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Culture War Roundup for the week of March 17, 2025

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Many norms are being broken, but almost never by Trump

Come off it. You can argue that invoking war powers in peacetime is technically legal, but it is definitely unprecedented.

Impounding spending, while not unprecedented, is a clear breach of norms about separation of powers (and the law, assuming that the Impoundment Control Act is constitutional).

Obfuscating the org chart of a powerful office within the EOP, for example by issuing a press release saying that Elon Musk is head of DOGE and then saying in a court filing that it is actually Amy Gleason, is a breach of norms about basic honesty (and possibly also perjury).

On the other hand, district court judges issuing nationwide injunctions against executive policies that appear to be facially illegal is now, unfortunately, entirely normal.

Come off it. You can argue that invoking war powers in peacetime is technically legal, but it is definitely unprecedented.

Are you familiar with the 2001 AUMF? There are 24 years of precedence, including the use of this authorisation to justify the NSA's warrantless surveillance.

Are you familiar with the 2001 AUMF? There are 24 years of precedence, including the use of this authorisation to justify the NSA's warrantless surveillance.

The AUMF was a declaration of war in all but name, and led to an actual shooting war in Afghanistan. I would prefer that the Congress use the words "Declaration of War" when it exercises its article I power to declare war, because I am a spergy believer in rectification of names, but all three branches of government treated the AUMF as a declaration of war.

The 2001 AUMF is actually still in effect and gives the President total authority over who qualifies as a target. If you want to claim that there's something unprecedented about the use of wartime powers in supposed peace you're just flat out wrong - Trump wasn't involved in politics at all when the 2001 AUMF was put in place, and previous governments have used it to justify the warrantless surveillance of the entire American population. There are over two decades of precedents for this kind of behavior! I actually agree with you that this is bad, but you just look uninformed if you think that this is some brand new abuse of power.