Context is more than interesting. It is informative. It is vital to an understanding of the nature and actions of figures and forces that history deigns to recall, remember, and record.
As To Kings
The Roberts’ Court comes to history courtesy of a time when ancient fears have been conjured purposefully to the benefit of persons of privilege. A context in which it is possible to consider denying citizenship to persons born on our soil and/or contributing daily to the health and wealth of our nation. The open holdings and closed rulings of the Roberts Court run counter to the preamble of our Declaration of Independence. Specifically, that:
This is the document that, in 1776, declared us free of a distant king for a long list of grievances about carefully enumerated abuses of power. In Trump v. United States, by a 6-3 vote, the Roberts Court gave us a king on our soil in 2014. The infamous holding opened the door for the return of unnamed and unfettered monarchial abuses of power in this country in real time.
Credit. The Week
The improper timing of the holding returned a convicted felon to high office, immunized against prosecution for criminal actions taken during business hours. At least as significantly, the Court declined to address the spirit of the law while mangling its letter. The Court allowed the plaintiff to escape immediate culpability for damage caused when, at his urging, his adherents stormed federal property on 06 Jan 21 in an attempt to subvert and avoid the peaceful transfer of political power in the United States of America.
Context
1. Now. In consistent 6-3 votes since Trump v. United States, the Roberts Court separates its actions from their effect. In a sustained flood of decisions made with an astonishing level of arrogance, the present high court is exercising an unparalleled degree of judicial activism, racism, and poor legal reasoning. It is complicit in crimes against humanity.
Credit. Syracuse. com
It thumbs its nose at the consequences of its creation and its unflagging support of the notion of a “unified executive.” This power to govern by whim presently is vested in an elderly criminal cursed with a short attention span, poor impulse control, diminishing mental capacity, and an insatiable quest for power, advantage, fame, wealth, and respect.
Credit. Chimera Obscura
Then. The Tandy court (1836-1864) made one historically understandable decision—denying citizenship to slaves--that, prior to Trump v. United States, historians and jurists regarded as the worst self-inflicted wound in the history of the Supreme Court. It took a civil war, Abraham Lincoln, eight years of reconstruction turmoil, and three amendments to the constitution to rebut and retire the matter of birthright and citizenship issues the way the Tandy court viewed and decided them in Dred Scot v. Sanford in 1857.
The Irony. Old issues never die. We are in a Back to the Future Moment. Not content with mangling Article Two, the Roberts Court now is avoiding the intent of the 14th Amendment by subverting its language.
Dred Scot Decision
The formal holding was:
Judgment reversed and suit dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.
1. Persons of African descent cannot be and were never intended to be citizens under the U.S. Constitution. Plaintiff is without standing to file a suit.
2. The Property Clause is applicable only to lands possessed at the time of the Constitution's ratification (1787). As such, Congress cannot ban slavery in the territories. The Missouri Compromise is unconstitutional.
3. The Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment prohibits the federal government from freeing slaves brought into federal territories.
On 01 Jan 1863, Abraham Lincoln challenged the Tandy holding by fiat when he freed about 3.5 million persons held as slaves within ten states comprising the Confederacy. Honest Abe possessed a humbler character than the present occupant of the White House. He ended his proclamation with “And upon this act, sincerely believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of Almighty God.” The Tyrant Trump routinely ends his orders with verbiage designed to allow him to escape responsibility for consequences.
The Gettysburg Address
On 19 Nov 1863, Abraham Lincoln publicly and fervently hoped “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom[6]—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.[7][8]” The Tyrant Trump has a different set of goals and priorities. He is a master of profiting from bankruptcy proceedings. He has a big one in progress right now.
Reconstruction Amendments
1. Amendment Thirteen—Ratified 06 Dec 1865. Formally and constitutionally ended slavery, extending the force of the Emancipation Proclamation to all states.
2. Amendment Fourteen—Ratified 09 July 1868. Overturned the Dred Scott decision by granting citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the United States. It also prohibits states from infringing upon the privileges and immunities of citizens, and ensures equal protection and due process under the law.
3. Amendment Fifteen—Ratified 03 Feb 1870. Prohibits the federal and state governments from denying the right to vote based on a citizen's race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
And, why does this matter?
Because We the People now must deal with the consequences of Trump v United States.
Credit. The Week
Because our system of government, as envisioned under the Constitution of the United States is in instant jeopardy. The notion of government of the people, by the people, and for the people is under sustained and systematic attack. The first six months and six days of Trump 2.0 have followed the Project 2025 playbook to:
a. Assault targets of decency;
b. Distort customs regarding the rule of law; and,
c. Implement battleground strategies of chaos, terror, intimidation, and coercion to bring down essential freedoms.
