Constitution and Norms under Attack: Military, Judiciary, Administration, Congress, International 6

The United States is destroying itself
Rebecca Solnit | April 12, 2026

"The United States is being murdered, and it’s an inside job. Every department, every branch, every bureau and function of the federal government is being fatally corrupted or altogether dismantled or disabled. All this is common knowledge, but because it dribbles out in news stories about this specific incident or department, the reports never adequately describe an administration sabotaging the functioning of the federal government and also trashing the global economy, international alliances and relationships, and the national and global environment in ways that will have downstream consequences for decades and perhaps, especially when it comes to climate, centuries ..."

... It’s the antidemocratic weaknesses in our system that created the vulnerabilities that let this happen – the electoral college and voter suppression that gave Trump a minority victory in 2016, the gerrymandering that has given a minority party majority power in Congress and statehouses, a grotesquely corrupted and unaccountable supreme court and the corrosive influence of the ultra-wealthy in a system that gives them power on a scale that is a direct assault on democracy. We need to imagine a more democratic, more egalitarian, more generous country, one that operates in recognition of an abundance of wealth that should serve all of us – and nature and future generations too – rather than is driven by the moral poverty of billionaires."

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/12/united-states-trump-destru...

DOJ Wants to Scrap Watergate-Era Rule That Makes Presidential Records Public
Lauren Harper | April 9 2026

"Killing the Presidential Records Act {PRA}would allow private individuals to hold the keys to American history, forever.

... the Department of Justice’s recent opinion ... grants Trump, and every president who follows him, a license to steal American history ...

In a sweeping new memorandum from the Office of Legal Counsel, the DOJ claims the Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional. The department’s edict, which is already facing legal challenges, argues that a president’s records are private, rather than public, property. This is an extreme reinterpretation of executive power that seeks to undo nearly 50 years of transparency.

The PRA was signed into law after the abuses of the Watergate era and established that the records of every president since Ronald Reagan are public property and must be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration, or NARA, at the end of a president’s term..."

https://theintercept.com/2026/04/09/trump-documents-library-presidential-records...
---------------------------------------------

MEMORANDUM OPINION FOR THE COUNSEL TO THE PRESIDENT:
Constitutionality of the Presidential Records Act (52 p)
Dept of Justice | 50 Op. O.L.C. __ (Apr. 1, 2026)

"The Presidential Records Act is unconstitutional because it exceeds Congress’s enumerated and implied powers and aggrandizes the Legislative Branch at the expense of the constitutional independence and autonomy of the Executive ... "

https://www.justice.gov/olc/media/1434131/dl
---------------------------------------------

Presidential Records Act (PRA) of 1978
https://www.archives.gov/presidential-libraries/laws/1978-act.html

>1 margd: contd.

The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent / April 13, 2026. PODCAST
Donald Trump’s America Is Deeply Unwell, and It’s Time to Say So

"As Trump reveals his unfitness in stark new ways, a political theorist {Alan Elrod} argues that our election of this man to the presidency twice should prompt deep introspection about what we’ve become ..."

https://newrepublic.com/article/208971/donald-trump-america-deeply-unwell-it-tim...
-------------------------------------------

After a Dark Week, Americans Should Turn to Jimmy Carter’s Malaise Speech
Alan Elrod | 10 Apr 2026

"Carter was panned at the time, and long after, but has been vindicated.

... The American people are unhappy with Trump. They do not like this war. But they need a dose of truth right now.

The truth is that the American people twice elected Donald Trump over more qualified Democratic women. The first time, Hillary Clinton warned explicitly that he did not have the temperament to be trusted with the nuclear codes. The second time, they overlooked an insurrection, a deadly pandemic, and a campaign full of bellicose and racist rhetoric, all despite the American economy being in the midst of one of the best post-covid recoveries in the world.

In our representative democracy, the people speak to the president, and the president speaks to the people, but, crucially, the president also speaks for the people. That idea is at the heart of the whole enterprise. We cannot pretend that Trump’s monstrous words this week don’t reflect on us. We cannot pretend that we are well as a nation. No morally healthy country would put this man in power twice—the second time after he so clearly showed us and the world who he truly is.

But what Donald Trump has always offered the American people—both his supporters and his opponents—is an easy out. The problem is always someone else, some other person who is fundamentally wicked or dangerous and worthy of our contempt. The enemy is always some evil elite and the variously stupid and cruel voters who enable them. Of course, Trump and his administration are evil, and many Americans have supported them for selfish and stupid reasons. But this is only a part of the story, not the whole. That’s the damning thing.

