When Trump nominated Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court, one of his selling points was Kavanaugh’s seat on the US Court of Appeals for the DC District. GW Bush appointed him to the court in 2006, bolstering a conservative majority which went on to decide against habeas corpus relief for dozens of prisoners held in Guantanamo without charge.Kavanaugh contributed to the ongoing argument over whether Bush, or any president could hold prisoners indefinitely without charge his opinion that “only rules explicitly enacted by Congress, not international laws of armed conflict, can constrain what an American president can do in wartime.”
This past January 11, on the 16th anniversay of when the U.S. opened the torture camp, the Center for Constitutional Rights and Reprieve brought suit against the U.S. for holding 11 of their clients indefinitely in Guantanamo, along with 29 other men. Oral arguments in the suit were held last week. Trump’s Justice Department channeled “Dick” Cheney in their assertion that the time and space of the U.S. war on terror are endless. Andy writes yesterday, in Really? Trump Lawyer Argues in Court that Guantánamo Prisoners Can Be Held for 100 Years Without Charge or Trial.
Judge Hogan “asked US Justice Department attorney Ronald Wiltsie whether the Government’s legal justification for detaining the men, based on the Authorization for the Use of Military Force, would allow them to be imprisoned for 116 years — the duration of the Hundred Years’ War between England and France.”
“Yes,” Wiltsie replied, adding, “We are still engaged with the same battle foes in the same battle space.”
Trump is stuffing the federal courts with people like Kavanaugh and Wiltsie, for whom no executive action is too draconian, no restriction on the people’s rights is too severe. RefuseFascism.org notes in indicting the Trump/Pence regime for Stripping Away Civil Liberties, Criminalizing Dissent, and Ramping Up Repression and Terror that
The administration has installed a record-breaking number of judges, reshaping the courts for decades. They include judges who compared abortion to slavery; mocked climate change; defended anti-LGBTQ bigotry; defended racially targeted voter suppression; claimed that transgender children are evidence of “Satan’s plan” and more. These courts get the final word on about 60,000 cases a year. The Supreme Court hears roughly 80. Source 1 Source 2
*Andy’s assertion that the danger of Trump and Pence is mitigated by coming elections may be just wishful thinking because 1) fascists don’t always hold elections, and 2) a recent study concluded that Democrats would have to pull in 12% more votes than Republicans to previal in 2018.