Other than that, it’s been all warm chocolate cupcakes and cold apple juice boxes.
Creating the King
On 01 July 24, in a 6-3 decision, the Roberts court enabled, and since has continued to support and advance, the notion of a president protected from punishment for criminal acts committed during business hours. Trump v. United States grants the president:
1. Absolute immunity for acts committed within his core constitutional purview;
2. At least presumptive immunity for official acts within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility; and,
Bret Kavanaugh has signaled the intention of the high court to revisit Article Two, for the purpose of better and more closely defining the “core powers” of the president that Trump v. United States protects.
The cherubs fled while all the angels wept.
Manifesto
The only way for We the People to lose our inalienable Power of One is to surrender it. This is a personal decision influenced by context and multiplied by millions. In 1988, Whitney Houston gave voice to the unquenchable universal urge to aspire and prevail—to be free. In a song written by Albert Hammond and John Bettis, and performed at the opening of the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea, she sang:
Each day I live I want to be A day to give the best of me I'm only one But not alone My finest day Is yet unknown
I broke my heart For every gain
To taste the sweet I face the pain I rise and fall Yet through it all This much remains
I want one moment in time When I'm more than I thought I could be When all of my dreams are a heart beat away And the answers are all up to me
Give me one moment in time When I'm racing with destiny
And in that one moment of time I will feel I will feel eternity I've lived to be The very best
I want it all No time for less
I've laid the plans Now lay the chance Here in my hands Give me one moment in time When I'm more than I thought I could be When all of my dreams are a heart beat away And the answers are all up to me Give me one moment in time When I'm racing with destiny
And in that one moment of time I will feel I will feel eternity You're a winner for a lifetime
If you seize that one moment in time Make it shine Give me one moment in time When I'm more than I thought I could be When all of my dreams are a heart beat away And the answers are all up to me Give me one moment in time When I'm racing with destiny And in that one moment of time I will be I will be I will be free I will be I will be free
It is reasonable to predict that healing the wounds inflicted by the Roberts Court will take an equal amount of conflict, resolve, and reconciliation in our time as did the need to set aside the Dred Scott decision in its time.
We the People dissatisfied with the results and consequences of Election 2024 stand in a wasteland of broken oaths and corrupt conduct in all three branches of our government. Who We the Many are and want we want is disconnected from what will happen to benefit Those Few in Control.
Having a criminal of advanced age, corrupt character, and self-serving intent as our 47th president is hard to bear. Having a congress cede its Article One powers to a tyrant is dispiriting. Having a Supreme Court enable and bless the death of habeas corpus and birthright protections is unacceptable.
Enough Is Enough
Donald John Trump is a corrupt businessman with a lucrative side gig as 47th president of the United States of America. He used the first six months of his second term in office to normalize his crimes against humanity. Until 03 July 25 Congress simply allowed him to abrogate its Article One powers. He used that dereliction of duty to implement the portions of the Project 2025 playbook most to his immediate financial and political advantage.
Abuse of Article Two Powers
He abused Article Two powers to declare emergencies that did not exist anywhere except in his determination to burnish his brand. Under cover of temporary powers granted the executive when the nation is under attack, he disrupted global trade and converted racial prejudice into a policy of domestic terror.
Domestic Terror Program
Under force of law and custom, the laying of hands on another requires either consent or probable cause.
On 20 Jan 25, Donald John Trump invented probable cause to turn racial prejudice into a domestic terror program. He signed 26 executive orders, 12 memoranda, and 4 proclamations.
1. On immigration and citizenship issues, Trump signed executive orders ending birthright citizenship, pausing refugee admissions, designating certain cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, reinstating the “Remain in Mexico” policy and calling for increased vetting and screening of migrants entering the U.S.
2. His second proclamation declared the situation at the southern border “an invasion.”
3. His third proclamation declared a national emergency at the southern border.
These executive actions mostly were false on their face, cruel in intent, and illegal under the plain wording of the constitution.
As directed by the suspect memoranda and until constrained, Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) will continue to field agents with masked faces carrying fire arms and clothed in military assault gear. These intimidating figures of authority and force approach residents of this country openly or furtively for purpose of confrontation. Raids are conducted without warrant. Agents routinely do not identify themselves, their organizational affiliation, or their rank within the instant apprehension effort.
Rogue Resident Removal Programs and Practices
The sitting president caused agents of the federal government to violate the human rights and deny the constitutional protections of residents of this country targeted for removal. Words like “raid” and “quota” entered the public conversation as though acceptable in concept and execution. They are not.
