Habeas Corpus

Well, habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the president has to be able to remove people from this country and suspend their right to -

-- Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, at a Senate hearing, responding when asked, "Secretary Noem, what is habeas corpus?" before being interrupted and corrected, New York Times  (20 May 2025)

Economic Reality

Rarely has an economic policy been repudiated as soundly, and as quickly, as President Trump's Liberation Day tariffs -- and by Mr. Trump's own hand.  Witness the agreement Monday morning to scale back his punitive tariffs on China -- his second major retreat in less than a week.  This is a win for economic reality, and for American prosperity.

One tragedy of Mr. Trump's shoot-America-in-the-foot-first approach is that he's hurt his chances of rallying a united front of countries against Beijing's mercantilism.  By targeting allies with tariffs, Mr. Trump has eroded trust in America's economic and political reliability.

Beijing now also has the benefit of concrete experience to reassure the Communist Party that Washington would struggle to impose economic sanctions in a crisis such as a Chinese blockade or invasion of Taiwan.  

If there's a silver lining to this turmoil, it is that markets have forced Mr. Trump to back down from his fever dream that high tariff walls will usher in a new "golden age."  The age didn't last two months, and it was more leaden than golden.  White House aide Peter Navarro, the main architect with Mr. Trump of the Liberation Day fiasco, has been repudiated.

Mr. Trump will not want to admit it, but he started a trade war with Adam Smith and lost.  He's not the first President to learn that lesson.

-- The Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal, "The Great Trump Tariff Rollback" (12 May 2025)

Neither Knows Nor Tolerates

But in view of the Constitution, in the eye of the law, there is in this country no superior, dominant, ruling class of citizens.  There is no caste here.  Our Constitution is color-blind, and neither knows nor tolerates classes among citizens.  In respect of civil rights, all citizens are equal before the law.  The humblest is the peer of the most powerful.  The law regards man as man, and takes no account of his surroundings or of his color when his civil rights as guaranteed by the supreme law of the land are involved.  It is, therefore, to be regretted that this high tribunal, the final expositor of the fundamental law of the land, has reached the conclusion that it is competent for a State to regulate the enjoyment by citizens of their civil rights solely upon the basis of race. ...

The sure guarantee of the peace and security of each race is the clear, distinct, unconditional recognition by our governments, National and State, of every right that inheres in civil freedom, and of the equality before the law of all citizens of the United States without regard to race.

-- Justice John Marshall Harlan, dissenting in Plessy v. Ferguson (18 May 1896), which held that the Fourteenth Amendment allowed "separate but equal" accommodations by race; Plessy was overturned in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (17 May 1954), ending racial segregation in public schools [h/t Heather Cox Richardson]

Until He Has Tried

There is a time in every man's education when he arrives at the conviction that envy is ignorance; that imitation is suicide; that he must take himself for better, for worse, as his portion; that though the wide universe is full of good, no kernel of nourishing corn can come to him but through his toil bestowed on that plot of ground which is given to him to till.  The power which resides in him is new in nature, and none but he knows what that is which he can do, nor does he know until he has tried.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803 - 1882), American philosopher, essayist, and poet, Essay "Self-Reliance"

Born Or Naturalized, Redux

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.  No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

-- Section 1 of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, proposed by Congress in 1863 and ratified in 1868

[I see I previously ran this in 2018, but I guess we need periodic reminders.]

Well-Anchored

If the large increases in tariffs that have been announced are sustained, they’re likely to generate a rise in inflation, a slowdown in economic growth, and an increase in unemployment.  The effects on inflation could be short-lived, reflecting a one-time shift in the price level.  It is also possible that the inflationary effects could instead be more persistent.  Avoiding that outcome will depend on the size of the tariff effects, on how long it takes for them to pass through fully into prices, and ultimately on keeping longer-term inflation expectations well-anchored.

-- Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, speaking after the group's most recent meeting at which they held interest rates steady (7 May 2025)

Political Fortunes

Since January, the previously bipartisan U.S. Refugee Admissions Program in which we participate has essentially shut down.  Virtually no new refugees have arrived, hundreds of staff in resettlement agencies around the country have been laid off, and funding for resettling refugees who have already arrived has been uncertain.  Then, just over two weeks ago, the federal government informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees.

In light of our church’s steadfast commitment to racial justice and reconciliation and our historic ties with the Anglican Church of Southern Africa, we are not able to take this step.  Accordingly, we have determined that, by the end of the federal fiscal year, we will conclude our refugee resettlement grant agreements with the U.S. federal government. ...

It has been painful to watch one group of refugees, selected in a highly unusual manner, receive preferential treatment over many others who have been waiting in refugee camps or dangerous conditions for years.  I am saddened and ashamed that many of the refugees who are being denied entrance to the United States are brave people who worked alongside our military in Iraq and Afghanistan and now face danger at home because of their service to our country.  I also grieve that victims of religious persecution, including Christians, have not been granted refuge in recent months.

