Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Whoa! SCOTUS Makes Major Ruling with Instant Impact

Episode Date: June 24, 2025

In a 6-3 decision that Justice Sotomayor calls an “abuse of power” by the Supreme Court which turns the nature of Due Process on its head, and rewards the Trump Administration’s flagrant violation of federal court orders, the Supreme Court just ruled that human beings without due process or even limited notice can be deported to dangerous countries they are not even from, like South Sudan and Libya. Michael Popok explains how the MAGA majority of the Court just rewarded Trump’s bad behavior. Square: Get up to $200 off Square hardware when you sign up at https://square.com/go/legalaf! #squarepod Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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need to get from work to play with confidence this season. Hurry in. Employee pricing is on for a limited time. Visit your local GMC dealer for details. In breaking news, I'm sad to report that the United States Supreme Court, six to three, has just turned due process upside down has just turned due process upside down and Fifth Amendment rights upside down by in a one paragraph decision blocking a ruling by a Massachusetts federal judge that required, get this, notice and due process before you take a poor immigrant and remove them to a country that's dangerous that's not where he's from like the Sudan or Libya. That's what Donald Trump's been doing

in the middle of the night, without due process, without even real any notice at all. In violation of federal court rulings, he's putting people on planes and sending them to dangerous locations that they are not even from. Third party removal, third country removal, and has been getting away with it. And now has gotten away with it again

because he's exploiting the emergency application process on a skeletal record with no oral argument, which results in all they got to do is vote and make a one paragraph ruling and the entire world of our jurisprudence turned upside down. Justice Sotomayor, who along with Kagan and Jackson wrote at powerful dissent, I say that a lot,

it's either Sotomayor, Kagan, or Jackson, but Sotomayor said in effect that this court, the Supreme Court is abusing its powers. She's never seen more abuse of power. And that the equitable relief that Trump is seeking, the stay should have been denied him for one major fundamental reason he has unclean hands I mean literally I'm sure he has unclean hands but that's a legal doctrine that says if you come to the court in equity and you ask the court to do something like grant a stay you have to be blameless you have to have clean

hands and then she cataloged from the record, all the times this administration in this case has violated a judge's order, sending a gay man to Mexico, where he had been raped and tortured, sending him back to Mexico on false evidence provided to a federal judge that he agreed to go to Mexico. That's one dirty hand.

Another person sent to Libya after the court ordered that they be given notice and due process and the court and Donald Trump did it anyway. See, the Supreme Court is rewarding the unconstitutional behavior of Donald Trump every time they rule in his favor this way. And I'm trying to make heads or tails of it because I thought what came out of the body of law they developed on emergency applications over the last three months, I thought what the synthesis of that was is that at least they get notice, do process,

and get before a federal judge. Then how do you explain this one paragraph? And at some point right now, I'm going to read to you from the one paragraph because that is the entirety of the decision. And then I'll read to you from excerpts of Judge Justice Sotomayor. You're here on Midas Touch Network. I'm livid. You should be too. But we got to

speak truth to each other first and understand and unpack this decision. And then where do we go from here? All right. Case comes up from Massachusetts, an emergency application once again. That's why Donald Trump is winning at the Supreme Court. He's stampeding them into decisions. He's up 8 to 4 at the Supreme Court. He's losing 96% at the trial court level. Same amount at the appeals level, but he's 8 to 4 at the Supreme Court because he's got the numbers. The MAGA MAGA right. It's always 6 to 3 on these issues. I would have thought given the work they've

already done on immigration and notice and due process they would have thought given the work they've already done on immigration and notice and due process, they would have not ruled this way. I was wrong. First, let me read to you from the one paragraph decision that rocked the world of due process. Ready? The application for stay presented to Justice Jackson and referred to the court is granted.

