Thank you Leah for spelling this out so coherently. Having all these constitutional provisions consolidated in one place is genuinely useful.
But the part where we try to calm ourselves down by saying the Constitution is still relevant is going to ring hollow for a lot of us watching along. “The people can enforce the Constitution” through public opinion and political consequences sounds nice, but when we’re watching 96 court orders get ignored in a single month in a single state, abstract future consequences aren’t cutting it. What about the people being unconstitutionally brutalized and locked up today? They have to wait until November for some accountability, if voters remember them?
Maybe the problem is that the Constitution only tells us what the government *can’t* do, sometimes in vague terms, but never specifies what happens when the government does it anyway.
Sharon’s piece yesterday made me think about this differently. She wasn’t talking about constitutional amendments, but some of her proposed reforms feel targeted enough that they could work at that level. What if agencies had their funding stripped when they defied court orders? What if there was a mandatory compliance protocol with a documented chain of responsibility for every order — who receives it, who confirms it, who executes it, and what supervisor certifies completion? What if we required weekly public reporting on orders received and time to compliance?
The Constitution has always depended on people in power choosing to respect it. Maybe it’s time we stopped relying on that goodwill and built in automatic consequences instead.
I've seen numerous videos of ICE agents breaking car windows and dragging out drivers who are locked in, then forcing them to the pavement and arresting them. No warrants. What are the rights of people sitting in their cars, refusing/fearing to roll down their windows or open the doors to masked, armed men screaming at them to do so?
Great article and good explainer. Could you please explain how this paragraph from your article interacts with the recent Supreme Court case that basically allows racial profiling ? “The Supreme Court has also interpreted the Fifth Amendment to contain anti-discrimination principles. In a lesser-known companion case to Brown v. Board of Education (the decision striking down separate-but-equal school segregation), the Supreme Court said that the federal government can’t discriminate on the basis of race or other protected characteristics such as sex. The anti-discrimination principles could become relevant in cases related to protest when there is reason to think that federal officers might be targeting people for a stop, an arrest, or a use of force based on the person’s apparent race or ethnicity or sex.”
Well, at least it gives me some peace of mind and thank you for the education and some of the laws and such. The American people are amazing and then they banned together and even though some people have died as sad as that is in the end, I believe we will overcome it just takes time.
Thank you Leah for spelling this out so coherently. Having all these constitutional provisions consolidated in one place is genuinely useful.
But the part where we try to calm ourselves down by saying the Constitution is still relevant is going to ring hollow for a lot of us watching along. “The people can enforce the Constitution” through public opinion and political consequences sounds nice, but when we’re watching 96 court orders get ignored in a single month in a single state, abstract future consequences aren’t cutting it. What about the people being unconstitutionally brutalized and locked up today? They have to wait until November for some accountability, if voters remember them?
Maybe the problem is that the Constitution only tells us what the government *can’t* do, sometimes in vague terms, but never specifies what happens when the government does it anyway.
Sharon’s piece yesterday made me think about this differently. She wasn’t talking about constitutional amendments, but some of her proposed reforms feel targeted enough that they could work at that level. What if agencies had their funding stripped when they defied court orders? What if there was a mandatory compliance protocol with a documented chain of responsibility for every order — who receives it, who confirms it, who executes it, and what supervisor certifies completion? What if we required weekly public reporting on orders received and time to compliance?
The Constitution has always depended on people in power choosing to respect it. Maybe it’s time we stopped relying on that goodwill and built in automatic consequences instead.
I've seen numerous videos of ICE agents breaking car windows and dragging out drivers who are locked in, then forcing them to the pavement and arresting them. No warrants. What are the rights of people sitting in their cars, refusing/fearing to roll down their windows or open the doors to masked, armed men screaming at them to do so?
Thank you for your article. Let’s all share this article to spread awareness to others
so our country can make a change for the better.
Great article and good explainer. Could you please explain how this paragraph from your article interacts with the recent Supreme Court case that basically allows racial profiling ? “The Supreme Court has also interpreted the Fifth Amendment to contain anti-discrimination principles. In a lesser-known companion case to Brown v. Board of Education (the decision striking down separate-but-equal school segregation), the Supreme Court said that the federal government can’t discriminate on the basis of race or other protected characteristics such as sex. The anti-discrimination principles could become relevant in cases related to protest when there is reason to think that federal officers might be targeting people for a stop, an arrest, or a use of force based on the person’s apparent race or ethnicity or sex.”
Well, at least it gives me some peace of mind and thank you for the education and some of the laws and such. The American people are amazing and then they banned together and even though some people have died as sad as that is in the end, I believe we will overcome it just takes time.
Thank you for the write up