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working class
'Authoritarian Horrors' of Trump Dealt Blow by Federal Appeals Court
The 9th Circuit upholds lower court ruling against ICE raids denounced as 'unconstitutional' by legal plaintiffs in California.
Aug 02, 2025
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit late Friday backed a lower court ruling which found immigration raids targeting people based on their apparent racial identity, language spoken, or vicinity of their capture are unlawful—a decision which dealt a further blow to President Donald Trump's authoritarian policies aimed at migrant workers and working-class communities in California and beyond.
In its ruling, the 3-judge panel of the federal court upheld a previous ruling by a U.S. District Court in early July which found the targeting of migrants during the raids was based not on suspicion of wrongdoing or criminal activity of any kind, but simply for speaking Spanish, appearing to be a certain ethnicity, or being near a location where certain workers tend to congregate, such as a bus stop, large hardware store, or agriculture site.
The ruling stems from a case brought against the Trump administration by the ACLU Foundation of Southern California, Public Counsel, workers, and others who argue the raids, which have touched off community anger and unease for months, are, in the words of Public Counsel's senior attorney Mark Rosenbaum, "unconstitutional, unsupported by evidence, and rooted in fear and harmful stereotypes, not public safety."
The 9th Circuit ruling means the lower court's ban on such raids in certain areas of southern California will remain in place while the case proceeds.
"Every person, regardless of immigration status, has the right to live, work, and belong in their community without being hunted, harassed, or locked away." —Lindsay Toczylowski, Immigrant Defenders Law Center
As the New York Times notes, the latest ruling leaves the Trump administration with two legal options. "It can ask all the active Ninth Circuit judges to reconsider the panel’s Friday night decision," the newspaper notes, "or it could ask the Supreme Court to issue a stay of [the lower court order issued on July 7.]"
In the meantime—though the legal battle is far from over—the plaintiffs in the case celebrated the ruling and vowed to continue their fight against Trump's far-right, anti-immigrant agenda.
"This decision is further confirmation that the administration's paramilitary invasion of Los Angeles violated the Constitution and caused irreparable injury across the region," said Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California. "We look forward to holding the federal government accountable for these authoritarian horrors it unleashed in Southern California, and we invite every person of conscience to join us in defending the integrity and freedom of communities of color across the country."
Lindsay Toczylowski, president and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, another party to the suit, also heralded the ruling.
"This decision reaffirms that nobody is above the law—not even the federal government," said Toczylowski. "Southern California was never going to back down in the face of lawless attacks on our immigrant communities. Every person, regardless of immigration status, has the right to live, work, and belong in their community without being hunted, harassed, or locked away. While we celebrate this hard-fought victory, we remain relentless in protecting our clients in the courtroom and beyond."
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Campaign's Interactive Tool Tracks How Much Trump and GOP Are Raising the Cost of Living
"Trump and Republicans in Congress are single-handedly inflating the cost of everyday items that Americans rely on," said one advocate.
Jul 31, 2025
Six months into U.S. President Donald Trump's second term, an economic justice group on Thursday unveiled an interactive tool to help Americans put a number on the unmistakable feeling many have reported having about the Republican leader who promised to "make America affordable again": that costs have in fact gone up under Trump, and that the White House and the GOP are to blame.
Using the tool introduced by Unrig Our Economy, people across the U.S. can see exactly how much the price of essentials has gone up in their state, with the advocacy group connecting the dots between the rising cost of living and Trump's tariffs as well as corporate tax breaks Republicans have relentlessly pushed to pass.
According to the "Don't Inflate Our Plates" tool, the price of beef in Texas has gone up nearly 47% since the early days of Trump's second term, while eggs cost $3.19 more than they did before Trump took office.
In California, eggs now cost over $5.00 more than they did before Trump's second term, based on "historical trends, real-time supplier data, and market analysis" that Unrig Our Economy examined.
Unrig Our Economy gained some of its data from Kroger's pricing data, finding that in states with Kroger stores, the price of beef has gone up between 16% and 72%, with the biggest price hikes in Alaska and Utah.
Egg prices in particular were a talking point for Trump during his presidential campaign, but they've risen in many states where Kroger operates, with customers in Michigan—where the president won in 2024—paying 58% more for eggs.
"Trump and Republicans in Congress are singlehandedly inflating the cost of everyday items that Americans rely on," said Leor Tal, campaign director for Unrig Our Economy. "While billionaires and corporations cash in on Republican-backed tax breaks, working-class families are left paying higher prices for eggs, coffee, and more."
Unrig Our Economy pointed to reporting on Trump's tariffs, more of which are set to be announced Friday, with the president expected to impose rates up to 50% on some imports.
As Common Dreams reported this week, the advocacy group Groundwork Collaborative found that just as corporate executives used labor shortages and supply chain disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic as cover to keep prices high even after those problems were resolved, many are now using tariffs as a justification for price increases.
"We certainly welcome a reduction in the Chinese tariffs, but we'll be announcing a price increase here regardless of any changes of the Chinese tariffs over the next week or two to go into effect in June," the CEO of one footwear brand said in a recent earnings call.