The preliminary injunction of the district court below is stayed pending the disposition of the appeal at the first circuit. That's about it. We're going to let Donald Trump and we're going to reward his bad and unconstitutional behavior and we're going to let him continue to deport people in the middle of the night to dangerous countries that they have no relationship to without notice and due process and we're okay with it. Support for today's episode comes from Square. Your all-in-one business partner making your day-to-day easier. From point-of-sale systems and payments to inventory and customer tools,

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when you sign up at square.com slash go slash legal AF. That's S-Q-U-A-R-E.com slash go slash legal AF. Run your business smarter with Square. Get started today. You know who's not okay with it? The three moderates and the fair-minded people on the United States Supreme Court. Sub-Temma Mayor reminds the court,

before calling it an abusive power that she's never seen before, that there is a doctrine of unclean hands if you come to this court asking for equitable relief You better have clean hands and she details and documents all the violations of federal court orders That Donald Trump is being rewarded for now Under the doctrine of unclean hands, so she says on page 10 of her dissent, joined by Kagan and Katanji Brown Jackson, for centuries courts have closed the doors of equity

to those tainted with inequitableness or bad faith relative to the matter in which they seek relief. That principle rooted in the historical concept of the court of equity as a vehicle for affirmatively enforcing the requirements of conscious and good faith, ensures the courts do not become the better of inequity. Here, in violation of the unambiguous TRO, the government flew four non-citizens to Guantanamo Bay and from there to El Salvador. She then goes on and talks

about the Mexican citizen who was sent to Mexico where he had been raped under false evidence and then concludes on page 11, in light of the government's flagrantly unlawful conduct, today's decision might suggest the government faces extraordinary harms. Yet even that is not the case. Rather, following a recent trend, the court appears to give no serious consideration to the extraordinary harms. Yet even that is not the case. Rather, following a recent trend, the court appears to give no serious consideration to the irreparable harm being suffered by these individuals factor. The judge also says that this is an abuse of power of this court. She said, I cannot join so gross, talking about her

fellow Supreme Court Justice, so gross and abuse of the court's equitable discretion to grant this stay. And here's how she concludes this dissent. We should just create like a coffee table book of the best of Sotomayor, Kagan, and Kataji Brown Jackson's dissents because they were one day by other people, our future generations of Americans will look back on these dissents and say they were on the right side of history and that the supermajority was wrong and a stain and a scar of the United States Supreme Court. I assure you. Here's how she concludes. The due process clause represents the principle that ours is a government of laws, not of men, and that we submit ourselves

to rulers only if under rules, citing to a case from 1952 we call Youngstown. By rewarding lawlessness of the Trump administration, the court once again undermines that fundamental principle. Apparently, the court finds the idea that thousands will suffer violence in far-flung locales more palatable than the remote possibility that a district court exceeded its remedial powers when it ordered the government to provide notice and process to which the plaintiffs are constitutionally and statutorily entitled. That use of discretion is as incomprehensible as it is inexcusable.

Respectfully, but regretfully, I dissent. So do I. is as incomprehensible as it is inexcusable, respectfully, but regretfully, I dissent. So do I, so do I. What happens next? Well, this is just going to embolden the Trump administration to continue to do what it's been doing, violating due process rights, violating habeas corpus rights, not giving proper notice,

and it will encourage them to continue to violate federal court orders because there seems to be no repercussion. The federal courts try to hold them in contempt. The appellate courts take away that right. The Supreme Court doesn't want to hold anybody in contempt. So federal judges become powerless and toothless and the Trump administration knows it.

So they keep going for broke. They keep pushing the button because they know it's going to be successful and this Supreme Court's gonna defend them. We need regime change. We need regime change that starts at the midterm of elections and make sure that no more federal judges

get appointed by Donald Trump from now until the midterms. And certainly no Supreme Court justices. We gotta take back the House and the Senate. There's just no other explanation. I've, I've had just to end it this way, the entirety of my life, the entirety of my adult life, no, child life, has been a Republican-dominated Supreme Court. We've never had in the last 50 years plus the Democrats and the moderates and the liberals in charge of the Supreme Court. That's got to change. And I'm not lamenting that because I could agree in the past with

Sandra Day O'Connor or Brennan or Black or Black men or you name it, Supreme Court Justice of the past, Breyer, Kennedy. I just can't abide this super mega bought and paid for by the Federalist Society, super right-wing majority. And I won't and will continue to call it out here on Legal AF and on the Minus Touch Network. Take a moment, hit the subscribe button for Minus Touch, come over and do the same thing for Legal AF, the YouTube channel. And I'll be posting this particular decision so you can read it for yourself on the Legal AF Substack. So until my next report, I'm Michael Pumfuck.

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