Friday, August 22, 2025

I am Still Trying to Figure Out Why Donald Trump Loves Me so Much.

by Rod Williams, Aug. 22, 2025 - I reported recently that I got a letter from one of Donald Trump's people telling me how much Donald Trump loves and appreciates me. He even said that when Trump thinks of patriotic Americans that I am at the top of his list. The letter didn't say it, but I bet Trump loves and appreciates me more than he does Andy Ogles, and I am sometimes a critic; I don't flatter him and kiss his ass like Ogles does. 

I am flattered but I am still trying to figure out why Donald Trump loves me so much. I have said some harsh things about him and called him an authoritarian and said he is a narcissist, and said he is ignorant, and maybe I have called him a fascist. I would have to look back to see if I actually said he was a fascist. I think that is an overused term, and not every dictator is a fascist, and I seldom call people Nazis or Communists or Fascists. 

Anyway, I have also complimented Trump on his charisma, his political skills, his humor, and his schtick. Here is a whole article I wrote saying good things about Donald Trump. Maybe this is why he loves me so much, and I am one of his favorite people. 

I Can Say Some Good Things About Donald Trump

by Rod Williams, Dec. 14, 2024- As anyone who reads this blog or follows me on Facebook knows, I have been very critical and concerned about Donald Trump. I have been "negative." With justification, I think, but I am not going to reiterate by concern at this time. Today I am going to be positive.

A dear friend of mine, the other day, told me I was too negative.  This is from a person who did not vote for Trump herself but does not think he will be near as bad as I do. She said to me, "You're too negative. Surely there are some things he may do that you would agree with. Give him a chance."

I thought about it. I overwhelmingly think the bad outweighs the good when it comes to Trump, but I thought I would try to be positive and look on the bright side.  After all, we are stuck with him, so here goes. These are things Trump has said he would do, or he has done, where I agree with Donald Trump. On some of them, I applaud him.

Trump says he might end daylight savings time. That would make a lot of people happy. I don't know anyone who likes it. Why are we stuck with it? If Donald Trump can end Daylight Saving Time, I will be pleased.

Trump has said to be considering privatizing the post office. Yes! That is something I have long advocated. The only mail I ever get is fundraiser appeals and advertisements. I have not written a letter in years.  I pay bills by automatic draft. When I don't talk on the phone with someone, I communicate by Facebook Messenger, text, and email. There may be some people who would miss the post office, but they would adjust. Anyway, it would probably not just disappear overnight. Fed Ex or Amazon might buy it.

Trump will likely end the insanity of the federal government forcing states to allow men to play women's sports and putting men in women's prisons. 

Trump will likely end some of the sillier aspects of wokeism. I expect a single individual will no longer be referred to with the plural pronouns of "they/them."  I suspect government communications can refer to "mothers" instead of "birthing parents." I expect this to spill over into the larger culture. 

Under a Trump administration, I doubt our embassies around the world will fly the gay pride flag. 

Trump will take a hard line on Iran. Biden reversed Trump's hardline policy on Iran when he came into office and allowed Iran to benefit from billions in oil revenue and reduced sanctions. Now, thanks to Israel, Iran is weak. I expect Trump to reinstate his tough Iran policies and keep Iran in check.  

Trump has vowed to slash the size of the federal government through a new government agency run by businessmen Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. They are to find inefficiencies, waste, and fraud. Something similar has been tried before. You may remember the Grace Commission under Reagan. It is hard to root out waste, and reform is resisted. People like efficiency in theory, but not when it threatens jobs and money spent in their state. Also, the majority of the budget is untouchable, consisting of interest on the debt, Medicare, and Social Security.  So, it is a hard job to actually affect any significant savings, but some improved efficiency is better than none. And, Musk and Ramaswamy are thinking big.  "We expect certain agencies to be deleted outright," Ramaswamy told Fox News last month. "We expect massive cuts among federal contractors and others who are overbilling the federal government." Last year, when he was running for president, Ramaswamy pledged to immediately fire 50% of "federal bureaucrats." I don't know that it can be done, but I support this effort. I'm kind of excited about it. 

He gives hope, pride, and encouragement to liars, mediocre, and weird people everywhere. If people like Robert F. Kennedy and Pete Hegseth and Kash Patel and Kari Lake can rise to the level of success to serve in a president's cabinet or other important post in the federal government, then weird and unqualified people and liars everywhere can have a hope for success.

