ESR - the rare proof that you can be a leftist and also be based.
https://x.com/esrtweet/status/1977543924114915727
Eric S. Raymond
@esrtweet
Governor Pritzker of Illinois is threatening to have state law enforcement arrest ICE agents to prevent them from doing arrests and deportations. Gavin Newsom seems to be working his way up towards some similar declaration in California.
This post will contain no political opinions. I have plenty of those, but I'm going to stick to legal and procedural facts about what could happen after a state-level attempt to arrest federal LEOs.
I have to wonder who Pritzker and Newsom are getting legal advice from. Because the President of the United States would have a completely legal and overwhelming response to this.
It's the Insurrection Act of 1807, specifically Section 252 allowing unilateral deployment without state request to enforce federal laws or suppress rebellion when "unlawful obstructions" make judicial enforcement "impracticable."
This was the law that allowed LBJ to send federal troops into Little Rock to forcibly desegregate the schools.
In the most extreme case, the President has the authority to dissolve a state government that is in insurrection, arresting the ringleaders for sedition and placing the territory under military occupation until a new state government willing to conform to Federal law can be organized.
It is also black-letter law that presidential actions under the Insurrection Act are not subject to judicial review.
I'm not here to argue that Donald Trump should do these things, just that he can. He's second-term, he doesn't have to be deterred by the prospect of failing to be re-elected. Anyway, his base would absolutely love it if he did this, so he'd have at least half the country behind him as well as his authority as Commander in Chief of the military.
Ironically, if the Democrats actually believe their own rhetoric about Trump being an aspiring dictator, that should increase their estimate of the odds that he will actually bring this hammer down, and deter them from writing rhetorical checks that they're not going to be able to cash. I can only conclude from their posturing that they believe Trump really will be restrained by the Constitution, and that it protects them from arrest and imprisonment for defying him.
But it doesn't. And if they keep fucking around, they're likely to find that out good and hard.ff