Senator warns of US getting ‘closer to a constitutional crisis’ as Samuel Alito’s dissent signals deference to Trump
Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar warned on Sunday that the US is “getting closer and closer to a constitutional crisis”, but the courts, growing Republican disquiet at Trump administration policies, and public protest were holding it off.
“I believe as long as these courts hold, and the constituents hold, and the congress starts standing up, our democracy will hold,” Klobuchar told CNN’s State of the Union, adding “but Donald Trump is trying to pull us down into the sewer of a crisis.”
Klobuchar said the US supreme court should hold Trump administration officials in contempt if they continue to ignore a court order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Ábrego García from El Salvador, the Maryland resident the government admitted in court it had deported by mistake.
The courts made him immune for official acts, but there is an interesting and relevant legal question of whether his actions here qualify as official. There’s a reasonable argument that kidnapping people in direct violation of a court order is not an official act.
If you look at absolute immunity as it applies to judges, you do find edge cases that are somewhat similar to this one. Absolute immunity doesn’t cover everything, and the only way to find out what it covers is to go to court.
And the SC determines what’s an official act