He may cause liberals to rediscover an appreciation for political norms necessary for the functioning of a democratic republic. I am speaking of things like appreciating the filibuster and opposing packing the Supreme Court. It has been Democrats who have favored ending the filibuster and ramming things through with a simple majority, and it has been Democrats who have talked about packing the Court. Now, I would bet they don't want to see those "reforms" take place. Of course, the downside of what I suspect will be a positive development is that Republicans may now favor those things.

Trump will secure the border. Biden made a huge mistake in May 2023, when he lifted Title 42, the emergency health order Trump had put in place to block migrants from entering the country to seek asylum. Biden’s decision allowed millions of migrants to stay in the country while their asylum cases slowly moved through the courts. Biden oversaw the largest immigration surge in U.S. History.  I expect Trump's get-tough approach will drastically discourage illegal border crossings.

Trump will deport the undesirables.  There are illegal aliens who are criminals here and people who have deportation orders who have not turned themselves in. I am concerned about Trump's mass deportation plan. However, Trump has said he will start with the criminals and recent arrivals. Mass deportation takes a lot of funding for manpower and retention facilities, and travel costs. Congress has to appropriate the money, and it takes time to do the mass deportation, so I don't think mass deportation will occur. However, he will probably deport a few hundred thousand or a million people who should be deported.

Trump will lessen the risk of a terrorist attack on American soil. Among the illegal aliens are people from many nations, including from countries that wish us ill. Known people on the terrorist watch list have been caught at the southern border, and we don't know who is among the gotaways. Border security will make us more secure.

Trump says he will legalize the Dreamers. I think he may actually do it. Maybe, he really does believe it is the right thing to do. Maybe, he thinks it will soften his image and counter the bad press certainly to arise from deportation. It is an issue that has evaded resolution for a long time. Trump may make it happen.

Trump showed that the backlash to Dobbs was overstated. No antiabortion senator or governor has lost an election since the ruling overturning Roe v. Wade.  Many thought the overturning of Roe would result in Democratic sweeping victories. Trump kept that from happening.

Trump gave people hope. He said he would bring down grocery prices and people care about that and are hopeful. He also said he could raise tariffs and export millions of laborers. A lot of those laborers are farm laborers, and a lot of our food is imported, so the hope of lower grocery prices is probably a false hope, but a false hope is still hope.

Trump badly crippled or ended identity politics. Trump made inroads in groups that normally vote Democrat. Dems put people into different buckets and appeal to them as Blacks, Latinx, gay, women, Asian and any other group they could think of, by telling them they are victims. Trump broke that.  About the only group where Democrats dominated were among college-educated, wealthy elites, and single women.  Trump made inroads among Blacks and won 21% of the male Black voters. He lost Latinos by just 5% and Asian Americans by just 15%, and Trump won “other” minorities such as Arab Americans, Native Americans, and others.  He also made inroads into gays, giving them speaking roles at the convention while keeping in his coalition Christain fundamentalists. This is quite an accomplishment and bodes well for the future of the Republican Party. 

Trump's presidency may reduce crime. Most crimes are violations of state laws, not federal laws and a president is limited in how much impact he may have on crime. However, Trump's threat to use the US military to police crime-ridden cities may cause local governments to improve policing themselves. Trump can use the power of grants to states and cities to cause them to take a tougher stance on crime. Also, by setting the right tone and using the bully pulpit, blue city mayors may abandon some of their soft-on-crime policies. We have already seen that no one is advocating "defund the police" (well, almost no one, we still have Ginny Welsch). Metro Nashville has started enforcing traffic laws again. The woke policies that led to more crime are already fading. Trump will set the tone that makes getting tough on crime popular. 

There, I have said some nice things about Donald J. Trump. Don't expect me to make this a habit. 

Now that I know how much Trump loves and appreciates me, I  will continue to try and find nice things to say about him, although sometimes it is hard. Is saying he could be worse considered a compliment? 

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Tuesday Night Smackdown: Sean Parker Called a Racist on the Council Floor.

CM Tasha Ellis
 From Megan Podsiedlik, The Pampheteer, Aug. 20, 2025 - Last night’s council meeting was overshadowed by growing tensions during rezoning discussions, which somehow turned into a row between Councilmember Tasha Ellis and Sean Parker. Three-quarters of the way through the meeting, what started as a misguided inquiry by Ellis about how Tennessee Sunshine Laws apply to text communications between council members quickly disintegrated into chaos.

The Drama

The disruption of procedure initially began while Councilmember Parker was speaking in favor of Councilmember Rollin Hortin’s proposed legislation to upzone the 330 acres of his West Nashville district that makeup the Nations neighborhood. Ellis continued to interject as Councilmember Jennifer Gamble was expressing her thoughts on the proposal.