I consider the {Carter} malaise speech a triumph in its own way, a moment of exceptional republican, Adamsian virtue that our representative government rarely provides. We have become a morally insane, civically disordered, and self-regardingly decadent country.

Americans seem to have moved most strongly against Trump in response to economic indicators and what they see as the foreign adventurism of the Iran conflict. We have still not shown a deep reckoning with the ransacking of our own public institutions, the violent domestic campaign against immigrants and non-white Americans, or the callous betrayal of our global commitments. “Not me,” we might be tempted to say. “I am not responsible.” But the work of popular government implicates all of us. We are individuals with agency who bear responsibility for our choices, true. But that responsibility hardly stops at the ballot box. That is a meager conception of citizenship.

Our deficit of virtue, civic health, and public purposes can be measured in more than electoral results. Nearly two-thirds of Americans report knowing only some or none of their neighbors. Over half of American adults say they “feel isolated,” according to the American Psychological Association. A majority of Americans say civility is at an all-time low in our society. These are not phenomena that can be easily cordoned off to one partisan part of the American population. They indict us all.

If we can’t rediscover a sense of the simultaneously awe-inspiring and intimate task of self-government, we will remain the country that re-elected Donald Trump. And we will continue to reap the consequences."

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/after-a-dark-week-americans-should-turn-to-jimmy...

>1 margd: contd.

The Daily Blast With Greg Sargent / April 13, 2026. PODCAST
Donald Trump’s America Is Deeply Unwell, and It’s Time to Say So

"As Trump reveals his unfitness in stark new ways, a political theorist {Alan Elrod} argues that our election of this man to the presidency twice should prompt deep introspection about what we’ve become ..."

https://newrepublic.com/article/208971/donald-trump-america-deeply-unwell-it-tim...
-------------------------------------------

After a Dark Week, Americans Should Turn to Jimmy Carter’s Malaise Speech
Alan Elrod | 10 Apr 2026

"Carter was panned at the time, and long after, but has been vindicated.

... The American people are unhappy with Trump. They do not like this war. But they need a dose of truth right now.

The truth is that the American people twice elected Donald Trump over more qualified Democratic women. The first time, Hillary Clinton warned explicitly that he did not have the temperament to be trusted with the nuclear codes. The second time, they overlooked an insurrection, a deadly pandemic, and a campaign full of bellicose and racist rhetoric, all despite the American economy being in the midst of one of the best post-covid recoveries in the world.

In our representative democracy, the people speak to the president, and the president speaks to the people, but, crucially, the president also speaks for the people. That idea is at the heart of the whole enterprise. We cannot pretend that Trump’s monstrous words this week don’t reflect on us. We cannot pretend that we are well as a nation. No morally healthy country would put this man in power twice—the second time after he so clearly showed us and the world who he truly is.

But what Donald Trump has always offered the American people—both his supporters and his opponents—is an easy out. The problem is always someone else, some other person who is fundamentally wicked or dangerous and worthy of our contempt. The enemy is always some evil elite and the variously stupid and cruel voters who enable them. Of course, Trump and his administration are evil, and many Americans have supported them for selfish and stupid reasons. But this is only a part of the story, not the whole. That’s the damning thing.

I consider the {Carter} malaise speech a triumph in its own way, a moment of exceptional republican, Adamsian virtue that our representative government rarely provides. We have become a morally insane, civically disordered, and self-regardingly decadent country.

Americans seem to have moved most strongly against Trump in response to economic indicators and what they see as the foreign adventurism of the Iran conflict. We have still not shown a deep reckoning with the ransacking of our own public institutions, the violent domestic campaign against immigrants and non-white Americans, or the callous betrayal of our global commitments. “Not me,” we might be tempted to say. “I am not responsible.” But the work of popular government implicates all of us. We are individuals with agency who bear responsibility for our choices, true. But that responsibility hardly stops at the ballot box. That is a meager conception of citizenship.

Our deficit of virtue, civic health, and public purposes can be measured in more than electoral results. Nearly two-thirds of Americans report knowing only some or none of their neighbors. Over half of American adults say they “feel isolated,” according to the American Psychological Association. A majority of Americans say civility is at an all-time low in our society. These are not phenomena that can be easily cordoned off to one partisan part of the American population. They indict us all.