1. A raid is a sudden attack behind the enemy's lines without the intention of holding ground. It serves to demoralize, confuse, and/or exhaust the enemy.
2. A quota is a fixed share of something that a person or group is entitled to receive or is bound to contribute.
It is not acceptable, right, or just to declare certain residents of this country enemies of it based on their race and immigration status. It is obscene to conduct unwarranted domestic raids on those residents driven by a daily “catch” goal. Trump 2.0 is transitioning its immigration policy too close to a program of ethnic cleansing to ignore.
Anthem
Tell the fat lady to go back to her dressing room.
Credit. Oxebridge Quality Resources
Put her feet up. Have a snack and a nap. This show ain’t over.
1. For the Prosecution. On 27 Jun 25, on a 6-3 vote taken within the cover of its Shadow Docket, the Roberts Court granted the administration’s “emergency” request to partially pause rulings by three federal judges that had blocked President Donald Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship – that is, the guarantee of citizenship to virtually anyone born in the United States. By a vote of 6-3, the justices repudiated the concept of universal or nationwide injunctions, which prohibit the government from enforcing a law or policy anywhere in the country. The justices did not, however, weigh in on the question at the center of the three lawsuits before the court: whether the birthright citizenship order itself is constitutional.
Since then, the Court has had the consummate gall to turn back other like pleading with callous unsigned orders declaring their complaints already considered, resolved, and “squarely controlled” by earlier rogue rulings in May and June.
2. For the Defense.
a. On 10 July 25, a federal court in New Hampshire blocked Executive Order 14160. The court certified a nationwide class that protects the citizenship rights of all children born on U.S. soil. The case is Barbara v. Donald J. Trump.
b. On 23 July 25, the federal appeals court of California blocked enforcement of Executive Order 14160, because it violates the citizenship clause of the 14th amendment.
c. On 25 July 25, District Judge Leo Sorokin in Boston received and heard (for the third time) the case returned to him by the Roberts Court on the issue of birthright protections under the 14th Amendment, as applied to the children of immigrants born in this country. He rejected the claim of the administration that he was bound to narrow his order to align with the 27 June 25 ruling by the high court. He joined another district court as well as an appellate panel of judges to order that a nationwide injunction he previously granted to more than a dozen states will remain in force under an exception to the Supreme Court ruling of 27 June 25.
And, here is the point.
1. The plaintiffs, the attorneys representing them, and the lower courts aligning their judgements to the plain face of the constitution and its 14th amendment are heroes deserving of our notice, praise, and support.
2. The current operations of ICE are illegal, immoral, and unsustainable. The 119th congress that funded the criminal aspects of its operations needs replacement.
3. It is up to each of us disappointed in the results and consequences of Election 2025 to:
a. Rise up;
b. Stay up;
c. Protest;
d. Persist; and,
e. Prevail.
To be all we can be.
To be free.
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I think that all the ReTrumplicans are already living in Hell. I certainly would not want their current life experiences. Can you imagine the torture of closing their eyes with their head on a pillow and thinking to have blissful rest? Yeah - nope - that's not the way the mind works. We all know the big Tangerine doesn't sleep at night because he squawks online instead of visiting dreamland. He sleeps during the day in catnaps during meetings. Or whatever. Every body needs to be able to rest and revitalize every night. NOT sleeping leads to ill heath, unsound mind, and early physical expiration. (checks watch)
Brilliant and clear. Thank you for showing us what context means and what it looks like, in this picture of Where We Are Now, showing the many pieces of this jigsaw puzzle called current events and history. It takes no brains or morality to "flood the zone" with propaganda and diversions and that's why it takes your extraordinary talent, patience, and writing skill to sort it out day after day and show why it matters to pay attention instead of turning away.
I think that all the ReTrumplicans are already living in Hell. I certainly would not want their current life experiences. Can you imagine the torture of closing their eyes with their head on a pillow and thinking to have blissful rest? Yeah - nope - that's not the way the mind works. We all know the big Tangerine doesn't sleep at night because he squawks online instead of visiting dreamland. He sleeps during the day in catnaps during meetings. Or whatever. Every body needs to be able to rest and revitalize every night. NOT sleeping leads to ill heath, unsound mind, and early physical expiration. (checks watch)
Brilliant and clear. Thank you for showing us what context means and what it looks like, in this picture of Where We Are Now, showing the many pieces of this jigsaw puzzle called current events and history. It takes no brains or morality to "flood the zone" with propaganda and diversions and that's why it takes your extraordinary talent, patience, and writing skill to sort it out day after day and show why it matters to pay attention instead of turning away.