In the context of the various critical and too-slow legal cases challenging the Trump administration's illegal actions, Angus Johnston, a CUNY professor and historian and advocate for student organizing, had this thread today on BlueSky:
As always, not a lawyer, but one thing that leaps out at me about how things are going down in the courts right now is that the US court system is not designed to be responsive to a crisis like this one. A crisis like this one is not what it's FOR.
Courts are designed to answer small, narrow, discrete questions. But our current crisis isn't an accumulation of small, narrow, discrete questions, and trying to get the courts to solve it is like trying to empty a bucket of sand with a pair of tweezers.
The constitution has a system in place for a crisis like this, and that system is impeachment and removal from office. That's the mechanism by which this kind of a crisis is supposed to be resolved.
Removing that mechanism — as Republican congressional majorities have made it clear that there is literally nothing this administration could do that would make them even contemplate impeachment — is the equivalent of cutting a car's brake lines.
You might be able to stop such a car, there are things you can do to try to stop such a car, but the way you're supposed to stop the car — the mechanism in the car that stops it when it needs to stop — no longer exists.
And so every time a federal judge acts in a way that seems weird or unsuited to the moment, the first thing I try to remember is that they're being asked to empty a bucket of sand with a pair of tweezers.
And if you're being asked to empty a bucket of sand with a pair of tweezers, it may be hard for someone watching from a distance to tell whether you're doing a good job of it, or even really trying.
Speaking of which, how about that invasion and takeover of the United States Institute of Peace?
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