If we can’t rediscover a sense of the simultaneously awe-inspiring and intimate task of self-government, we will remain the country that re-elected Donald Trump. And we will continue to reap the consequences."

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/after-a-dark-week-americans-should-turn-to-jimmy...

The Justice Department’s Bid to Avoid Accountability
Bruce A. Green, Rebecca Roiphe | April 14, 2026

"During her tenure as attorney general, Pam Bondi proposed a regulation that would require state disciplinary authorities to delay investigations and proceedings against federal government lawyers until the Department of Justice has conducted its own inquiry. While the new regulation is a misguided and likely unenforceable effort to insulate government lawyers from discipline, it also exposes real faults in the current regulatory system.

... attorney discipline is especially anathema to the current Justice Department administration, in which so many top officials, including Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, have been targeted by not-for-profit organizations asking disciplinary authorities to launch inquiries, and so many subordinate lawyers have been criticized by federal judges for lack of candor, violating court orders, and other professional conduct that could eventually precipitate disciplinary investigations.

... the Justice Department proposed ... new regulation ... directs the Justice Department, on learning of allegations of misconduct by current or former Justice Department lawyers, to ask state courts’ disciplinary authorities to delay responding until the department’s Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) completes its own review. If a disciplinary authority refuses to defer to the Justice Department’s request, the department would take unspecified “appropriate action.” Employing federal rule-making procedure, the Justice Department invited the public to comment on the proposed rule before deciding whether to adopt it, and hundreds of thousands of naysayers responded ..."

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/the-justice-department-s-bid-to-avoid-accou...

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)

Controversial surveillance program extended by House but only until April 30
CBS/AP | April 17, 2026

"... Republicans revolted and refused President Trump's push for a longer extension ...

At the center of the standoff that has stretched throughout the week is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, which permits the CIA, National Security Agency, FBI and other agencies to collect and analyze vast amounts of overseas communications without a warrant. In doing so, they can incidentally sweep up communications involving Americans who interact with foreign targets.

U.S. officials say the authority is critical to disrupting terrorist plots, cyber intrusions and foreign espionage. Proponents of its renewal stress that it's imperative that it be kept in place as the war with Iran continues.

But opponents from both parties worry that it allows federal authorities to look at Americans' communications without a search warrant."

https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/controversial-surveillance-program-extended-...

9 Things to Know About the Proposed SAVE America Act
National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Staff | March 23, 2026

"The law would preempt state voter registration processes and impose strict voter ID requirements ...

What to Know About the Bill
1. Federal law is clear that only U.S. citizens are permitted to vote in federal and state elections. Currently, states decide how to enforce this requirement. All states require new voters to attest to their U.S. citizenship when they register, and all states conduct voter list maintenance to identify potentially ineligible voters on the rolls. How they do that varies.

2. The SAVE America Act would require states to collect and document proof of citizenship from voters, which few states currently do, and establish additional voter list maintenance processes. A recent University of Maryland study indicates that as many as 21 million eligible voters do not have easy access to documents proving citizenship. While prior versions of the bill would require the name on the ID to exactly match the name on the provided documentary proof of citizenship, such as a birth certificate, the most recent version would allow individuals who have changed their names to provide an affidavit attesting to the name change to prove citizenship. This provision was added after concerns about the ability of married women or others whose birth names don’t match their current legal names to register to vote.

3. The bill would implement a strict photo ID requirement for federal elections and specify the types of identification accepted. While 36 states currently have voter ID requirements to vote, state approaches vary. Just 10 states fall into the strict photo ID category, as defined by NCSL.

4. The bill’s identification requirements also specify that a voter ID document must indicate that the individual is a U.S. citizen. A handful of states denote citizenship status directly on driver’s licenses, and while applicants for REAL ID cards provide documentary evidence of citizenship status, the cards display the same gold star insignia for a citizen as for a lawfully present noncitizen. Currently, each state determines the types of ID acceptable to vote, and that often includes student IDs, hunting and fishing licenses or other state-specific identification cards.

5. The bill would require voters registering to vote by mail to submit documentary proof of citizenship, which states do not currently require. It is unclear how the bill would affect online voter registration, which is an option in 42 states.

6. The bill would require voters to submit a photocopy of their identification both when applying for and when submitting absentee/mail ballots, which most states do not currently do.

