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PaperclipPerfector  14d ago (text post)   29651 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of March 17, 2025

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This is fundamentally driven by the Trump administration's attempt to overturn Humphrey's Executor. The law setting up USIP says that the non-ex officio members of the Board can only be fired for cause. Trump attempted to fire them anyway. If Humphrey's Executor is good law, then Trump can't fire the board members, three random board members can't pass a resolution at a meeting from which the majority of the board is excluded, Moose was never fired, Jackson is some rando trying to break into an office building, and the DOGE employees and the police protecting them are common burglars. If Humphrey's Executor is wrong, then Trump fired most of the board, the remaining board members fired Moose, Jackson is the new president, the DOGE employees are his invited guests, and the police were quite properly escorting a fired employee off the premises.

This is an uncommonly silly way to set up a hard-to-punt test case, but if anyone involved sues then it will indeed do so. The litigation is a slam-dunk for Moose unless Humphrey's Executor is overruled. And the fate of Humphrey's Executor can only be decided by SCOTUS.

I mentioned this up thread but Humphrey’s Executor has been pretty extremely narrowed over the years. It isn’t clear to me one needs to overrule it to conclude Trump’s actions were fine.

Maybe the Trump team knows they have a malfeasance case in USIP sponsoring overseas violence other intellegience agency shenanigans.

If the board members stay fired, they keep their secrets.

If they press the issue, then Trump is forced to show his cards.

Given that Trump's people have repeatedly said that they believe Humphrey's Executor was wrongly decided, I don't think a complex explanation is needed. The administration is unapologetically breaking the law because they believe the law they are violating is unconstitutional and that SCOUTUS will eventually rule in their favour.

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