The news cycle is still exploding. Today’s weird word is that the Mayor of Newark, New Jersey, Ras Baraka (D) has been arrested for protesting outside of an ICE facility. The mayor was protesting the opening of the facility (by a private prison group) because the group did not get the proper operating permits. But Alina Habba, who is now the interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey, has a different version of the facts, one which has Baraka breaking the law.
BREAKING: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka has been arrested for allegedly trespassing inside an ICE detention center in his city.
“Baraka committed trespass and ignored multiple warnings… No one is above the law,” said Alina Habba, the former Trump attorney recently appointed as… pic.twitter.com/AQycV4gRU2
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) May 9, 2025
Habba needs to prove the “trespass” and my guess is that Baraka has the better case proving that the operating permits are not in order. But the point is that we have political theater and spectacle. That’s always the point, there is no other. And this is taking place on the same day that Stephen Miller is talking about suspending the right of habeas corpus, which is because we’re at war, in Miller’s *mind.*
Menendez Jr: They feel no weight of the law and no restraint on what they should be doing. And that was shown in broad daylight today when they not just arrested the Mayor of Newark but when they put their hands on two members of congress standing behind me. How is this… pic.twitter.com/zTlKDSlH7w
— Acyn (@Acyn) May 9, 2025
Stephen Miller says they are “actively looking at” suspending the writ of habeas corpus, which is only allowed when the US has been invaded or during an insurrection, which would not allow people to challenge their incarceration in court if they are arrested and detained. pic.twitter.com/vK3ELIMoYj
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) May 9, 2025
I love it when non lawyers argue the law. The reason I love it is that I remember all too vividly how we would read our cases and show up to class, thinking that we knew what was going on, and in the course of the class the professor would display how what you think you know at first blush and what the laws on the books have actually been through before they got on the books are two different things. Once you start challenging the law with what it was before, what happened, and what the law became, then and only then do you really understand the law as it is written.
Stephen Miller believes he’s the smartest guy in the room. Let’s see him get a law degree. There’s some reason he doesn’t do that, I guess because he figures the degree is non essential. I look at Miller peacocking here and I think of some Constitutional expert, such as Michael Luttig listening to this, and I don’t know whether to laugh or cry. Judge Luttig probably doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
Meanwhile, let’s see if Miller and Habba can figure out a way to lock up the mayor of Newark and throw away the key. That’s the focus now.
This is a giant Trumpian trial balloon. And it’s going to come crashing down to earth faster than it went up. It is, nevertheless, horrifying that this is even under discussion and especially on a day when a prominent Democratic mayor has been arrested on some flimsy pretext.
A trial balloon made of lead.
It won’t even get off the ground and will collapse under it’s own weight.
I never took Latin, nor despite all the time I spent at my best friend’s house so many evenings in the years before becoming a Marine get formal training in the law. However it’s my understanding that Habeas Corpus translates to ‘thou shalt have the body’ which in legal proceedings means produce the defendant in court so the charges can be filed and a response to them (guilty or not guilty) given.
I know it’s wrong to wish ill on others. And would certainly not advocate or condone active violence and threats towards Stephen Miller’s life. Or even beating every bit of the copious amounts of shit he’s stuffed with out of him. I’ll stick to mere criticism which is legal.
Having said that IF he were to have say a brain or aortic aneurism blow out and be dead before he hits the floor by all means Habeas Corpus is in order. For something like this scene from the last Silence of the Lambs movie (only with Miller being already dead):
Hey…for the Duke trained nazi…why not wait until the national insurrection starts for real…then we’ll see how many of the grunts in your armies will fire on unarmed citizens who refuse to go quietly. After that, I suspect more will wake up to what you nazi phuckers are doing.