7. The bill does not authorize federal funding for the new state responsibilities it creates, and it includes no phase-in period. If the bill passes, the requirements imposed on states would be effective immediately.

8. States that can’t comply might face running state and federal elections separately, with separate procedures, or they might have to keep separate lists of voters who have not provided proof of citizenship and permit them to vote only in state or local races. Arizona already has such a “bifurcated” process, which has seen a stream of litigation dating to 2004.

9. The bill would require states to run their voter lists through the Systematic Alien Verification of Eligibility system to identify potential noncitizens on the voter rolls. Many, though not all, states use this system as one resource for identifying potential noncitizens, but not at the frequency this bill envisions. There are also questions about the personal voter information states would be asked to provide to run records through the database.

The bill also includes a private right of action, allowing individuals to sue if they feel the law is not properly enforced. It would establish criminal penalties for election officials who mistakenly register an applicant to vote who has not presented proof of citizenship.

https://www.ncsl.org/state-legislatures-news/details/9-things-to-know-about-the-...

Alt National Park Service | {April 19, 2026. Facebook}
https://www.facebook.com/AltUSNationalParkService

The Forest Service just told Congress to go pound sand. Forest Service Chief Tom Schultz appeared before the House Appropriations Committee this week and made it clear the agency is moving forward with its full reorganization (headquarters to Salt Lake City, 57 of 77 research stations closed, all nine regional offices shut down) with or without Congressional approval.

Here’s the thing. Congress already passed laws specifically designed to stop this. Section 716 of the appropriations law says you can’t create any new organizational entity with five or more employees without committee approval. The administration is creating 15 new state director offices. Every single one triggers that provision.
There’s also a standstill clause. During the required 30-day notification period, the agency can’t take any action to begin implementation and can’t make any public announcement “in any form.” They announced it with a press release, a fact sheet, a memo to all employees, and a dedicated webpage. They violated the standstill the moment they hit publish.

Then in January 2026, Congress passed a spending bill with Section 421, which says none of the Forest Service’s funds can be moved around without advance approval from appropriations committees.

So what did USDA do? Their lawyers wrote an internal memo declaring both laws unconstitutional. They didn’t go to court. They just decided the laws don’t apply to them and kept moving.

The union that represents Forest Service employees estimates 6,500 workers will be affected by the headquarters move. Another 2,700 will be impacted by the research station closures. Most of them will quit rather than uproot their lives.

This isn’t efficiency or modernization. This is the dismantling of a 120-year-old agency done illegally, done deliberately, and done fast enough that most people won’t notice until it’s too late.

Links:
https://appropriations.house.gov/schedule/hearings/budget-hearing-united-states-...
https://federalnewsnetwork.com/reorganization/2026/04/forest-service-plans-to-ca...
https://www.appropriations.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/tom_schultz_testimony_61125.... (3p)

The Supreme Court’s Shadow-Docket Secrets Have Been Spilled
Matt Ford | April 21, 2026

"The leaked memos from a 2016 EPA case expose the spurious reasoning behind one of the justices’ most consequential decisions of the past decade.

... The memos show how Chief Justice John Roberts pressured the other justices to lean heavily in favor of the oil and gas industry so they could kneecap a major EPA climate-change regulation, even as the court’s liberal justices warned that it was an unprecedented and unjustified expansion of the court’s powers ..."

https://newrepublic.com/article/209283/supreme-court-shadow-docket-memos-west-vi...

Representative Thomas Massie (R - KY) has found FBI secret interpretations of the FISA law that he can’t discuss.

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZP8gpVwb7/

Trump makes DAMNING ADMISSIONS on DAY AFTER SHOOTING…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdxQIHvM8mE (Meiselas)

Lots that doesn't add up here.

ETA: Larry Johnson doesn't quite buy it either. The guy should be Swiss cheese.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbWGNOSYBbM

Trump administration is increasingly ignoring US courts, new analysis shows (Guardian)

Critics warn that respect for rule of law could break down as executive branch flouts judicial decisions...

Trump wants all federal employees to sign NDAs
A breathtaking expansion of the culture of governmental secrecy
Don Moynihan {U Michigan}| May 27, 2026

"... So what are NDAs for? NDAs are a tool of the powerful to protect themselves by threatening the less powerful. The private sector has used them so promiscuously and so abusively that they should be a warning for the public sector, not a model for it. Many Americans first found out about NDAs when they learned that Harvey Weinstein used them systematically to hide his pattern of sexual abuse.

