'Too little too late': Supreme Court slammed for trying to corral Trump's 'unchecked' conduct

On Saturday, April 19, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a 7-2 ruling that orders the Trump Administration to temporarily cease the deportations of Venezuelan nationals using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The two dissenters were far-right GOP-appointed Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito.

The ruling comes at a time when human rights activists are decrying the deportation of Kilmar Abrego García, a Salvadoran man who was living in Maryland legally and is now being held in a Salvadoran prison. President Donald Trump and his allies are claiming that García was a member of the MS-13 gang, but García's defenders and relatives maintain that there is no evidence linking him to MS-13 and stress that he was never charged with anything.

Human rights attorney Jesselyn Radack analyzes the High Court's ruling in an article published by Salon on April 21, arguing that it is "too little too late" — especially in light of the Court's 2024 decision in Trump v. the United States, which said that U.S. presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for "official" acts committed in office but not for unofficial acts.

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In her Salon article, Radack argues that human rights abuses under former President George W. Bush helped pave the way for the García case — but that President Donald Trump is taking human rights abuses to another level.

"As a human rights attorney," Radack explains, "I've seen some of the worst conduct by government employees, military officials, and private contractors — often done under the weighty guise of protecting the country from mythical ticking time bombs. My unfortunate niche is innocent Americans who were mistreated, maimed, or killed in the name of elastic, expansive, nebulous, and incendiary words like 'terrorists,' 'insider threats,' 'enemies within,' 'illegals,' and 'traitors.' I am a first-hand witness to our nation's decades-long descent into lawlessness. I know exactly how we got here."

Radack continues, "President Obama's decision to 'look forward, not backwards' — an ethos also embraced by predecessors and successors alike — past the architects who carried out and covered up torture and other human rights atrocities paved the way for today's lawless incursions on people's fundamental constitutional due process rights and political freedoms. The shocking circumstances of Kilmar Abrego García's detention in an El Salvadoran gulag is the logical conclusion stemming from impunity for egregious government conduct."

Trump, Radack warns, isn't being discouraged by the United States' federal courts.

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"The Supreme Court's recent grant of presumptive presidential immunity from prosecution for all of a president's official acts just further insulated unchecked extralegal conduct," Radack observes. "Their 'middle of the night' 7-2 decision this weekend granting the request in an emergency appeal to block further extradition flights may be too little too late."

Radack adds, "The same Supreme Court effectively insulated extralegal conduct as long as it has the imprimatur of being 'official.' The Abrego García case seems to have crossed that line. But instead of line-crossing and then backtracking, Trump is doubling down on lawlessness and enjoying the bubbling constitutional crisis. History will justifiably excoriate the United States for this, whether our democratic republic survives or not."

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Jesselyn Radack's full article for Salon is available at this link.