Comrades \u2013 look towards the light! This week brought us a flurry of reminders that resistance is not futile. While the halls of power may seem stacked against us, our judicial system is showing glimmers of its intended purpose: a check against unchecked executive overreach.<\/p>\n
Let’s be clear: executive orders are NOT laws. They’re political directives that can be challenged, blocked, and overturned. And that’s exactly what’s happening across the country as courageous plaintiffs and principled judges stand firm against unconstitutional power grabs. Here\u2019s the latest:<\/p>\n
Judge Ana Reyes didn’t mince words when blocking the administration’s cruel transgender military ban, calling it “soaked in animus and dripping with pretext\u2026and its conclusions bear no relation to fact.”<\/a> She recognized the bitter irony that “thousands of transgender servicemembers have sacrificed \u2013 some risking their lives \u2013 to ensure for others the very equal protection rights the military ban seeks to deny them.” Shame has never sounded so eloquent.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the courts are putting the brakes on this administration’s terrifying (and ridiculous) invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. When Judge James Boasberg found “probable cause” for criminal contempt<\/a> against officials who flouted his orders, he sent a powerful message: no one is above the law, not even those who enforce it. As one appeals court put it, the government is “asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process”<\/a> (mic drop).<\/p>\n And let’s not forget how Judge Royce Lamberth \u2013 who is presiding over six cases brought by hundreds who were left jobless after the shutdown of U.S. Agency for Global Media \u2013 defended over 1,000 employees and 600 contractors from Voice of America, Radio Free Asia, and Middle East Broadcasting Networks from being silenced<\/a>, ordering the administration to “take all necessary steps” to restore employees and resume broadcasting. When the administration tried to dismantle an 80-year institution overnight, the judiciary reminded them that freedom of the press isn’t just a slogan \u2013 it’s constitutionally protected.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most encouraging thing we\u2019ve seen this week is seeing Ronald Reagan-appointed Judge Coughenour call the birthright citizenship ban “blatantly unconstitutional”<\/a> after Arizona, Illinois, Oregon, and Washington sought a restraining order against T*$@%\u2019s executive order. When judges across the political spectrum recognize these overreaches for what they are, we’re reminded that this isn’t about partisan politics \u2013 it’s about fundamental rights. As Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said after the ruling: “it has been the law of the land for generations, that you are an American citizen if you are born on American soil, period.”<\/a><\/p>\n