Pretty big news for Donald Trump today. Today, a federal judge who he actually tapped to serve in his role as a federal judge has weighed in on the Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport migrants who they claim were members [00:00:15] of criminal gangs like Trend Aragua. Well, this judge believes that using the Alien Enemies Act is unlawful in this specific context. He is again the first federal judge to make such a ruling, and he's also a Trump appointed judge. [00:00:30] So before I give you the details, Jake, are you surprised? No. So there's some Trump appointed judges have been comical. But most of them are still judges. So we're going to disagree with most of their rulings. But Trump gives them no choice because he's so wildly unconstitutional [00:00:49] that if they believe in America at all, they have to rule a certain way. - As you're about to see here. - Right. So here's what Judge Fernando Rodriguez, good for Trump for tapping, you know, a judge named Fernando Rodriguez as a federal judge. [00:01:04] Well, there's tons and tons of conservative judges who are minorities. And so no, no, that's a great thing. It's just, I'm a little surprised by that. Anyway, Rodriguez concluded that Trump's March 15th invocation of the Alien Enemies Act is unlawful and exceeds the scope of the centuries old [00:01:23] wartime law that allows the president to deport non-citizens with little to no due process during an invasion or predatory incursion. Now, of course, Donald Trump himself has repeatedly referred to migrants coming [00:01:39] into the United States as an invasion. Now, you kind of have a sense of why he uses that kind of language. But Rodriguez wrote that the president cannot summarily declare that a foreign nation or government has threatened or perpetrated an invasion or predatory [00:01:54] incursion into the United States, followed by the identification of the alien enemies subject to detention or removal. While the judge Declined to weigh in on whether trend Aragua represents a foreign nation or government. [00:02:09] It doesn't. It is a gang. He concluded that the Trump administration fell short of proving the violent gang was engaging in an invasion or predatory incursion, as required by the Alien Enemies Act. So until this year, the only times that the alien enemies Act was used [00:02:30] was during the War of 1812. World War one and World War two. I don't know why people think that that's a good argument against what Trump is doing. I think that's actually the weakest argument. However, the argument that we're hearing from the judge is an excellent argument. [00:02:45] And the other thing that I would just say is, you know, think about the serious nature of this act, right. It exists, and the president is allowed to use it correctly in the right context. But in this case, he's just accusing migrants of being gang members [00:03:01] without due process and deporting them. And as a result of that, the administration has admitted to making mistakes and deporting the wrong people. Yeah, two different issues here. One is, is it right to use the act? Are they is this really an invasion or a predatory incursion there? [00:03:17] My guess is that some members of the Supreme Court will say, yes, it is an invasion. Yes it is. Predatory incursion would be Alito, Thomas and maybe a couple of others. I don't know if they get a majority on that or not. They might, they might. So but the second issue is much more important. [00:03:35] And that's where I think the Supreme Court is going to come in. If the earlier ruling is, any guidance might come in unanimous in the same way that this Trump appointed judges saying, no, you have to listen to the courts. That's not optional, right? So you want to say you're using this law to declare this an invasion, [00:03:54] and that this brother is part of that invasion, and hence you're going to kick him out of the country. The way you do that is you bring him in front of a judge, and you show that he's part of that invasion, and you prove it. And then we kick him out of the country, right? But if you say, just trust me. Don't worry about it. [00:04:11] I just put a bunch of them down there, and. No, I'm not going to bring him to any court. No, I'm not going to prove it. And, yeah, maybe I got the wrong guy. So what? No, that's not how the country runs. And that's not how our Constitution is built. And and think about it, guys. Judges are not going to give away their own power, right? [00:04:28] Judges have the power to determine what is and is not constitutional. What is and is not legal. They're not going to say to the executive branch, hey, you know what? We don't need it. We're useless. Yeah. Why don't you just make all the decisions and then we'll just sit here like a bunch of schleps. [00:04:43] That's why the Supreme Court was nine to nothing against Trump on Abrego Garcia, which is unprecedented. Somehow they got Clarence Thomas to vote against Trump because basically they said, Clarence, if you vote this way, then we might as well all go home [00:04:59] because we're totally pointless. Yeah, you're exactly right. And, you know, it's look, the judicial branch, at least for now, does not appear to be like Congress, it has not ceded its power and control to the executive branch. So that is a little bit of good news here, because there are some remnants [00:05:17] of our system of checks and balances that remain in place. Now, final thing I'll say is, you know what the Trump administration's argument is here? The Trump administration or Trump himself proclaimed, proclamation had alleged that trend de Aragua was a hybrid criminal state invading the U.S. [00:05:35] Though Trump's proclamation claimed that trend Aragua members harmed lives in the U.S., it did not provide any evidence to suggest the gang did so in an organized armed attack, according to Judge Rodriguez. So it is very likely this case will be, you know, [00:05:52] appealed all the way to the Supreme Court, as Jake had alluded to earlier. And we'll get a final decision from the Supreme Court. But for now, a Trump appointed judge has ruled against Trump, in regard to the use of the Alien Enemies Act. Every time you ring the bell below, an angel gets its wings. [00:06:08] Totally not true, but it does keep you updated on our live shows.