Alito Gaslights
To find dubious reasonings to support his favored President, Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito resorted to outright gaslighting in his dissent to the midnight ruling Saturday, April 19, 2025, ordering no deportations until the Supreme Court could weigh in further.
Justice Alito accused his colleagues of the Court of acting hastily and without sufficient cause; of having not given lower courts time to act and with no evidence that a deportation was about to take place.
That misconstrues the intent of the order, which was to ensure a pause or hold on actions of the Executive during a fast moving crisis --- a pause to let some dust settle. He also gaslights on the reason lower courts have been slow --- which is directly related to the obstructions placed in the way of democracy-defenders and the permissiveness that he, Thomas and 3 and 4 others have given the Trump Administration to disregard law and propriety before now.
Alito's dissent gives the Executive a high degree of deference and presumption of good faith - which has been demonstrably lacking.
Alito employ both-siderism in his swipe by saying “both the Executive and Judiciary have an obligation to follow the law.” Yes - they must. Only one so clearly is not.
Once the Executive sends those it has captured to the gulag in El Salvador, they claim no power to retrieve them. We have watched in horror for almost a full month as the first group of inmates is kept abandoned in inhumane conditions in a foreign concentration camp - conditions that violate all international law.
There are credible reports that the administration was rushing to get another plane-load outside of US territory while all this was playing out.
Slate magazine reports even more on the circumstances and likely drama that played out behind the scenes.
Justices and citizens have not reacted too hastily to this administration - if anything we continue to arrive too late in the face of craven lawlessness. Justice is meant to be deliberative and careful. It is not required to time itself to always just miss the mark.
This opinion prepared by the chair of the Food and Farm Caucus of Kansas Dems, who is solely responsible for its content. CC 4.0 by-nc-sa for text, photo is official court photos of Justice Alito, 2007, in public domain, via wikimedia commons.