While Ellis is known for speaking her mind, it’s also evident that decorum has never been her strong suit. As a new council member, her failure to observe some of the rules could be dismissed as part of the learning process. But two years into the job, it seems more likely that Ellis recognized what she was doing during last night’s meeting.

CM Sean Parker
According to the Banner, off camera drama led to a fifteen minute recess that devolved into a shaming
ritual. Ellis told the publication that her continued disruption was due to the fact that Parker asked her, “What the fuck are you doing?” When Vice Mayor Angie Henderson tried to regain control of the room, Ellis accused her of invoking her “white privilege."

Mics and video feed went offline as the body took a recess. We learned that during that time, multiple councilmembers departed from the council floor alongside Ellis and gathered in a committee room. The group barred the press from entering—ironic given that Ellis was initially making inquiries about Sunshine Laws. At one point, Metro Legal became nervous due to the lack of transparency. The private powwow also prevented the body form achieving quorum, holding up proceedings. 

When the meeting finally resumed, Councilmember Kyonzte Toombs asked for a point of personal privilege on behalf of the Minority Caucus. Vice Mayor Henderson blindly obliged out of optimism, unaware of what Toombs was going to say and hoping it would help smooth things over. Instead, Toombs called out Parker for being racist.

“As the minority caucus, we have to remind our body that the optics of a white male colleague approaching a black female who is seated and using profanity towards her is an act of intimidation, and it can't be tolerated in this body,” said Toombs who then demanded an apology from Parker on the behalf of the caucus and Ellis. Avoiding further discourse, Parker obliged.

We’ve since reached out to Councilmembers Ellis and Parker for comment, as well as asked Councilmember Toombs whether the caucus believed Parker was being racist in his exchange with Ellis. As of this writing, we’ve not received any responses.

Rod's Comment: Sean Parker is a founding member of the Middle TN Democratic Socialists of America. I can't help it; I love to see two woke libs fight. I like it when a woke Black person calls a Democratic Socialist a racist. Does that make me a bad person?

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President Trump Loves and Appreciates Me so Much.

by Rod Williams, August 22, 2025- Some of you who read my post think I am too hard on Daddy Trump and don't show him the love and respect he deserves for all the biggly things he is doing to Make America Great Again. Well, you are wrong. Trump doesn't see it that way. Trump loves and appreciates me. He told me so. Well, he didn't tell me directly, but his Trump Liberty Medal people told me that that is what Trump thinks about me. In fact, they said, "When he thinks of true American patriots… your name is at the top of the list." So, there you go. 

They go on to say, "To honor your unwavering commitment to faith, family, freedom, and America First, we’ve been authorized to present you with the exclusive Trump Liberty Medal Award." I think I must be one of his favorites.

Actually, I don't get a medal, it is more like a certificate. They call it an award. They do want me to contribute money, but I don't have to. 

Here is the email letter and my Trump Liberty Metal Award. 




 

I can't help but think, "what a big-hearted guy."  Maybe, I have been too harsh on Daddy Trump. But this just shows what kind of guy he is. Maybe, I will be more understanding in the future. After all, to make America Great like China or Russia or North Korea, or powerful empires of the past, you have to play tough. As the saying goes, "To make an omelet, you have to break eggs." So, a few innocent people end up in the gulag and we have to suspend the Constitution and other little things like that, maybe it is necessary in order to get the respect we deserve. And maybe Trump is right; maybe a big powerful country should get bigger and annex its neighbors and acquire some good real estate around the world. Maybe we have been doing too much good stuff for free and it is time we got some payback.  I guess maybe might does make right, and it is our turn to dominate these lesser peoples and shithole countries. Anyway, I am just having these thoughts since I now know that President Trump loves and appreciates me so much. 

I know I will cherish this award always. Maybe, I will print it and frame it, except my printer is not working now. 


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Wednesday, August 20, 2025

Warning: Adult Only Content. Marjorie Taylor Geen, Laura Loomer, and Arby's.

by Rod Williams, August 20, 2025- Read no further if you are sensitive to vulgarities. For those who read my missives and expect a higher level of discourse from me, I am sorry to disappoint you, but this was too good to pass up.

If you are not familiar with the catfight between Laura Loomer and Marjorie Taylor Green, and you want some comic relief amid the seriousness of the march toward authoritarianism and Trump's destruction of the American economy and world order, check it out. What is going on is disgusting, unbelievable, and laugh-out-loud funny.

