DL Open Thread: Saturday, May 17, 2025

Supreme Court To Trump: No Deportations Without Due Process–At Least, Not For Now:

The Trump administration will not be allowed to deport a group of Venezuelan detainees accused of being members of a violent gang under a rarely invoked wartime law while the matter is litigated in the courts, the Supreme Court said on Friday.

The justices sent the case back to a federal appeals court, directing it to examine claims by the migrants that they could not be legally deported under the Alien Enemies Act, the centuries-old wartime law invoked by the Trump administration. The justices said the appeals court should also examine what kind of notice the government should be required to provide that would allow migrants the opportunity to challenge their deportations.

Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote a dissent, arguing that the justices had no authority to hear the dispute at this stage. He was joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.

The ruling deals a sharp blow to the Trump administration’s efforts to deploy the wartime law to pursue swift, sweeping deportations of Venezuelan migrants accused of being members of the gang, Tren de Aragua.

It also suggests that a majority of the justices may be skeptical of whether the migrants have been afforded enough due process protections by the administration before being deported, potentially to a prison for terrorists in El Salvador.

President Trump reacted with fury to the ruling. “THE SUPREME COURT WON’T ALLOW US TO GET CRIMINALS OUT OF OUR COUNTRY!” he said on social media. In a subsequent post, he wrote, “The Supreme Court of the United States is not allowing me to do what I was elected to do,” and called it “a bad and dangerous day for America.”

Latino Voters Turn Against Trump.  Not that Democrats are doing anything to bring them back into the fold:

DONALD TRUMP’S SUPPORT AMONG LATINO VOTERS, including those who voted for him in 2024, is fracturing, a new poll shared exclusively with The Bulwark found.

The poll by Equis Research, a Democratic group, conducted in conjunction with Data for Progress, showed that 66 percent of Latino voters believe Trump’s deportation actions “are going too far and targeting the types of immigrants who strengthen our nation.”

Critically, that figure included 36 percent of Latinos who voted for Trump in 2024.

A sizable minority of respondents—29 percent—view Trump’s actions as “good and fair,” agreeing with the statement “if some people who are not criminals suffer because of it, it’s the price to pay to ensure our safety.”

And the most interesting data point: Among voters who backed Joe Biden in 2020 but moved to Trump last year—the category Equis calls “Biden defectors”—64 percent said Trump has gone too far on mass deportation.

Those numbers are worse than Trump’s standing among the overall electorate, according to polling averages. And the reason is that Trump supporters in this cohort are more likely than Trump supporters in general to be dissatisfied with his performance. “In all,” reports Equis, “some 15 percent of Latinos who voted for Trump in 2024 currently disapprove of his performance in office.”

“The economy is the lead actor, but immigration is playing an important supporting role,” Odio said. Trump’s net approval rating on the economy, according to the poll, is -26, whereas his overall net approval rating is -22. There was also a huge 22-point swing downward among young Latino men, who were a strength for Trump just six months ago.

I’m sure those voters are just begging for the corporate centrism of the national Democratic Party.  Answer to their prayers.

ShowerCap brings the snark so that I don’t have to. An excerpt:

On the off chance that shit’s not dystopian enough for you yet, Kristi Noem’s DHS is apparently considering a reality show where immigrants would compete for citizenship. Proposed challenges include “working at Kid Rock’s restaurant,” “keeping your damn mouth shut about wage theft,” and “being a White South African.”

(No, there will be no “risking your life to aid the U.S. military in Afghanistan” challenge, why do you ask?)

Oh, and be sure to check out:

It’s a lot, isn’t it? And I know it can seem overwhelming, so before I let you go, allow me to share with you this clip, from Christian nationalist Michigan state Rep. Josh Schriver’s new “album,” if only to remind you that in the long run, we can’t lose, for our opponents are, oh my god, the biggest fucking losers alive. If you click just one link in this blog, you guys

‘Reverential Rap’–the genre you didn’t know you needed.

Something Both Trump And Hillary Clinton Can Agree On–James Comey Sucks.  Lordy, he’s a tool.

It’s Biden’s Fault:  Moody’s lowers US credit rating.  From ‘stable’ to ‘negative’.

More Ethnic Cleansing In Gaza.  Ho-hum, Dog Kills Man, Woman, and Child.  Nothing to see here.  Mustn’t get Puck riled.

MeadowWood Psych Hospital: For years, violations piled upon violations.  Nothing done about it.  Great reporting from Nick Stonesifer:

Hospital staff without CPR certifications. Slow-walked investigations into sexual harassment. And patients given a cocktail of sedatives to “control” their behaviors.

These are some situations outlined in inspection reports citing MeadowWood Behavioral Health Hospital, a New Castle psychiatric facility, for patient safety violations in the last three years.

Yet years of citations went effectively unsanctioned.

These cases were detailed in more than 400 pages of inspection reports dating back to 2022 that were obtained in a Freedom of Information Act request by Spotlight Delaware. The reports, conducted by state officials on behalf of the federal government, also claim the hospital failed to properly report multiple patient deaths and keep track of them for what appears to be an internal review board.

When the government did find the hospital out of compliance, it required MeadowWood to write a “plan of correction,” documents that in some cases went unsigned by hospital leadership for more than a year after an inspection.

MeadowWood is owned by Acadia Healthcare, a behavioral health giant based in Tennessee, which “lured patients” into its psychiatric facilities “and held them against their will,” according to a New York Times investigation.

The state records reviewed by Spotlight Delaware also reveal at least two other deaths that government officials cited MeadowWood for not properly reporting or investigating.

Delaware State Police denied a FOIA request from Spotlight Delaware for completed police reports following a patient death between 2022 and to April 2025.

This report has it all: A link to all the documents and a detailed recounting of the deaths and other violations.  Award-worthy.  Read it.

What do you want to talk about?