The proposed rule, would require federal employees to sign an agreement promising not to disclose “non-public, confidential, or proprietary information” or “any sensitive, pre-decisional or deliberative material that is not currently publicly available and should not be disclosed under applicable law.” The administration insists the new policy merely codifies “current legal obligations.” If that were true, there would be no reason to write the rule!

The reason for the new rule is to substantively close off transparency in government. “Pre-decisional or deliberative material that is not currently publicly available” could describe almost every conversation a career employee has with a political appointee. Or internal memos, draft analyses, and the candid advice we have, until very recently, expected federal employees to give without fear. The vagueness is not a drafting flaw. It is the product. Federal employees won’t know what they can say ..."

https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/trump-wants-all-federal-employees
------------------------------------------------------

Confidential Government Information Nondisclosure Agreement
A Notice by the Personnel Management Office on 05/27/2026

This document has a comment period that ends in 30 days. (06/26/2026)

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2026/05/27/2026-10471/confidential-gov...
_______________________________________

How to use the public comment process to reduce administrative burdens
The rulemaking process is a way to get your voice heard: here is how to do it right
Alexander Hertel-Fernandez | Nov 14, 2023

https://donmoynihan.substack.com/p/how-to-use-the-public-comment-process

Todd Blanche’s effort to grant Trump and his family “forever immunity” hides a greater danger
Aziz Huq | 26 May 2026

"... Trump’s civil “pardon” is a legal nullity for a simple reason: Neither the executive branch nor the president have any constitutional power to bind future officials in this way. Since the government under Trump wasn’t about to investigate the president, Blanche’s order leaves things exactly where they were a week ago.

It is a basic principle of constitutional law that a government cannot bind its future self. The idea runs back at least to the influential 18th-century English jurist William Blackstone, who instructed that “Acts of parliament derogatory from the power of subsequent parliaments bind not.” The Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that this is true for our Congress. One Congress, the court said in 1932, cannot “impose itself upon those to follow.”

Pause for a moment and think about the very fact of our Constitution, and this no-entrenchment principle becomes self-evident. It is the sovereign people alone who can craft entrenched rules. They do so by enacting new constitutional text via Article 5. Even then, the people can reverse themselves (as happened with the amendments on Prohibition). If one Congress (or president) could create new rules that cannot be displaced by statute, it would steal that sovereign power from the people. Nothing in the Constitution gives elected actors this exceptional power.

To be sure ...

... There is, no doubt, good cause to call out the deep and extensive corruption of this administration, exemplified in Blanche’s civil pardon. But it is better to recognize, and reject, that deeper, more destabilizing attack on the very idea of law lurking beneath."

Slate via https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/todd-blanche-s-effort-to-grant-trump-and...

Samuel Alito’s Son Has Been Quietly Working for Trump’s Treasury Department
Jose Pagliery | May 28, 2026

... Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito’s son {Philip} quietly landed a political appointee job as a lawyer in the Treasury Department early last year, ... posing a potential conflict of interest as courts wrestle with challenges to President Donald Trump’s deal to avoid future tax audits and the new massive $1.776 billion fund meant to enrich his allies.

... Alito’s employment with the department is something of a closely guarded secret. He doesn’t maintain a public resume or LinkedIn, the Treasury Department website makes no mention of him, and his three professional bar listings are outdated or incorrectly list previous employers.

... The younger Alito was an attorney at the Treasury when a lawsuit against the department and several other agencies was argued before the Supreme Court in November challenging Trump’s use of emergency powers to issue tariffs. The department never disclosed that in court documents. His father, Justice Alito, did not recuse himself from the case ...

https://www.notus.org/us-news/samuel-philip-alito-trump-treasury-department

More Project 2025 ...

Trump strips civil service protections from thousands of workers
Kevin Bogardus | 06/03/2026

Close to 8,000 federal workers will find their positions reclassified in a way that makes it easier to get fired.

President Donald Trump has placed thousands of federal employees into a new classification, stripping them of civil service protections.

Trump signed an executive order on Wednesday deciding which government positions will be converted to so-called Schedule Policy/Career. It is a key plank of his workforce agenda and makes those career staffers picked for the category essentially “at will” and thus much easier for their agencies to fire them.

