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GUEST COMMENTARY - Running to more than a thousand pages with an array of bureaucratic layers sufficient to confuse even the most dedicated observer, President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is entirely too complicated and confusing to be understood in months, never mind in a few days or weeks. Those who wrote and champion the bill are, to say the least, precisely why the nation’s voters view Congress with historic levels of contempt and mistrust.
Section 70302 of that Act, to site but one glaring example, is so cynical, so callous and so blatantly unconstitutional that it staggers the imagination; there’s little doubt that the sponsors buried it in hopes that nobody would notice. As its numeric designation suggests, it is clearly intended to be hidden from plain sight.
70302 will require the posting of a bond before any individual or group can sue the government, a requirement which severely restricts access to courts and places a monetary value on the right to justice (if you can’t afford it, you can’t go to court). Distilled down to its essence, that literally destroys the rule of law in the United States, placing the Executive branch above and beyond the reach of the courts.
70302 will severely restrict, if not simply destroy, the ability of courts to hold elected officials and bureaucrats to account for illegal actions.
When somebody elects to violate the law, as the Trump administration has done on numerous occasions in its zeal to deport anybody who isn’t white, Christian and obedient to the will of the White House, those who wish to hold them to account seek justice in court. To date, courts have stepped in to deny or delay the administration’s brazen contempt for due process of law in more than one hundred instances; under 70203, few if any of those cases would ever get to court.
70302 will not apply exclusively to immigration initiatives. There is no doubt that the administration’s ceaseless efforts to tamper with election laws, borne of the President’s utterly baseless assertions of prior election “fraud,” would also be exempt from court review.
70302 will strip the courts of any power to prevent or reverse violations of the right to due process of law, the right to vote, the right to charge and prove government discrimination. Injunctions, restraining orders, citations and fines for contempt of court will be rendered null and void. Under 70302, there will be no law at all.
It is not difficult – indeed, it’s all too easy – to imagine the breadth and scope of fascism which will result. When any who dare to challenge the President by demonstrating, protesting, boycotting or publishing, for example, commentaries including this one, what would prevent the Department of Justice from arresting, fining or jailing those who dissent? When members of the House or Senate speak out against White House initiatives, could protections of the First Amendment be rendered impotent by an Executive Order which transforms dissent into treason?
However big it may be – and it is nothing less than catastrophic – 70302 is anything but beautiful, It is Brazen, Blatant and Brutal and no representative sworn to protect and defend the Constitution can vote to support it.
There has never been, and should never be, a more dramatic or crucial test of our commitment to the rule of law. This is where our democracy thrives or fails.
(David M. Hamlin is a writer whose work frequently focuses on civil liberties and justice. You can find links to his work at www.dmhwrites.com.)
