Judges warn Trump risks public perception of lawlessness in his fight with courts
Source: Reuters
April 17, 2025 4:28 PM EDT Updated 9 min ago
NEW YORK, April 17 (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court urged the Trump administration on Thursday to back off from its escalating confrontation with the judiciary, warning that both the executive and judicial branches risk losing public confidence. In a strongly worded unanimous opinion, a three-judge panel rejected President Donald Trump's administration's request to stop a judge from probing what the government had done to secure the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a migrant it acknowledged having wrongly deported to El Salvador.
The judges, part of the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, said the executive branch represented by the administration and the courts were "grinding irrevocably against one another in a conflict that promises to diminish both."
"We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos. This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time," wrote U.S. Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson. Wilkinson is an appointee of President Ronald Reagan, a Republican like Trump.
Asked to comment on the appeals court decision, a Justice Department spokesperson referred to Attorney General Pam Bondi's posts on X on Monday and on Wednesday asserting that Abrego Garcia belonged to the MS-13 street gang. An immigration judge in 2019 granted Abrego Garcia protection from deportation to El Salvador after finding he was likely to be persecuted by gangs if returned there, court records show. Abrego Garcia's lawyers and family members deny he was part of MS-13.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/legal/trump-challenges-judges-probes-compliance-with-deportation-orders-2025-04-17/
Link to ORDER (PDF viewer) - https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25900495-2025-04-17-court-order-dckt/
Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25900495/2025-04-17-court-order-dckt.pdf
There is no hypothetical "risk" of a "perception". IT IS PURE UNADULTERATED LAWLESSNESS. COMPLETE AND UTTER.
EVERY SINGLE THING HE HAS DONE HAS BROKEN SOME LAW..
And regarding this -
At this point, Raygun and 45 are like polar opposites.

BoRaGard
(5,089 posts)It's a fact.
Karasu
(978 posts)in history.
LymphocyteLover
(7,832 posts)Irish_Dem
(68,464 posts)This is his goal.
And he assumes destroying judges and judicial processes will give him power.
EarthFirst
(3,625 posts)What this administration has demonstrated is that the judiciary is a complete impediment to their agenda; and they will refuse; deny or delay any attempt by the courts to adjudicate their lawlessness.
J_William_Ryan
(2,664 posts)The Trump regime is already appropriately, factually, and accurately perceived as lawless.
And yes, it is naïve to believe that this corrupt, criminal administration will respect the rule of law.
Baitball Blogger
(49,850 posts)FirstLight
(14,977 posts)Isn't it time to call the Marshalls?
PSPS
(14,484 posts)mountain grammy
(27,719 posts)what's "the Onion" doing in LBN.
Blues Heron
(6,807 posts)Too funny.
stillcool
(33,659 posts)that is the problem. I keep on thinking of that Scooter Libby poem to Judith Miller, wherein the aspens 'turn in clusters because their roots connect them'. Been a lot of turning in clusters.
Response to BumRushDaShow (Original post)
wcmagumba This message was self-deleted by its author.
JoseBalow
(7,252 posts)
slightlv
(5,403 posts)where the people rose up and actually stopped Netanyahu from basically doing away with the power of the courts by "reforming" them?
Did that happen simply by an overwhelming number of citizens coming out to gather, march, and protest? Or was there something else behind the scenes going on? I'd like to know... because we're going to have start learning from people who've faced this before and stomped it out. This makes what we did in the Vietnam era look like small potatoes.
MLWR
(283 posts)There are millions of us out here who have lost confidence in the executive and judicial branches of government and think both are pretty much totally corrupt.
doc03
(37,730 posts)PSPS
(14,484 posts)I'm sure that will stop their continuous lawlessness in its tracks!!11!!!!!!1@72&@#@##
liberalgunwilltravel
(777 posts)That laws protect them as well.
blue-wave
(4,626 posts)They don't like the American tradition of rule of law. They likely do not know this, but we fought a revolutionary war over the lawlessness imposed upon the colonies by the King of England. If you read the preamble to the Declaration of Independence and continue further, there are 27 grievances listed concerning the King's lawlessness. One of those grievances concerns due process. The situations were different then, but the concept and now the law of due process are the same.
eppur_se_muova
(38,922 posts)Javaman
(63,652 posts)Warpy
(113,237 posts)From him hosing down of the Oval Office in gilt to his appointment of Musk to dismantle the government, we already know this is a lawless man who has appointed himself KING and not president and that he will not stop until he is stopped.
Perception, my tired old ass.
Bluetus
(969 posts)Baloney. Reagan would be kicked to the curb by this Republican Party.
Jack Valentino
(1,877 posts)are too soft-spoken and, what is the word?----
UNDERSTATED.
Ishedeadyet
(5 posts)He doesnt care. When will we understand that? He gets away with everything and he will continue to press the limits as long as he does.
True Blue American
(18,495 posts)Was the beginning of Republican lawlessness. First with his breaking of Unions, tax cuts for the wealthy and then, Iran/ Contra, where many of his staff went to jail. Then a sordid follow up, Bush, lying us into a 21 year wat, the worst recession since the Great Depression, Nixon and now Trump.
Do not excuse Reagan.
BumRushDaShow
(151,125 posts)Nope - he was just the latest version.
Don't forget THIS guy -
Much of what you see 45 doing - "Enemies lists", "refusing to spend Congressionally-appropriated money" (which lead to passage of H.R.7130 - Congressional Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974), came from the lawlessness of Nixon.
This is because 45 has 2 of these 3 former (then youngsters) Nixon (and later Raygun) guys around him -
(Roger Stone and Paul Manafort - the other - Lee Atwater, is no longer around)
BUT since I bring up Lee Atwater, THIS is one of HIS legacies that 45 has deployed -
Example - Misuse of the term "DEI" as a racist dog-whistle "code term" similar to how Atwater described the use of the term "busing" (in terms of trying to desegregate schools back in the '70s).

This is why RACE (and gender, etc) cannot be cavalierly dismissed as "identity politics" as some insist because as is heard in the above video, the white supremacist GOP have "weaponized 'economics'" in order to OPPRESS - not by "class", but by everything else.
The difference between both Nixon/Raygun and 45 is that the former two still had some sense of "honor" within their thievery (and both had ALSO served in some government role prior to becoming President).
45 has NONE of that. He had NEVER served in ANY CAPACITY in the government (municipal/county/state/federal, whether elected, appointed, as a civil servant, or in the military) and has completely TRASHED the "honor system" that has kept this Republic (semi-) together for the past 234 years.
ImNotGod
(638 posts)to him. With 100 percent of the government under fascist control there isn't any tools left to control the dictator and the judge knows it.
Javaman
(63,652 posts)Martin68
(25,509 posts)point. almost everybody has their millets on what they will accept, even libertarians.
Ray Bruns
(5,150 posts)
Martin68
(25,509 posts)travelingthrulife
(2,099 posts)maxrandb
(16,514 posts)malthaussen
(18,078 posts)You're out of your mind, Your Honor.
-- Mal