by Jeff Sessions said “I really am amazed that a judge sitting on an island in the Pacific can issue an order that stops the President of the United States from what appears to be clearly his statutory and constitutional power,” There has been considerable discussion of the phrase “and island in the Pacific”. With that phrase, Sessions made it clear that he considers Hawaii to be a second class state — not a real American state like Alabama. I have no doubt at all that he believes this largely because a majority of residents of Hawaii aren’t white. Our Attorny General is deeply racist and only sometimes able to hide this fact. A Justice Department spokesperson added insult to insult by saying that Hawaii is indeed an island in the Pacific. This is true. Also Bora Bora is an Island in the Pacific. But Judge Watson didn’t issue his order while sitting on Bora Bora or the Island called HAwaii. he was sitting on Ouahu, not Hawaii. US State of Hawaii is an archipelago including 7 large islands only one of which is the island called “Hawaii” in the Pacific. Sessions personally displayed spectacular geographic ignorance saying “I wasn’t diminishing the judge or the island of Hawaii, that beautiful place, give me a break,” None of this is very important.
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Robert Waldmann considers the following as important: law, politics
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There has been considerable discussion of the phrase “and island in the Pacific”. With that phrase, Sessions made it clear that he considers Hawaii to be a second class state — not a real American state like Alabama. I have no doubt at all that he believes this largely because a majority of residents of Hawaii aren’t white. Our Attorny General is deeply racist and only sometimes able to hide this fact.
A Justice Department spokesperson added insult to insult by saying that Hawaii is indeed an island in the Pacific. This is true. Also Bora Bora is an Island in the Pacific. But Judge Watson didn’t issue his order while sitting on Bora Bora or the Island called HAwaii. he was sitting on Ouahu, not Hawaii. US State of Hawaii is an archipelago including 7 large islands only one of which is the island called “Hawaii” in the Pacific.
Sessions personally displayed spectacular geographic ignorance saying “I wasn’t diminishing the judge or the island of Hawaii, that beautiful place, give me a break,”
None of this is very important. What is important is that Sessions challenges the authority of a judge to declare an executive order to be unlawful. ““I was just making the point that’s very real: one judge out of 700 has stopped the President of the United States from doing what he believes is necessary to protect our safety and security.” Sessions has abandoned his claim that his view of what appears statutaory and constitutional should count for more than a judges — that an attorney should be able to over rule a judge. Now he claims that the President’s judgement should count more than any (single) judges view of what the law says.
Judicial procedings start with a single judge (whose judgments can be appealed). Plaintifs do not have direct access to panels of judges. As noted by Hobbes roughly 370 years ago, the law without a judge amounts to mere ink on paper. Sessions’ clearly stated view is that the President should not be subordinate to any law or statute whatsoever. If no single judge can even temorarily stop him, the law can’t stop him. If no single judge can issue a preliminary injunction or a decision, then no panel of judges can hear the case.
Sessions declares that the USA is, and should be, an absolute monarchy.
He is an enemy of the constitution.
However, he has not committed treason (which requires making war not just declaring it) and has not committed another impeachable offence (he did commit perjury during his confirmation hearings and, of course, should be impeached, convicted, removed from office and, I think, disqualified “to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States”).