{"id":111847,"date":"2025-03-25T15:59:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T23:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/25\/dc-circuit-judge-reminds-us-we-were-nicer-to-literal-nazis-than-venezuelan-nationals\/"},"modified":"2025-03-25T15:59:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-25T23:59:32","slug":"dc-circuit-judge-reminds-us-we-were-nicer-to-literal-nazis-than-venezuelan-nationals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/03\/25\/dc-circuit-judge-reminds-us-we-were-nicer-to-literal-nazis-than-venezuelan-nationals\/","title":{"rendered":"DC Circuit Judge Reminds Us We Were Nicer To *Literal Nazis* Than Venezuelan Nationals"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When politicians talk about being \u201ctough on crime,\u201d there\u2019s an unspoken understanding that what they mean is that they\u2019re going to be tough on criminals. Given the presumption of innocence and notions of due process baked in to our judicial system, its been long understood that you had to prove that the \u201ccriminals\u201d were actually<\/em> criminals before you could get tough on them. The Trump administration decided to bypass all of that \u2014 \u201clooking criminal\u201d is enough to get you on the wrong side of the law. Over 200 Venezuelan nationals were deported for their alleged ties to the criminal gang Tren De Aragua, but the government never met the burden<\/a> of proving that they were, you know, members of or affiliated with the gang. The presumption shift to assuming guilt unless proven innocent has been waved away by Trump\u2019s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, but a D.C. Circuit judge was quick to point out that there was an (almost universally understood to be bad) group of foreign nationals that fared much better under this law\u2019s enforcement: Nazis. Law.com <\/a>has coverage:<\/p>\n

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\u201cThere were planeloads of people. There were no procedures in place to notify people,\u201d said Judge Patricia Millett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. \u201cNazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act when this happened here, where the proclamation required the promulgation of regulations and they had hearing boards before people were removed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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\u201cThe question is whether the implementation of this proclamation, without any process to determine whether people qualify under it\u201d is valid, Millett said. \u201cIf the government says we don\u2019t have to give process for that, then y\u2019all could have picked me up on Saturday and thrown me on a plane thinking I\u2019m a member of Tren de Aragua and given me no chance to protest it and say somehow it\u2019s a violation of presidential war powers for me to say, \u2018Excuse me. No, I\u2019m not. I\u2019d like a hearing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Substituting evidence and due process for vibes and punishment is exactly the sort of thing the tyranny fighting Founding Fathers started a war over. There\u2019s a technical issue over whether the case should have been brought in Texas or D.C. that should thrill the 1Ls that are finally getting a mental grip on questions of venue, but the focus really should remain on the threat to liberty these rapid deportations pose. As obvious as it is to say that sending someone to a slave labor camp should at least involve a trial, there\u2019s a new way to articulate the bare minimum: we should at least offer people the bare respect for due process that we offered Nazis. <\/p>\n

\u2018Nazis Got Better Treatment\u2019: DC Circuit Judge Slams DOJ Attorney on Alien Enemies Act Deportations<\/a> [Law.com]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Trump White House Tests Supreme Court Loyalty With Increasingly Crackpot Legal Arguments<\/a><\/p>\n

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Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor<\/a>, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0cwilliams@abovethelaw.com<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The post DC Circuit Judge Reminds Us We Were Nicer To *Literal Nazis* Than Venezuelan Nationals<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When politicians talk about being \u201ctough on crime,\u201d there\u2019s an unspoken understanding that what they mean is that they\u2019re going to be tough on criminals. Given the presumption of innocence and notions of due process baked in to our judicial system, its been long understood that you had to prove that the \u201ccriminals\u201d were actually<\/em> criminals before you could get tough on them. The Trump administration decided to bypass all of that \u2014 \u201clooking criminal\u201d is enough to get you on the wrong side of the law. Over 200 Venezuelan nationals were deported for their alleged ties to the criminal gang Tren De Aragua, but the government never met the burden<\/a> of proving that they were, you know, members of or affiliated with the gang. The presumption shift to assuming guilt unless proven innocent has been waved away by Trump\u2019s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, but a D.C. Circuit judge was quick to point out that there was an (almost universally understood to be bad) group of foreign nationals that fared much better under this law\u2019s enforcement: Nazis. Law.com <\/a>has coverage:<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\u201cThere were planeloads of people. There were no procedures in place to notify people,\u201d said Judge Patricia Millett of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. \u201cNazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act when this happened here, where the proclamation required the promulgation of regulations and they had hearing boards before people were removed.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\n

\u201cThe question is whether the implementation of this proclamation, without any process to determine whether people qualify under it\u201d is valid, Millett said. \u201cIf the government says we don\u2019t have to give process for that, then y\u2019all could have picked me up on Saturday and thrown me on a plane thinking I\u2019m a member of Tren de Aragua and given me no chance to protest it and say somehow it\u2019s a violation of presidential war powers for me to say, \u2018Excuse me. No, I\u2019m not. I\u2019d like a hearing.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Substituting evidence and due process for vibes and punishment is exactly the sort of thing the tyranny fighting Founding Fathers started a war over. There\u2019s a technical issue over whether the case should have been brought in Texas or D.C. that should thrill the 1Ls that are finally getting a mental grip on questions of venue, but the focus really should remain on the threat to liberty these rapid deportations pose. As obvious as it is to say that sending someone to a slave labor camp should at least involve a trial, there\u2019s a new way to articulate the bare minimum: we should at least offer people the bare respect for due process that we offered Nazis. <\/p>\n

\u2018Nazis Got Better Treatment\u2019: DC Circuit Judge Slams DOJ Attorney on Alien Enemies Act Deportations<\/a> [Law.com]<\/p>\n

Earlier<\/strong>: Trump White House Tests Supreme Court Loyalty With Increasingly Crackpot Legal Arguments<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord\u2122 in the Facebook group\u00a0Law School Memes for Edgy T14s<\/a>. \u00a0He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who is learning to swim,\u00a0a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor<\/a>, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at\u00a0[email\u00a0protected]<\/a>\u00a0and by tweet at\u00a0@WritesForRent<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When politicians talk about being \u201ctough on crime,\u201d there\u2019s an unspoken understanding that what they mean is that they\u2019re going to be tough on criminals. Given the presumption of innocence and notions of due process baked in to our judicial system, its been long understood that you had to prove that the \u201ccriminals\u201d were actually […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":111848,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-111847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/image-7-7JGesv.png?fit=150%2C150&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111847"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111847\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}