I have said before that no change in political fortunes alters our commitment to stand with the world’s most vulnerable people, and I want to reaffirm that promise.  While our public-private partnership as a refugee resettlement agency is no longer viable, we are hard at work on a church-wide plan to support migrants and refugees ...

-- The Most Reverend Sean W. Rowe, Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church, in an open letter, "Letter from Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe on Episcopal Migration Ministries" (12 May 2025)

RIP David Souter

What I worry about is that when problems are not addressed, people will not know who is responsible.  And when the problems get bad enough -- another serious terrorist attack, another financial meltdown -- some one person will come forward and say, "Give me total power, and I will solve this problem."  That is how the Roman republic fell. ...  That is how democracy dies.  And if something is not done to improve the level of civic knowledge, that is what you should worry about at night.

-- David Souter (17 September 1939 - 8 May 2025), Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from October 1990 until his retirement in June 2009, With Margaret Warner at "Constitutionally Speaking" in Concord, N.H. (14 September 2012) "David Souter Gets Rock Star Welcome, Offers Constitution Day Warning" PBS NewsHour

Sa Dan

On Saturday April 12th I tested in front of my Taekwondo master instructor, 8th Dan Grandmaster Namsoo Hyong, for the rank of 4th Dan.  Tonight I received my new belt.  

Testing requirements included 20 poomsae (patterns or forms of about 20 movements each), including a creative poomsae of my own design, 40 different kicks, and numerous other combinations, with a few creative combinations of my own.  The testing culminated in sparring against a single opponent, and then sparring against two opponents at once.  

The last time I tested was April 2020, peak pandemic time, 5 years ago.  It took about 18 months to prepare for this test, including about 5 to 10 hours per week since the start of the year.

With this rank I have earned the title 사범 님 Sabeom Nim, meaning one who teaches, and who can perform all of the requirements at a high level.  In our system, you must be 4th Dan to judge Black belt tests, and to award others the rank of Black belt.  Achieving this rank checks off an item on my bucket list.  It will be about 4 years until I am eligible to test for 5th Dan, and from today's perspective, I wonder whether I'll test again.

Glad to have that behind me.

Habemus Papam

Habemus Papam!

-- A Vatican spokesman speaking from the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the introduction of newly-elevated Pope Leo XIV, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, of Chicago, the first American-born Pope (8 May 2025)

Check The Excesses

In our Constitution ... the judiciary is a coequal branch of government, separate from the others, with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the president.

And that innovation doesn't work if ... the judiciary is not independent.  Its job is to obviously decide cases, but in the course of that, check the excesses of Congress or the executive, and that does require a degree of independence.

-- Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts speaking at the 125th anniversary celebration of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York in Buffalo (7 May 2025)

No American President

No American President has ever before issued executive orders like the one at issue in this lawsuit targeting a prominent law firm with adverse actions to be executed by all Executive branch agencies but, in purpose and effect, this action draws from a playbook as old as Shakespeare, who penned the phrase: "The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers." [WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE, HENRY VI, PART 2, act 4, sc. 2, l. 75.]  When Shakespeare's character, a rebel leader intent on becoming king hears, this suggestion, he promptly incorporates this tactic as part of his plan to assume power, leading in the same scene to the rebel leader demanding "[a]way with him," referring to an educated clerk, who "can make obligations and write court hand."  Eliminating lawyers as the guardians of the rule of law removes a major impediment to the path to more power.  See Walters v. Nat'l Ass'n of Radiation Survivors (1985) (explaining the import of the same Shakespearean statement to be "that disposing of lawyers is a step in the direction of a totalitarian form of government").

The U.S. Constitution affords critical protections against Executive action like that ordered in EO 14230.  Government officials, including the President, may not "subject[] individuals to 'retaliatory actions' after the fact for having engaged in protected speech."  They may neither "use the power of the State to punish or suppress disfavored expression," nor engage in the use of "purely personal and arbitrary power."  In this case, these and other foundational protections were violated by EO 14230.  On that basis, this Court has found that EO 14230 violates the Constitution and is thus null and void.  For the reasons explained, plaintiff is entitled to summary judgment and declaratory and permanent injunctive relief.  The government's motion to dismiss is denied.

-- U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell, ruling in Perkins Coie LLP v U.S. Department of Justice et al, vacating President Trump's executive order that punished the law firm for litigating cases Trump doesn't like (2 May 2025)

Have A Hap

Hey, wish me a happy birthday.  So far I have survived 66 years without accidentally dying.  Happy square root day (5/5/25  5*5=25) and Cinco de Mayo as well!

Limitation Of Authority

When an American thinks about the problem of government-building, he directs himself not to the creation of authority and the accumulation of power but rather to the limitation of authority and the division of power.

-- Samuel P. Huntington (1927 - 2008), American political scientist, adviser, and academic, Political Order in Changing Societies (1968), p. 7

We Must Die

All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy; for what we leave behind us is a part of ourselves; we must die to one life before we can enter another.

-- Anatole France (1844 - 1924), French poet, journalist, and novelist; 1921 Nobel Laureate in Literature, The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard (1881) Pt. II, ch. 4