The US has three branches of power that are in place. The executive branch, the legislative branch and the judicial branch. These branches form checks and balances against each other.

Right now, the Republicans hold the presidency and they are the majority in both the House and Senate. So that check is gone. Now, Donald Trump is facing off against the judicial branch.

On Saturday, March 15 Trump used the Alien Enemies Act, an act passed, nearly 200 years ago, to deport hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador. A judge issued a temporary order blocking the deportation of five specific individuals. Later that day the judge held a hearing on the case.

This hearing entered a recess. period. During the recess. The first flight deporting individuals took off. A second flight departure soon followed.

Once the recess was over, the judge made the following verbal decision,

“any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States… this is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately.”

The judge put this in writing soon after. These two flights had not yet landed in El Salvador, when the judge issued the decision. The decision was ignored. The flights landed in El Salvador. Given that the people deported are now in another jurisdiction, the judge has no power to order that they be returned.

The judge called Justice officials to the carpet yesterday. The judge asked for a complete breakdown as to what happened. The judge was stonewalled. The judge gave justice officials until noon today to provide a written explanation as to what happened as to why his decision was ignored. It remains to be seeing us to whether justice officials will comply.

America is trending on a very dangerous road now. The three branches are in place to put checks and balances on each other. Now, Trump appears to be trampling over these checks and balances. He is initially executive orders, daily, excluding the legislative branch in decision-making, now he is poised to ignore the judicial branch.

That’s all I have for today.