Here is the background in a nutshell: During the most recent Trump presidential campaign, when Laura Loomer was frequently seen with Donald Trump, many, including me, wondered if Trump was romantically involved with Loomer. Comedian Bill Maher joked about such on TV. Loomer sued Maher for defamation, and the lawsuit is now pending. In depositions that have been released, Maher's attorney questioned Loomer about comments she had made about Majorie Taylor Green.

At one time, Loomer had said of Marjorie Taylor Green that she had "Arby's in her pants." Now, I consider myself a pretty worldly person, but I had never heard that term. After watching several videos and reading articles about this revelation, I discovered what it means. Here it is: An "Arby's in your pants" is a pejorative term meaning one's vagina is disfigured from an excess of sexual activity. I will be unable to unlearn this and will never think of Arby's the same.

Below are some podcast videos that quote from the transcripts. This is unreal, and it goes on and on probing as to what Loomer meant when she said MTG had Arby's in her pants.. In addition to the deposition transcript, some of these podcast quote X tweet exchanges between Loomer and Green. These tweets involve a lot of derogatory sexual innuendos and name-calling. It is unbelievable that prominent, influential people could behave in this manner. 

There is much more from many other podcasters. If you want more, search for them. Some of them are really funny.

This illustrates how Trumpism has changed America and lowered our standards. The norms that have been violated due to the influence of Donald Trump do not all have to do with undermining the norms that safeguard our democracy. Much of it is not about policy or even politics. Much of it is simply a coarsening of the norms of decency. In Trump world there is no low, too low for someone to stoop. When it is okay to mock a news reporter with disabilities, when it is okay to allege the Haitians are eating dogs and cats, when it is okay to call people vermin, then it is okay to be a bottom-feeder. 

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Tuesday, August 19, 2025

U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles creates trust fund to pay legal bills

U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, a Columbia Republican, has gained approval
 to raise money to pay legal fees associated with four law firms that
 aided him in a federal investigation over his campaign finances.
(Photo: John Partipilo)
by Sam Stockard, Tennessee Outlook, August 15, 2025 -  Reeling from a federal campaign finance investigation, U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles landed approval for a legal expense trust fund to pay nearly $120,500 he owes four law firms, documents show.

Ogles, a Maury County Republican who dodged a criminal investigation into his finances, sent a letter to House Committee on Ethics chairs in October 2024 requesting permission to set up the trust fund to pay legal expenses connected to the probe of reporting errors in his Federal Election Commission and financial disclosure reports, according to records obtained by the Lookout.

James Appel of GOP Compliance LLC will serve as trustee of the fund, which cannot take donations from lobbyists or foreign agents, documents show. Appel reported to ethics leaders he’s had no connection to Ogles for two years, which is a requirement to take the job.

“I understand that I will be bound by the Committee’s Legal Expense Fund Regulations, effective May 1, 2024, and that while the Trustee will oversee the Trust, I bear ultimate responsibility for the proper administration of the Trust,” Ogles said in his letter.

A spokesperson for Ogles did not return email questions Thursday.

The committee approved the request in December 2024 for Ogles to pay $75,000 in legal fees, before he incurred $50,000 more in legal expenses this year. Chairs Michael Guest, a Mississippi Republican, and Mark DeSaulnier, a California Democrat, signed the letter notifying him of the requirements for setting up such a trust, including the filing of quarterly reports.

Ogles owes the money for legal representation from October 2024 through June 2025 after an Ethics Committee panel started looking into discrepancies in his campaign finance reporting. It found he likely violated federal campaign finance laws, mainly by reporting an inflated personal loan to make his bid for office look stronger in 2022.

Running in Tennessee’s redrawn 5th Congressional District, which state lawmakers gerrymandered to help Republicans to take over the Democratic stronghold of Nashville, Ogles in 2022 reported receiving a $320,000 personal loan for his campaign. Ogles initially said he raised $450,000 for the race, yet his first FEC report showed he brought in only $250,000.

Ogles amended campaign finance reports in May 2024 and acknowledged making a $20,000 loan to his campaign and saying the additional $300,000 was in a joint account he shared with his wife. Still, he and his campaign manager couldn’t confirm the source of the $20,000.

The ethics board voted 6-0 to call for a closer look at Ogles’ finances because “there is substantial reason to believe that Rep. Ogles omitted or misrepresented required information in his finance disclosure statements or FEC candidate committee reports.”

Despite the congressional investigation, U.S. prosecutors dropped a fraud probe of Ogles after he filed legislation this year to allow President Donald Trump to serve three terms. 

Before his problematic financial reporting, Ogles inflated his resume, reports show, including claiming to have a degree from Vanderbilt’s Owen Graduate School of Management when he obtained only a certificate for a weekend seminar. 

