gaul, was with his army.

In 49 BC Caesar crossed the Rubicon with his legions, defying the law and triggering a civil war which ultimately led to Caesar becoming dictator for life.

In 2025 Donald Trump, President of the United States of America, sent his legions, the National Guard and elements of the United States Marine Corp, to perform  law enforcement in California in direct contravention of the law, which would need there to be, not merely civil disturbance, but an armed insurrection against the United States of America to justify the deployment of Federal Troops, which there was not.

In 49BC Caesar's action triggered a civil war with Caesar becoming dictator for life - the parallels between Trump's actions and those of Caesar are uncanny, and deeply disturbing.

Those who fail to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat its mistakes.