The Federal Judiciary—the real shadow government

I keep trying to explain to folks that our federal system has fallen. That our democratic avenues for change are obliterated. Our courts (save the Supreme Court) hold no real power. They will not do anything.

When I say the courts won’t do anything, I do not mean the courts, themselves, are not, in some cases, attempting to operate in their normal capacity.

I mean the orders from the courts, the holdings, the rulings, the demands… they will hold no power over the CHOICES this regime makes.

And therefore, the courts hold no power to change or stop or upend what is happening.

To be clear, we will continue to see the courts operate. Lawsuits will be filed. Cases will be heard and settled. And… any case that has implications for our federal system is ULTIMATELY under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court was handpicked for this and it has picked its side.

It can take years for cases to work their way up from the district courts, to the appellate courts, to the Supreme Court. Sometimes certain elements of a case will reach the high court to be decided and sent back to the lower courts to continue litigation.

Recognizing this process as evidence that our courts are functioning and hold weight against a fascist regime is a dangerous illusion.

The end of the road is the Supreme Court. And again, the SC has picked its side. And when it rules against the wishes of the regime (Abrego-Garcia)… the regime has proven it holds no qualms about defying the Court’s orders. The only reason this regime does anything, takes any action, is because it benefits them in one form or another.

The federal courts (district and appellate)… hold no weight. The Supreme Court handed Trump absolute immunity for official acts and presumptive immunity for everything else. The only way to prove an act is personal, not official, is to bring a case. You must have standing to bring a case. You must also overcome the “presumptive immunity standard.” And the court that would ultimately determine whether you met that standard would be the Supreme Court. It makes the final call.

The regime WILL do what it wants whether those actions are legal/constitutional. And it will ultimately be supported by the Supreme Court, which, every time it rules, is reinforcing the legality of this fascist regime. It is becoming law through precedent. Which brings me to my next point.

If the lower courts hold no weight, and the Supreme Court is “writing law” through ITS interpretation of the law at issue in the case before them… it does not matter what legislation moves through congress. Why?

Judicial review.

Judicial review is the power the Supreme Court granted itself in 1803 (Marbury v Madison) which makes the federal judiciary the final call on legislation… and the Supreme Court the final call on the federal courts. Funny how that works.

What does this mean? It means that Congress can pass whatever legislation it wants and if the courts rule that the legislation is not within the meaning of the constitution, then it’s invalid and cannot be implemented.

The shadow government is the Judiciary. It fully controls the extent of the law. The meaning of the Constitution does not sit within the words of the document. The meaning is hidden in the precedent set by the Supreme Court's interpretations of those words.  Words mean nothing without definition. The Court always decides in the end.

Note that these are judges appointed by the president, not elected by the voters… power controlling power. And you may say “well Congress confirms these judges, so the people get a say.” Lol. We just watched our Democrat senators confirm Trump judges across the country. Did you vote for that?

Furthermore, at the end of the day, the system (the president, the head actor of the system) selected that judge. That judge does not recognize their power as awarded by the people. They see it as awarded by the system. Their job is to administer the law. Their DUTY is to the system. Their loyalty… is to the system. And by the time they get to the bench, they are decades into careers that live and breathe the system.

Attorneys and judges live in a different world. They, for the most part, live above the system they are controlling. They don't feel the impact. They have the connections. They hold the power. Attorneys are the crafters of judicial review. They create the theory behind the judge's ruling. As such, lawyers are the system, too.

We are not humans to them. We are cases. We are precedents. We are examples of law. Even the good ones. There are very few who get it. The ease with which law professors discuss CLEARY unjust, oppressive, constitutionally destructive, serve-the-system-against-the-people rulings is appalling. With a shrug and "it's the law."

Law is a game. And “law” is synonymous with “system.”  We are not the players. We’re the pawns.

This is all to say, politics don’t really matter, because the courts control the levers of change. You can elect whoever you want, but so long as judicial precedent is the ultimate law, we will remain strapped to a system serving itself.

This is not a new concept. Every time we make progress, the judicial process rolls back the clocks. Sometimes it takes 10, 20, 30 years. But they never give up the fight. They tell you this is just how democracy works. Slow change over time. How would they know that? America is the first of the modern democracies. WE are the experiment. So… what if this ISN’T how it works? What if that’s a lie to prevent us from tearing the whole thing down and starting over.

We are sitting on 222 years of mishmash precedent handed down by the Supreme Court controlling how far the people are allowed to stretch the Constitution. It is a tangled web to say the least. The Court can pick and choose what precedent it wishes to apply and when. Or it just makes up a new one. To serve the system. Even in good times, the system serves the system.

The system… must… go.