Democratic lawmakers, federal worker unions and public interest groups have long blasted the effort, claiming it will turn the federal government into a politicized patronage system staffed by Trump cronies. Administration officials, however, said Schedule Policy/Career is needed to hold policy-influencing civil servants accountable and swiftly terminate poor performers ...

https://www.eenews.net/articles/trump-strips-civil-service-protections-from-thou...
---------------------------------------------------------

IMPLEMENTING SCHEDULE POLICY/CAREER IN THE EXCEPTED SERVICE
Executive Orders
White House | June 3, 2026
https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/06/implementing-schedule-po...
_________________________________________

What stripping civil service protections for thousands of federal workers will mean for HHS
Anil Oza, Chelsea Cirruzzo, and Lizzy Lawrence | June 5, 2026

"‘Schedule F’ designation makes it easier to fire some grant reviewers, epidemiologists, and policy advisers ..."

https://www.statnews.com/2026/06/05/schedule-f-changes-impacts-nih-cdc-fda/

Trump Wants Lawyers’ Files On Migrant Children
Katya Schwenk | Jun 5, 2026

"As immigration courts accelerate deportation proceedings, the Trump administration is withholding funding {since December} while pressuring legal aid groups to disclose sensitive data about vulnerable children. {For years, the nonprofit Acacia Center for Justice has served as the primary contractor for the legal aid program, distributing federal funds to dozens of groups that provide legal representation to children nationwide.}

... breach of attorney-client privilege ...

... immigration courts are using novel tactics to hasten deportations, including ..., including the use of “mega” hearings to expedite deportation proceedings.

... Without legal support, children would be forced to fend for themselves against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) lawyers calling for their deportation. And if the federal government is handed granular data about children’s legal defense, their cases could be undermined.

... in the fall, the Department of Health and Human Services subsequently developed plans to privatize {the Unaccompanied Children Program, funded by the Office of Refugee Resettlement, an arm of the Department of Health and Human Services}, taking it out of the hands of nonprofits that had historically run it and handing the reins to a private company, an ICE technology contractor.

... until a federal judge stepped in, the Department of Homeland Security was telling children — even those pursuing asylum claims and fleeing violence — to self-deport or face extended detention ..."

https://www.levernews.com/trump-wants-lawyers-files-on-migrant-children/
_______________________________________

DACA recipients are losing protections and work permits as renewal delays surge
Daniela Pierre-Bravo | May 16, 2026

"... The median wait time for renewals between October 1, 2025, and February 28, 2026, was about 70 days, up from a median of about 15 days in fiscal year 2025, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) data. Immigration lawyers and advocates who spoke to CNN say most of their clients’ processing times are currently higher than four months ..."

https://www.cnn.com/2026/05/16/business/daca-processing-delays

Killing Khamenei
William "Chip" Usher | June 9, 2026

"On Feb. 28, Israel killed the head of state and supreme religious authority of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a daytime strike on Tehran. The United States provided the intelligence of his location. Within hours, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz authorized the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to eliminate any senior Iranian official without further approval. The American doctrine on targeted killing of foreign leaders, built up over 50 years of executive orders, Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) opinions, and quiet operational practice, did not survive the day. The precedent is now available to every adversary watching, and to every future U.S. president. Washington has to work out what it actually thinks the rules of leadership decapitation are before the next war makes the question urgent ...

What Washington Should Do Now
... For a start, the Department of Justice’s OLC should produce a written opinion on when the United States considers it lawful to target a foreign head of state under domestic law and the law of armed conflict. It need not be public in full, but the opinion should be available to the relevant congressional committees in classified form.

The executive branch also owes a clear reading of Section 2.12 as it applies to intelligence sharing with allies running their own decapitation operations. Present ambiguity buys short-term operational flexibility and eats away at legal credibility everywhere else. A stated standard, even a permissive one, beats a doctrine that lives in classified channels.

