Today’s notice: The county where everyone is hosting a town hall. Populist VOA vs. DOGE VOA. MAGA’s home church. A Biden investigation scoop. But first: The courts are not equipped.
Courts Vs. Politics
The smashing together of courts and politics may prove to be the defining story of Trump 2.0.
Tuesday afternoon, Chief Justice John Roberts took the extraordinary step of publicly wading into Republicans’ calls to impeach the federal judge overseeing Trump’s deportations deal with El Salvador. Mere minutes after Roberts noted that appeals courts, not politically motivated impeachment threats, are the accepted check on a judge’s rulings, a fundraising email pegged to the immigration cases landed in our inbox from the Republican Party of Iowa. “CROOKED Judges,” it read, “must be IMPEACHED IMMEDIATELY.”
Courts can’t get into a political fight the same way politicians can. “If a district judge jumped right to holding the administration in contempt or something, they’d be open to an appeals court slapping them down,” Quinta Jurecic of Brookings and the Lawfare blog told NOTUS.
So as the administration’s actions increasingly beg the question, “are we in a constitutional crisis?” Donald Trump is forcing a more immediate question: Can the courts handle a political one?
“Courts have been doing a pretty extraordinarily good job at moving what is for them an extraordinarily rapid clip,” Jurecic said. “The problem is the political crisis is moving faster and the courts are not equipped for that.”
The aggression against the traditionally understood role courts play is reaching a fever pitch. As NOTUS’ Casey Murray reports, the Trump administration’s argument that a rarely used 1798 wartime law allows them to deport anyone they suspect is involved in gang activity is almost certainly going to the Supreme Court.
“The power that they’re claiming to have is the power to arrest, detain and deport someone, no questions asked, and that’s a power that could lead to quite significant abuses,” former DHS general counsel Tom Jawetz told Casey.
But the DOJ, per Jurecic, is “bending over backwards to say they are really trying to comply with the judge’s orders,” and its rhetoric is completely different from that of political leaders. As Casey noted, border czar Tom Homan went on Fox News and said he didn’t “care what the judges think.”
And if Congress continues to let the Trump legal tests pile up — or egg on the impeachment fodder, as Rep. Brandon Gill did by filing impeachment articles against District Judge James Boasberg — that leaves people like Roberts to raise the alarm, and judges to operate in increasing isolation.
“We’ve shunted to courts something that they’re not really capable of doing,” Jurecic said.
—Evan McMorris-Santoro | Read Casey’s story.
Recess Week Update: Town Hall County, USA
Congressional Democrats wanted this to be a week about Republicans ducking their voters. Instead, the big story there is Chuck Schumer canceling his book tour and rallying his caucus to reassure people that his gig as Senate Democratic leader is safe. NOTUS’ Daniella Diaz and Ursula Perano have the latest on the strange situation Schumer finds himself in now.
How far does this Schumer situation extend? Watch Buncombe County, North Carolina. It’s a place that was hit hard by Hurricane Helene last year, and one where if Democrats hope to do well in the midterms, they’ll need to find a lot of votes. Last week, Republican Rep. Chuck Edwards held a widely covered town hall, where voters demanded answers on the Trump administration. On Thursday, the area’s Democratic state lawmakers were scheduled to host one of their own, focusing on the effects of federal spending cuts on the county.
They had actually planned on hosting it last week, but moved it after Edwards announced his. And now they’re expecting to hear a lot of frustration with the Democratic Party mixed in with the questions about what DOGE means for Buncombe County.
“I would not be surprised if we hear complaints about national Democrats, not at all,” state Rep. Lindsey Prather told NOTUS. “I can’t control Chuck Schumer, I probably would have done things differently, but I know that Democrats here in North Carolina are doing the right thing.”
But even as they acknowledged that Democratic infighting might blow plans off course a bit, participating Buncombe lawmakers said it’s nearly impossible for anything to eclipse Trump.
“Stability is important for people, and it’s been a pretty chaotic period. And that’s sort of it,” said state Rep. Eric Ager, another Buncombe Democrat scheduled to appear at the town hall.
—Evan McMorris-Santoro | Read Daniella and Ursula’s story.
Front Page
- Under Judicial Pressure, a Trump Official Defended the Administration’s Deportations: The judge requested that the administration respond to questions in the deportation flight case.
- Bills, Rallies and New Caucuses: How Democrats Plan to Keep Housing in the Spotlight: Democrats are trying everything to keep housing issues in the conversation.
- JD Vance Tries to Bridge the Divide Between Tech and Populism: The vice president talked up American innovation at a summit organized by VC firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Kari Lake Struggles to Find Her Voice
Tapped by Trump to lead Voice of America, a frustrated Kari Lake has struggled to find her way at the network being dismantled bit by bit before she even takes the top job, NOTUS’ Jasmine Wright reports. Lake first approached the role with a reform mindset, people familiar with her thinking told Jasmine. But that was before an executive order terminated grants supporting VOA’s work and about 1,300 journalists were put on leave. “Lake’s elevation has stalled out to the point where events have outpaced her ascension,” Jasmine reports.
The Most Powerful Church in MAGA World
Pastor and former Republican candidate Jackson Lahmeyer runs two locations of the 1,700 member nondenominational Sheridan Church in Oklahoma. NOTUS’ Em Luetkemeyer reports on how Sheridan has hosted MAGA luminaries like Kash Patel and Lara and Eric Trump.
“They get to come here and they don’t have to feel like they’re going to get attacked,” Lahmeyer told Em of his many MAGA VIP guests.
NOTUS Exclusive: Jim Jordan Starts His Biden DOJ Probe
Rep. Jim Jordan, chair of the House Judiciary Committee, sent letters to several officials who served at the Department of Justice under former President Joe Biden, asking them to sit for interviews related to a number of cases, including the prosecutions of Hunter Biden and Donald Trump. “The committee is now requesting eight Biden DOJ employees, including former U.S. Attorney for Delaware David Weiss, sit for transcribed interviews,” NOTUS’ Reese Gorman reports. Weiss, who led the DOJ’s criminal investigation into the now-pardoned Hunter, has been the subject of conservative scorn for not pursuing charges into Hunter Biden’s foreign business dealings.
Not Us
We know NOTUS reporters can’t cover it all. Here’s some other great hits by… not us.
- How Matt Gaetz poisoned the House Ethics Committee by Hailey Fuchs for Politico
- Why All of the JFK Assassination Documents Haven’t Been Released Yet by Jason Koebler for 404 Media
- The growing legend of the missing Oval Office ivy by Maura Judkis for The Washington Post
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