…The idea of a permanent fence around the park was discussed during the first #Trump admin, including when #protesters thronged the park in the days after the murder of #GeorgeFloyd in May 2020, according to two of the people. After protesters breached temporary fences around the White House complex, Trump was briefly taken to the White House’s underground bunker for security.

#law #RightToProtest #US #Constitution #democracy #fascism

The fence would be installed on the north & south sides of #LafayetteSquare, the people said, allowing officials to shut the park if they deem it necessary. The park, through which visitors commonly access the White House grounds, is across Pennsylvania Avenue NW from the White House & is managed by the National Park Service [ #NPS].

#Trump #law #RightToProtest #US #Constitution #democracy #fascism

#Trump plans to fence #LafayetteSquare — the park near the White House long used by tourists & #protesters

Trump is planning another significant change to #WashingtonDC, a new permanent fence that would allow officials to close the #PublicPark across the street from the executive mansion, according to 3 people who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss administration plans.

#law #RightToProtest #US #Constitution #democracy #fascism
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2026/06/17/trump-plans-fence-around-lafayette-square-park-outside-white-house/

#Trump said Wednesday that he would seek to delay the #Senate confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton his nominee for director of national intelligence [ #DNI], as he renewed pressure on #Congress to pass a #voting restrictions bill — a strict voter identification #law that does not have enough support among #Republicans to advance.

#VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #elections #Constitution #democracy #VoterSuppression #TrumpCoup
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/us/politics/senate-intelligence-nomination-voter-restrictions.html?smid=url-share&smid=nytcore-ios-share&rsrc=cl-share

The president cannot cancel a #Senate hearing, which is set by the panel holding it. But Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) & chair of the #Intelligence Cmte, said in a social media post that Clayton’s hearing would be postponed after #Trump directed Clayton “not to appear.”

Trump’s statement adds to the challenges for Thune, who has faced intense pressure from right-wing lawmakers to push through Trump’s long-sought #election bill.

#VotingRights #Constitution #democracy #VoterSuppression #coup

But #Trump torched that plan in his social media post early Wednesday morning, just hours before Clayton was scheduled to have a confirmation hearing before the #Senate #Intelligence Committee. He said he would delay the proceedings, all but guaranteeing that #BillPulte would take the job at the end of this week as the acting director of national intelligence [ #DNI].

#VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #elections #Constitution #democracy #VoterSuppression #TrumpCoup #Trump

#Trump said Wednesday that he would seek to delay the #Senate confirmation hearing for Jay Clayton his nominee for director of national intelligence [ #DNI], as he renewed pressure on #Congress to pass a #voting restrictions bill — a strict voter identification #law that does not have enough support among #Republicans to advance.

#VotingRights #VRA #CivilRights #elections #Constitution #democracy #VoterSuppression #TrumpCoup
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/17/us/politics/senate-intelligence-nomination-voter-restrictions.html?smid=url-share&smid=nytcore-ios-share&rsrc=cl-share

Suspending #HabeasCorpus was one of two radical ideas #StephenMiller had been pushing that alarmed Mr. Scharf. The other was invoking the #InsurrectionAct to deploy the #military to enforce the #law on #US streets as #protests grew against #deportation sweeps.

Scharf wrote confidential memos to Wiles on both topics….

[article is long, but I recommend reading it]

#Trump #law #judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #ChecksAndBalances #ExecutivePower #Constitution #democracy #WhiteSupremacy #immigration

The #Constitution, Scharf wrote in his memo to #SusieWiles, the WH chief of staff, permits suspension of #HabeasCorpus only in cases of rebellion or invasion. #Courts have almost uniformly held that only #Congress can do it.

He added∶“Even where Congress has explicitly suspended habeas corpus rights, the Supreme Court has held that some alternative process must be provided to defendants, with procedural safeguards akin to a habeas corpus action.”

#Trump #law #ExecutivePower #Constitution

He had helped develop the #Trump team’s legal arguments behind the successful effort to get the Mar-a-Lago #ClassifiedDocuments indictment thrown out, as well as the arguments behind the presidential #immunity case that prevailed at #SCOTUS. He had embraced the most contentious elements of Trump’s agenda, but was quickly coming up against the limit of what the #Constitution, in his reading, could be made to bear.

#HabeasCorpus #law #judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #ExecutivePower #democracy

The man who outlined his concerns in the memo, Mr. Scharf, was no resistance figure. A trim, balding, Harvard-trained lawyer who had run for office in Missouri, he had bemoaned John McCain as too moderate for the 2008 Republican nomination, & believed #Trump had been vindictively prosecuted after his 2020 election loss.

#HabeasCorpus #law #judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #ChecksAndBalances #Constitution #ExecutivePower #democracy #immigration

Yet to a greater degree than previously known, admin ofcls, encouraged by #Trump, actively weighed taking that step in the early months of his 2nd term—this time to accelerate mass #deportation of immigrants…
Flush with a 2024 election victory, Trump & members of his team wanted to test how far the emboldened president’s authority could be pushed, setting off previously unreported internal struggles over where the limits should be.

#HabeasCorpus #law #judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #Constitution

Scharf’s memo, in its unassuming way, was a blinking red warning light. The 2nd #Trump White House was deliberating an explosive new claim of #PresidentialPower: the suspension of habeas rights for unauthorized #immigrants.

The suspension of #HabeasCorpus has occurred just a handful of times in US history, & always under the most dire circumstances of #war or #invasion.

#law #judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #ChecksAndBalances #Constitution #democracy #StephenMiller #WhiteSupremacy #immigration

Dated April 29, 2025, & stamped “confidential,” the memo was careful & lawyerly but amounted to a warning against end-running the rule of #law. The subject line read: “THE WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS.”

#HabeasCorpus — the centuries-old right to force the government to justify, before a judge, why it has locked a person up — is enshrined in Article I of the #Constitution.

#Trump #law #judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #ChecksAndBalances #democracy #StephenMiller #WhiteSupremacy #immigration

Last spring, Will Scharf, an arch- #conservative lawyer serving as the White House staff secretary, wrote a secret memo to the chief of staff that reflected growing unease in the West Wing about one of the extreme measures being weighed by #StephenMiller, the powerful adviser driving Trump’s #deportation campaign.

#Trump #HabeasCorpus #law #judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #ChecksAndBalances #Constitution #democracy #WhiteSupremacy #immigration

#GiftArticle

Frustrated by #Courts, #Trump Weighed Suspending a #ConstitutionalRight

Secret memos show that the White House debated last year, to a greater degree than previously known, whether to limit #HabeasCorpus rights for undocumented #immigrants.

#law #judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #ChecksAndBalances #Constitution #democracy #StephenMiller #WhiteSupremacy #immigration
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/15/us/politics/trump-scharf-habeas-corpus-insurrection-act.html?unlocked_article_code=1.qVA.lXuS.MD3Zz-LZfw_p&smid=nytcore-ios-share