And Congress, finally, should hold hearings: on the targeting authorities used during Operation Epic Fury, the legal basis for American support to Israeli decapitation operations, and what the precedents now leave behind. The executive branch will not welcome the attention. But holding the executive accountable in matters of war is what the legislative branch is for, despite its current hesitation ..."

https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/killing-khamenei

The Blueprint for Ending American Democracy | The David Frum Show (59:04)
David Frum (The Atlantic) | June 10, 2026

"... Then {10:37}, David is joined by professor David W. Blight to discuss  the blood-soaked aftermath of the Civil War and the stumbling project to bring freedom to the former slaves of the South through the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth amendments. David and Blight discuss Trump’s project to gut the Fourteenth Amendment to say that some people born on American soil will no longer be Americans ..."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjOo4aL5QDQ

>17 margd:

Press releases
AMICA Center for Immigrant Rights | 06/12/26

"Trump administration deploys federal agents to intimidate legal services nonprofits representing unaccompanied immigrant children
... Over the past 48 hours, in the latest example of intimidation tactics, agents from US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and US Health and Human Services (HHS) attempted to gain access to the offices of Washington, DC-area nonprofits that provide legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children. ...
HSI and HHS agents conducted unannounced visits to the offices of the Amica Center for Immigrant Rights, Ayuda, and Kids in Need of Defense (KIND). In each case, the agents sought access to documents and financial records relating to the organizations’ child clients. The agents were turned away each time and were not provided with any records, as they had no warrant or authority to make such unlawful requests.
These nonprofits receive funding from a congressionally created and appropriated program that provides legal representation to unaccompanied immigrant children, as required by legislation; a program that has had bipartisan support and successfully served children for more than 15 years. Prior to these visits, neither HSI nor HHS had requested financial records or documentation from these nonprofits through formal administrative or legal channels.
... For decades, the national network of nonprofits providing legal services to unaccompanied immigrant children has built and sustained this program as a model of how public funds can support due process for some of the most vulnerable children in the system and serve the public good. ..."

https://amicacenter.org/press-releases/trump-administration-deploys-federal-agen...

#80 in thread 5 (Trump wanted to fire Fed Gov Lisa Cook, accusing her of some mortgage problem?) contd.

SCOTUSblog @SCOTUSblog | 10:20 AM · Jun 29, 2026:

"In Cook, the court denies Trump's effort to remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook from office while litigation continues.
https://supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25a312_5468.pdf"
--------------------------------------

Held: The Government’s application is denied. Pp. 8–27.
(a) The Government has not shown that it is likely to prevail on the
legal arguments advanced in its stay application.

>21 margd: Must be some difference in independence between FTC and Fed Bank?*

MeidasTouch @MeidasTouch | 10:53 AM · Jun 29, 2026:

NEWS: In Trump v. Slaughter, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 (Roberts writing for the majority) that the Federal Trade Commission’s for-cause removal protections for commissioners violate the Constitution’s separation of powers.

The Court overruled the 1935 precedent Humphrey’s Executor, holding that the President must have broad authority to remove principal officers heading executive agencies like the FTC.
----------------------------------------------------

*Supreme Court expands Trump’s firing powers — but imposes some limits
Stephen Dinan and Alex Swoyer | Monday, June 29, 2026

"The Supreme Court on Monday granted presidents wide-ranging authority to fire senior officials over policy differences, but said some limits must be observed.

In a pair of decisions, the justices approved President Trump’s firing of a Federal Trade Commission member whom the White House booted over political differences. But the high court continued to block Mr. Trump’s firing of Rebecca Cook from the Federal Reserve Board, saying he didn’t give her a chance to challenge his justification that she engaged in iffy mortgage behavior.

Together, they give a president vast powers to get rid of employees he sees as roadblocks to his agenda, even at so-called independent agencies that Congress had tried to insulate from such presidential meddling..."

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/jun/29/supreme-court-expands-trumps-fi...

Court allows Trump to fire FTC commissioner and overturns major restraint on presidential power
Amy Howe | Jun 29, 2026

"... The Federal Trade Commission was created more than a century ago. It has five commissioners, no more than three of whom may come from any one political party. Each commissioner is appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate to serve a seven-year term.

During his first term in office, Trump nominated Rebecca Slaughter to fill one of the Democratic seats on the FTC. Then-President Joe Biden renominated her in 2023 to serve a second term. Last year, the White House notified Slaughter in a letter that she had been “removed from the Federal Trade Commission, effective immediately.” The letter did not cite any of the legal grounds that would allow Trump to fire her. Instead, Trump told Slaughter that allowing her to remain on the FTC would be “inconsistent with my Administration’s priorities.” ..."

https://www.scotusblog.com/2026/06/court-allows-trump-to-fire-ftc-commissioner-a...
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https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25pdf/25-332_qn12.pdf