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Another Gift to Trump: Supreme Court Lifts Lower Court Ban on 'Blatant Racial Profiling' by ICE Agents
"The court has opened the door to profiling practices that will expose millions of Latinos to harassment, wrongful detention, and fear in their daily lives," said one organization.
Sep 08, 2025
The US Supreme Court on Monday gave its approval for federal immigration agents to stop and detain anyone in the Los Angeles area based on factors including "the type of work one does," a person's use of Spanish or accented English, or their "apparent race or ethnicity"—allowing what critics called "blatant racial profiling" to be used to carry out President Donald Trump's mass detention and deportation plan.
The court's three liberal justices dissented, but the right-wing majority sided with the Department of Homeland Security, whose agents in recent months have carried out sweeping raids across the Los Angeles area, including in incidents that have been caught on video and appear to be armed roundups of large randomized groups of Latino people—not operations targeted at arresting violent criminals, as the Trump administration has previously suggested.
The court did not provide an explanation of its reasoning, but Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a separate opinion expressing agreement with the ruling, saying the court was simply allowing immigration agents to use "commonsense" criteria for stopping and detaining people, including their English proficiency and the type of work they do.
In their dissenting opinion, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote, "We should not have to live in a country where then government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low-wage job."
"Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent," wrote Sotomayor.
Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council (AIC) said the ruling by the right-wing majority has troubling implications.
"Because a sizeable portion of Los Angeles's low-income Latino community is undocumented," he said, the court believes "it is inherently acceptable for [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] to stop and question any Latino working a low-wage job that is seen seeking Spanish."
Civil rights groups joined several individuals in filing a lawsuit against the administration earlier this year, arguing that thousands of people in Los Angeles have been wrongly arrested in unconstitutional, "indiscriminate immigration operations."
"Individuals with brown skin are approached or pulled aside by unidentified federal agents, suddenly and with a show of force," the plaintiffs argued, "and made to answer questions about who they are and where they are from."
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents have been violating the US Constitution's Fourth Amendment, they said, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures.
In July, Judge Maame E. Frimpong in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, ordered agents not to stop or arrest people in the Los Angeles area based on factors including race and ethnicity, language spoken, or their involvement in particular kinds of work including at day-laborer or farming sites.
The Trump administration later appealed to the Supreme Court, saying the lower court's order had unlawfully interfered with ICE operations and claiming agents use discretion to ensure they don't wrongfully include people in immigration sweeps.
The plaintiffs argued that the administration's "roving patrols have routinely stopped US citizens... without an individualized assessment of reasonable suspicion," including plaintiff Jason Brian Gavidia, who was approached by masked agents outside a tow yard and told them he was an American as they slammed him against a metal fence and took his phone and ID, demanding to know what hospital he'd been born at.
The Los Angeles Times reported in July that the majority of people arrested by ICE and other immigration agents have no criminal record.
The case the Supreme Court ruled on Monday is still pending before a federal appeals court, which could again restrict the administration's ability to racially profile residents.
But for now, AIC policy director Nayna Gupta said the Supreme Court ruling "greenlights the worst ICE and [Customs and Border Protection] practices we are seeing against Latino communities around the country."
"We can expect this racist enforcement to expand rapidly," said Gupta.
The ACLU of Southern California called the Supreme Court ruling "a devastating setback for communities" across the Los Angeles area.
Today, in a devastating setback for communities in the southland, SCOTUS granted the Trump administration’s request to resume its racist raids across Southern California while our case continues. We’re prepared to continue fighting for our immigrant loved ones and the Constitution.
— ACLU SoCal (@aclusocal.bsky.social) September 8, 2025 at 1:18 PM
A bipartisan group of the executive committee of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials called the decision "a troubling setback for civil rights and constitutional protections."
"The Constitution does not allow Americans to be stopped simply for speaking Spanish, waiting for work, or looking Latino. Reasonable suspicion must be based on evidence, not ethnicity," said the officials. "By siding with the administration, the court has opened the door to profiling practices that will expose millions of Latinos to harassment, wrongful detention, and fear in their daily lives. Whether at bus stops, workplaces, or public spaces, Latino communities will face the risk of being treated as suspects simply because of who they are or what they look like."
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Is Trump Inciting a Civil War 2.0 to Steal the Midterms?
Both JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom have explicitly said that they believe Trump is preparing to use troops for voter suppression in blue areas of the country during the 2026 elections to prevent Democrats from taking Congress.
Sep 08, 2025
Last week, US President Donald Trump posted a stolen valor war meme on his failing, Nazi-infested social media site, with the bonespurs-draft-dodger wearing a US Army Cavalry hat and the slogan, paraphrased from the movie Apocalypse Now:
’ I love the smell of deportations in the morning…” Chicago is about to find out why it’s called the Department of War.
