Government

Looks Like Jeff Sessions Is Trying To Hurry Up With His Final Solution Before He Gets Fired

Department of Justice will appeal the injunction against family separation.

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Jeff Sessions (Generated by JG JPEG Library)

It’s certainly starting to sound like Jeff Sessions’s reign at the Department of Justice is coming to an end. Trump’s latest attacks against the independent authority of the Attorney General were met with shrugs from Republican Senators, including the hypocritical and spineless Lindsey Graham.

But make no mistake, Sessions intends to terrorize and brutalize non-white families right up until the moment Trump fires him to obstruct the operation of justice. As many know, this country’s awful family separation policy has been estopped by a district judge. Late Friday, the Justice Department filed notice that it plans to appeal. From the San Diego Union-Tribune (gavel bang: ABA Journal):

The Trump administration is appealing a San Diego judge’s preliminary injunction against family separation, although the government assured that an appeal would not derail the current effort to reunify the hundreds of children who remain apart as a result of the administration’s controversial policy.

The notice to appeal was filed with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Friday afternoon, just under the 60-day deadline.

The government did its best to keep its fight to continue family separation from reignited the controversy over family separation:

Deputy Assistant Attorney General Scott Stewart warned the judge overseeing the reunifications that the notice of appeal was coming, but said that it is “standard protocol” and would not disrupt the ongoing reunficiation effort.

The notice preserves the government’s right to appeal the larger issues at stake surrounding families being processed through the U.S. immigration system.

“There are continuous issues being raised by various plaintiffs that have created continued doubt as to the scope and application of the court’s injunction,” Stewart said.

U.S. District Judge Dana Sabraw thanked Stewart for the heads up, saying: “I fully understand the need for all parties to protect their rights.”

There are legal issues with both family separation and the scope of the injunction against it. There are details that are hard to get a handle on, given the administration’s sudden policy decision to start putting children in cages and the court’s quick mandate to make it stop.

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But given this Justice Department, you can’t treat the appeal as a normal attempt to adjudicate a legal dispute. This Justice Department is not interested in putting together a coherent and Constitutional legal response to families coming to the United States without proper documentation. This Justice Department is interested in finding the most draconian punishments to for non-white immigrants that can be rubber-stamped by Trump’s Supreme Court. The Justice Department already got the Supreme Court to pass off on Travel Ban, a.k.a. “Korematsu II.” Clearly they think that if they push this to the Supreme Court, the Court will once again pass off on open bigotry in the name of national security.

Will Jeff Sessions be around to see it through? He clearly wants to be. As a friend of mine said on Facebook, nothing exposes the difference between Lawful Evil and Chaotic Evil like the battle between Sessions and Donald Trump.

Either way, the Confederate Attorney General has made a lasting mark on the once proud Department of Justice. Whoever replaces him, if he is replaced, will likely carry on the DOJ’s policy of racism and cruelty.

Trump administration appeals judge’s preliminary injunction on family separation [San Diego Union-Tribune]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive 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.

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