Unrig Our Economy pointed to recent polling that showed Americans overwhelmingly disapprove of Trump's tariffs, including 47% of Republican voters.
The Trump administration has also made a number of regulatory moves benefiting corporations that aim to take as much money from working families' household budgets as possible, including a push for the cancellation of a Biden-era Federal Trade Commission rule allowing consumers to easily cancel subscriptions; the FTC's decision to drop a lawsuit challenging price discrimination by PepsiCo; and the commission's move shutting down public comments on corporate pricing tactics.
The interactive tool was unveiled weeks after the president signed into law his sweeping domestic policy and budget package, which includes the largest cuts to public programs like Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in history, increases monthly payments for student loan borrowers under repayment assistance plans, and hands out $117 billion in tax cuts to the richest 1% of Americans while providing just $77 billion in cumulative savings to the bottom 60% of earners.
As Unrig Our Economy unveiled its tool allowing Americans to see exactly how their household budgets are being impacted under the Trump administration, the Century Foundation (TCF) and Morning Consult released the results of a poll in which they asked more than 2,000 people in June how they were being affected by the high cost of living over the past six months.
More than half of respondents said "billionaires, corporations, and congressional Republicans have made their lives harder," and 60% said the Trump administration is to blame for the higher cost of living.
More than 4 in 5 Americans said they were concerned about the price of groceries, and nearly half were concerned about their ability to pay their rent or mortgage. Forty-eight percent said they would have difficulty paying an unexpected $500 bill, like a home repair or medical bill, without borrowing or using credit, and nearly 20% said it would be "very difficult" to make the payment.
Even among households with incomes over $100,000, more than a third said they would have a hard time meeting the surprise expense without dipping into savings or using credit cards—suggesting that these households are using a large proportion of their relatively comfortable monthly income for essentials
"While the federal government tears down programs such as Medicaid and food assistance and federal regulators give the green light to companies to rip off consumers, families are being forced to construct their own safety nets from a web of risky financial practices," said TCF.
Unrig the Economy said that with Don't Inflate Our Plates, the group is calling out "the Republican-backed policies that got us here" and demanding "that Congress put working people first."
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JD Vance Cashed in on His Working-Class Upbringing—Then Sold Working America Out
After blaming working class Americans for their poverty, Vance just cast the deciding vote to stack the deck against them.
Jul 27, 2025
My wife Kitty and a number of our progressive friends have been telling me for years that I had to read U.S. Vice President JD Vance's 2016 memoir, Hillbilly Elegy.
They raved about it. Even today, nine years after it was published and Vance became vice president, they still rave.
They discounted the critics who thought that Vance was an egotistical loudmouth. So did plenty of others—sales to readers across the political spectrum made the memoir a bestseller, turning the author into a millionaire and helping to launch his political career.
True, for Vance to emerge from such a challenging childhood to become what he has become is amazing. Surely he had to be brilliant to rise so high so quickly.
Vance took his painful background and educational attainments and turned them against the very people he came from.
But this July, Vance was the tiebreaker in the razor thin vote in the U.S. Senate (51-50) for the big Trump administration budget bill that will throw millions of Americans off Medicaid and federal food assistance programs.
This is the bill Rev. William Barber and Institute for Policy Studies researchers have charged with "policy murder." (And that's no exaggeration—a recent study estimates that over 51,000 people will die each year from the healthcare cuts alone.)
How to reconcile these two realities?
So, I read the book. In sum, I challenge Vance's central claim that the dire straits of the poor are the fault of the poor.
Vance describes the turning point in his life when his grandmother straightened him out and got him off drugs and alcohol. Then he describes his acceptance at Ohio State University, his four years in the Marines, and his time at Yale Law School.
Kitty urged me to keep reading. I did, but my suspicions kept building.
Here is what tripped me up. Vance complains about poor, downtrodden "hillbillies" who have some money but they spend themselves into "the poorhouse" by buying giant TVs and iPads and pretend they are "upper class," leaving no money for a rainy day or the kids who will need college tuition.
He denigrates the poor for "choosing" not to work when they should be looking for jobs, or for getting fired for being late to work. The poor, he laments, preach responsibility, but don't walk the talk.
There is no talk of the history of policies that have driven people into poverty—and no talk of decades of budgets that have prioritized the rich over the poor, like the one Vance just cast the deciding vote on.
So what should we do with JD Vance's book?
As his vote on the devastating budget bill reveals, Vance has turned everything he knows from his own life and his extensive education against the very people he professes to want to help. He's devoting his vice presidency to convincing the public that President Donald Trump is a great leader filled with wisdom who has saved the nation from a great villain who was trying to wreck our democracy.
Vance waits in the wings, coming out from time to chastise those that oppose Trump or don't adhere to the latest right-wing politics. When Trump departs the scene, Vance will be ready to vie for the presidency.
Vance, who grew up in dire poverty like Abraham Lincoln, is vying to lead the country backward. Vance took his painful background and educational attainments and turned them against the very people he came from.
One never knows from where a great leader will come to move us forward again. But we do know that we must oppose with all our strength the pretenders that Benjamin Franklin warned us against when our republic was born.
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