Illinois Governor JB Pritzker replied on BlueSky:
The President of the United States is threatening to go to war with an American city. This is not a joke. This is not normal. Donald Trump isn't a strongman, he's a scared man. Illinois won’t be intimidated by a wannabe dictator.
So, how could this play out? It’s important to begin the conversation—and planning—for what appears to be the Civil War 2.0 that Trump’s apparently trying to incite.
First, there’s precedent for the federal government to send federal troops into a state to enforce the law as ordered by a court.
JFK did it in the 1962 Ole Miss crisis to enforce the Supreme Court’s Brown v Board decision, mobilizing up to 31,000 federal troops, including the 503rd Military Police Battalion, the 108th Armored Cavalry Regiment, and soldiers from the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. Kennedy also sent federal troops and readied thousands near Birmingham, Alabama during violent resistance to those same federally mandated desegregation efforts.
To accomplish this, Kennedy invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807, which is actually a series of laws passed over a two-decade period, that constitute a virtual blank check for presidential power.
Particularly problematic is Section 253 of the law that allows the president to use troops to suppress “any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy” in a state that “opposes or obstructs the execution of the laws of the United States or impedes the course of justice under those laws.”
As the Brennan Center for Justice explains:
This provision is so bafflingly broad that it cannot possibly mean what it says, or else it authorizes the president to use the military against any two people conspiring to break federal law.
Adding to Trump’s potential power, in 1827 the Supreme Court ruled that “the authority to decide whether [a crisis requiring the militia to be called out] has arisen belongs exclusively to the President, and... his decision is conclusive upon all other persons.”
Both JB Pritzker and Gavin Newsom have explicitly said that they believe much of this is Trump preparing to use troops for voter suppression in blue areas of the country during the 2026 elections to prevent Democrats from taking Congress.
Pritzker said voters “should understand that he [Trump] has other aims, other than fighting crime” and that this is part of a plan to “stop the elections in 2026 or, frankly, take control of those elections.”
Newsom pointed out, “Interestingly, we still have federalized National Guard assigned through Election Day. Is that a coincidence? Through Election Day?!”
Additionally, the governors of 19 blue states issued a statement saying:
Instead of actually addressing crime, President Trump cut federal funding for law enforcement that states rely on and continues to politicize our military by trying to undermine the executive authority of governors as commanders in chief of their state’s National Guard…
Whether it’s Illinois, Maryland, and New York or another state tomorrow, the president’s threats and efforts to deploy a state’s National Guard without the request and consent of that state’s governor is an alarming abuse of power, ineffective, and undermines the mission of our service members. This chaotic federal interference in our states’ National Guard must come to an end.
Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner went a step further, saying he was willing to actually arrest federal agents who exceed or break the law:
Let’s be clear: If the National Guard comes to Philadelphia and commits crimes, they will be prosecuted locally and Donald Trump cannot pardon them.
So, how does this play out?
Trump is already reportedly positioning Texas National Guard troops and other federal officers at the Naval Station Great Lakes, just north of Chicago, presumably preparing for an invasion of that city as soon as this week.
The vision of former Confederate-state troops seizing control of the largest city in a former Union state is explosive and may well provide Trump with the violence he’d hoped for but didn’t get in LA and DC. Violence he could use to justify invoking the Insurrection Act like Kennedy did, and then using that to lock down the 2026 elections.
If this happens, will Pritzker follow Krasner’s model and begin arresting federal agents and Texas National Guard members if they’re found breaking Illinois or Chicago law? Or will he sue at federal court the way Newsom did? Or both?
If he does the former, it could literally kick off a second American Civil War; if he does the latter, Trump may win Civil War 2.0 without a shot fired, particularly if the six corrupt on-the-take Republicans on the US Supreme Court overrule the lower courts and endorse Trump’s actions.
Now is the critical time for all Americans to get educated about what’s going on and prepare for the eventuality of a totally locked-down police state being imposed on multiple blue cities, particularly in states where not counting the urban vote can flip the entire state red.
And if Pritzker and Newsom are right, all of this is being done—along with extreme gerrymandering—as part of the widespread Republican effort to rig the 2026 election so Democrats can’t take back the House and begin subpoena-based investigations of Trump’s crimes from the Epstein era to his recent murder of 11 immigrants in a boat off the coast of Venezuela.
