We Are Now In A Cold Civil War

Like America in the 1850s, right now many of us are still hoping that the lawyers will sort it out.

(Photo courtesy of Getty)

(Photo courtesy of Getty)

So far, 16 state attorneys general have come out against the Muslim ban. State Department officials are drafting a letter of dissent against the ban. And let’s not forget all the mayors who came out against President Trump’s “sanctuary city” order.

It might seem like Trump and his executive branch are conducting a war against immigrants, or against Islam. But that’s just the spin the Trump administration wants you to believe. They’re confident they’ll win a war against immigrants. They know that their bigoted base — people who are too cowardly to seek truth or nuance about our real threats — will support that war.

No, Trump’s real war is against us. His real battle is with American cosmopolitans. His targets are our sense of inclusiveness, our separation of powers, and our belief in the rule of law. Trump is fighting a civil war, and like the first one, the battle lines are regional. Once again, it’s urban versus rural. Once again, it’s people who think that discrimination against others is integral to “their way of life” versus elites who think America is better than that.

Trump has managed to flip the state’s rights v. federal authority issue on its head. But that was always an overblown casus belli for the original conflict: The South never believed in the rights of new states to choose slavery or freedom for themselves, the North never believed the feds could allow Southerners to bring their free laborers to the North. The question of whether the federal government can force you to treat people equally, or unequally, appears to be timeless.

Like America in the 1850s, right now many of us are still hoping that the lawyers will sort it out. It will remain a “cold” civil war, so long as we can continue to use courts instead of battlefields. If you are a lawyer and you are listening to this, you ARE the resistance. Lawyers are not allowed to have “no opinion” on Trump’s executive actions. Either you think they’re horrible and are doing what you can to fight, or you think legalized discrimination is or can be made constitutional. Even if your legal opinion matters only to your parents, IT MATTERS TO YOUR PARENTS. So either you are a part of the fight or a part of the problem, no matter how many splinters you’ve gotten in your ass from riding the fence.

Just because we’re fighting it out in the courts now, doesn’t mean anybody will accept their decisions. In 1857, the Supreme Court ruled, definitively, that black people were not citizens anywhere in the country, and that Congress had no right to restrict the growth of slavery. The Dred Scott decision was the Court’s attempt to stop the coming of war.

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They wanted it to be one way, but it was the other way. The Dred Scott decision caused the war as much as one legal finding can do such a thing.

Abolitionists and other anti-slavery advocates simply refused to accept the Supreme Court’s rewrite of American values. It’s not hard to imagine the same thing happening again. It’s not hard to imagine the Supreme Court upholding the Muslim ban or some other atrocious Trump policy. It’s not hard to imagine the deciding vote coming from Trump’s hand-picked appointment to a seat that was brazenly stolen from the Obama administration by Senate Republicans. And it’s not hard to imagine progressiveness regarding such a decision as illegitimate on its face. Hell, I basically already have my post calling for the total disregard for stolen, pro-Trump SCOTUS decisions, written and just filed away like it’s a Gerald Ford obituary.

But people like me accepting or not accepting a Supreme Court decision will not get us into a shooting war. The President of the United States not accepting a Supreme Court decision very much could. And, because of the kind of person we elected, that possibility is entirely on the table. Let’s say that the Court strikes down the Muslim ban. Let’s say Roberts or Kennedy does not want “bigot” to be in the first paragraph of their judicial obituaries. Will Trump accept the ruling? Already, we have reports that some officials are ignoring the temporary stay on Trump’s executive order. Already, we have reports of immigration officials trying to trick people into self-deportation. We expect Trump to be more reasonable than these people? There’s simply no evidence that Trump respects our institutions enough to listen to them.

And even if the Trump Administration does bow to supreme legal authority, it doesn’t mean his pissed-off, ill-informed, heavily armed supporters will. Even Canada has homegrown assholes terrorizing Muslims. Will there be Trump voters who turn violent if Courts try to block their bigotry?

Regardless of what side you are on, you should be afraid right now. I’m terrified. That’s easy for me to say because I’m liberal, and acknowledging my fears doesn’t make my prick stop working. I know the truck-nutz crowd thinks being afraid of war makes you weak. But I have two children and I don’t want to die for them, I want to live for them.

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Just not on my knees. When Trump talks about the “blood of patriots,” he’s talking about my blood. He’s threatening to spill it should I stand in the way of his bigotry, even if I’m standing only because he’s backed me into a corner. He’s backed us into a corner. And if the Trump forces aren’t afraid of that, they should look up what happens when you back something into a corner.

We’ll keep fighting our proxy wars. In the courts, in the media, whatever. We’ll keep watching Republicans who installed this man suddenly act surprised that he’s doing exactly what he said he would, and find constructive ways to use them against him. We’ll keep debating whether or not it’s okay to punch a Nazi in the face who is trying to take over your country, as opposed to organizing to go out there and punch Nazis.

But this is starting to feel like the deep breath before the plunge. You can’t turn O’Hare into a gulag with a “deportation force.” You need an “invasion force.” New Yorkers weren’t willing to turn on immigrants after 9/11, you’ll not get them to sell out their neighbors now. Trump seems prepared to do whatever it takes, legal or illegal, to turn America into an apartheid state. Millions are mobilizing to stop him.

We are at an impasse. Don’t blink.

Attorneys General From 16 States Condemn Trump Immigration Order [Huffington Post]

Earlier: Court Hits Pause On Muslim Ban, But Nation Remains On A Precipice
Trump’s ‘Sanctuary Cities’ Order Violates The Republican Parts Of The Constitution Too


Elie Mystal is an editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.