In mid-March, after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (ICE) shackled and herded 238 immigrants onto transport planes and flew them to a notoriously brutal Salvadoran prison. According to Trump, the men were members of Tren de Aragua, a violent Venezuelan gang, but the evidence was sketchy (often based... See more

This year, a more expedient track has been found. First, the Trump administration openly breaks the law as it has long been understood, then a lower-court judge rules against it, and then the administration appeals on the “shadow docket” — which avoids the normal briefing-and-hearing process by claiming an emergency. Since January, according to the... See more

And thanks to the efforts of Democratic state attorneys general, there has already been an injunction against the president’s effort to freeze federal funding. But the courts are slow-moving and reactive, and as we wait for the federal judiciary to make its moves, Trump and Musk are creating facts on the ground.