Meanwhile, as Trump pits Americans against each other, dismantles our federal government, ensures future epidemics, and grifts billions in cybercurrencies, China and Russia are pulling the rest of the world together against America. It’s almost as if Russian President Vladimir Putin was giving Trump weekly directions, a dystopian Manchurian Candidate notion that seems more credible with every passing day.
He’s systematically weakening America while boosting Vladimir Putin. By shutting down Voice of America, dismantling defenses against Russian election interference, ignoring Ukraine, and bungling diplomacy with tariffs and summits that drive allies toward Moscow, he’s handed Putin victories that come at the direct expense of US power and security.
In the face of this, Trump is doing everything he can to ramp up tensions and provoke people in blue cities to violence which he can then exploit to increase his power and further crack down on elections, particularly next year.
All, apparently, in service of converting America from a historic liberal democracy into a one-man personality-driven dictatorship that’s increasingly aligned with—and following the model of—other tyrants around the world.
As a result, now is the critical time for all Americans to get educated about what’s going on and prepare for the eventuality of a totally locked-down police state being imposed on multiple blue cities, particularly in states where not counting the urban vote can flip the entire state red (which is most Blue states).
Trump is trying to take down American democracy for good. This is not a drill. Organize, educate, call your representatives, and prepare to show up in the streets.
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'Never Again' Unless Maybe You Thought That Included Palestinians, Holocaust Museum Says By Deleting Post
"Palestinians are so dehumanized that they're excluded from 'never again,'" said one researcher.
Sep 08, 2025
"Unbelievable" yet entirely predictable was how Palestinian rights supporters described a decision by Holocaust Museum LA in Los Angeles over the weekend to take down a social media post that had stated a clear opposition to all genocide, no matter the victims.
The museum had shared a post with its 24,200 Instagram followers last week that read, "Never again can't only mean never again for Jews," repeating a sentiment expressed by Jewish-led human rights groups and the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention, named for the Holocaust survivor who coined the term "genocide."
"Jews were raised to say, 'Never again,'" the post continued. "That means never again. For anyone."
But the post was met with a barrage of angry comments from pro-Israel users and groups including the organization Stop Antisemitism, which calls itself a Jewish civil rights watchdog group and has spent months targeting public figures who criticize Israel's assault on Gaza and express support for Palestinians, more than 63,000 of whom have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023.
The group—which earlier this year called on the US Department of Justice to investigate whether children's entertainer Ms. Rachel is funded by Hamas due to her support for Palestinian rights—called on donors to the museum to "redirect [their] giving our way, an organization that focuses solely on the Jewish people and fighting the bigotry we face."
An account with 30,000 followers was among those that accused the museum of "feeding into the genocide libel"—suggesting that the finding by numerous international rights organizations, the Lemkin Institute, and Israeli human rights groups that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza is comparable to medieval "blood libels" against Jewish people.
The museum responded to the comments by taking down the post and issuing an apology that appeared intent on denying the organization has any concern for Palestinians currently facing a famine orchestrated by the Israeli government and daily attacks as Israel enacts its plan to take over the entire Gaza Strip.
The original post, said the museum, had been intended to "promote inclusivity and community," but was "easily open to misinterpretation by some to be a political statement reflecting the ongoing situation in the Middle East."
"The was not our intent," the organization added, promising to more thoroughly vet its social media content in the future to ensure its message "always remains clear."
The museum's overall message to the public, suggested the apology, is not that all populations must be protected from genocidal violence—a statement that left Ryan Grim of Drop Site News "speechless."
Grim said the museum's position appeared to be, "If you denounce genocide, some might think you're being critical of Israel and we can't have that."
The apology itself, said Laila Al-Arian of Al Jazeera's "Fault Lines," would not be out of place "in a museum someday showing how genocides happen."
Writer and researcher Ismail Aderonmu added that the museum, which was founded by Holocaust survivors, had stepped back from "the clearest moral lesson of the Holocaust: Never again for anyone."
Human rights lawyer Yasmine Taeb told Al Jazeera that Holocaust Museum LA's original post had simply appeared to acknowledge what "countless genocide scholars and human rights organizations" have already said: that "what Israel is doing in Gaza is textbook definition of genocide."
"It's appalling that a museum established for the purpose of educating the public about genocide and the Holocaust not only refuses to acknowledge the reality of Israel's actions in Gaza, but [is] removing a social media post that merely stated that 'never again' is not intended for just Jews, in order for it to not be interpreted as a response to the genocide in Gaza," Taeb said.
Assal Rad, a researcher at Arab Institute Washington, DC added that the apology was dehumanizing to Palestinians in Gaza and the US.
"Palestinians are so dehumanized that they're excluded from 'never again,'" said Rad. "Apparently their genocide is the exception."
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