Leave the car at home, take the income. For years, City Observatory has calculated that Portland earns a billion dollar a year “green dividend” because it enables local residents to drive about 20 percent less than the typical urban American. Portland’s Mayor effectively argued that the city can earn an even bigger green dividend if it further reduces the amount of driving in the region
In the past week or so, more precise contours have emerged in the legal contests over the lawfulness of the Trump regime's invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and the mechanics of the regime's deportation Venezuelans to CECOT, a prison camp in El Salvador. One way or another these fights will culminate in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Three issues have gained prominence:
- whether detained Venezuelans may have their habeas petitions handled via class action
- whether the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) permits Trump to declare Tren de Aragua (TdA) a foreign invasionary force
- what steps constitute due process for removal of alleged TdA members under the AEA
Courts have already taken positions on each of these, clearly splitting over the first two and just beginning to address the third. While I have firm views as to the proper legal answers to questions (1) and (2), the fact and ways that federal district courts are disagreeing over them highlights that the Supreme Court might side with the arguments I reject. My purpose in this post is to give a deeper sense of the issues and to sketch the positions courts have taken thus far.