In his second term, the former Tennessee director of Americans for Prosperity recently went after Nashville Mayor Freddie O’Connell for his opposition to a federal sweep of South Nashville for immigrants. Ogles also called for an investigation into Belmont University for allegedly enrolling students without permanent legal documentation of citizenship and disguising its diversity and equity program.

Based on his fundraising this year, Ogles clearly needs financial help to pay his attorneys.

He has a little more than $59,000 in his campaign account, according to FEC reports, a paltry sum for a sitting member of Congress. 

If he can’t bring in any more than that to boost his re-election campaign for 2026, it’s going to be tough to find enough donors to fill up his legal defense trust fund. That is, unless Trump keeps him afloat with some of the $240 million his organizations such as the new super PAC, MAGA Inc., collected to back his agenda, which usually means keeping supporters at his beck and call.

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Monday, August 18, 2025

Beacon Center Young Professionals August Happy Hour and Networking Event, Wed. Aug. 20th

 


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Newsmax agrees to pay $67M settlement in defamation case over 2020 election claims

by Rod Williams, Aug. 18, 2025- If you are not familiar with Newsmax, it is a news outlet pro-Trump propaganda organization that makes Fox News look like a pansy-ass progressive network of journalistic integrity. The conservative network Newsmax will pay $67 million to settle a lawsuit accusing it of defaming Dominion Voting Systems, a voting equipment company, by spreading lies about President Donald Trump’s 2020 election loss. This is the second such suit Newsmax has had to settle.  Previously, Newsmax paid $40 million to settle a libel lawsuit from a different voting machine manufacturer, Smartmatic, which was also a target of pro-Trump conspiracy theories on the network.

Fox News, back in April, had to pay Dominion Voting Systems nearly $800 million to avert a trial in the voting machine company’s lawsuit that would have exposed how the network promoted lies about the 2020 presidential election.

Will it matter? I'm afraid not. Trump cultists will continue to believe the lie that voting machines were manipulated to change votes in the 2020 election. Time and time again, those alleging voter fraud have lost in court. There is no credible evidence of 2020 election fraud, and despite multiple court rulings and losses in defamation cases, Trumpinistas will believe the lies. Trumpinistas are immune to the truth. 

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What Are the Due Process Rights of Aliens?

by Rod Williams, August 18, 2025- President Trump's removal of undocumented aliens has been contentious and, at times, what I would consider cruel. That does not mean that in every case in which it may have been carried out in a distasteful manner that it violated due process. All persons in the United States are entitled to due process. However, that does not mean that aliens have all of the same rights as American citizens. 

Just how much due process rights do aliens have? It depends. I am posting below a report from the Heritage Foundation that addresses this issue. The Heritage Foundation is a pro-Trump organization, and I know that anything from the Heritage Foundation will be dismissed by many liberals the same way many Trump supporters dismiss anything published by the New York Times or the Washington Post. I urge you to put your prejudice aside and read this study for a better understanding of the issue.

I have read several things from several sources on the topic, and this piece from Heritage is, in my opinion, the most detailed and best reasoned. Despite Heritage being a pro-Trump organization, they are nevertheless a scholarly think-tank. Since Heritage is pro-Trump, I am hoping that someone on the Trumpian right who thinks aliens have no due process rights will read this and become better informed. 

For those in the anti-Trump camp who think that every undocumented person deported should have  Maranda rights read to them, be given a court-appointed attorney to represent them, and be given a trial by jury, I hope you will also become better informed.

For those who are not going to believe anything from Heritage, skip to the bottom of this post for a list of other articles, several from liberal sources, that essentially say the same thing as this study from Heritage

Due Process and Aliens: What They Are and Are Not Entitled to in Immigration Proceedings

by Hans von Spakovsky, July 3, 2025- Some critics of the Trump Administration’s enforcement of federal immigration law, including members of the public, the media, and Congress, have made misleading claims about the due process rights that apply in immigration proceedings. Those who claim that non-citizens, referred to in our nation’s immigration laws as aliens, are entitled to the full panoply of constitutional rights enjoyed by American citizens are simply wrong and fail to differentiate between criminal prosecutions and immigration proceedings, which are civil matters.

As provided by Congress and by some court decisions interpreting the Constitution, aliens have only limited due process rights in immigration proceedings. Those rights differ depending on the alien’s status and whether he or she is outside the United States and trying to enter this country or already in the country, legally or illegally.

In fact, several federal immigration statutes specifically bar aliens from even asserting certain claims in federal courts. Federal courts assuming jurisdiction over such claims by aliens are violating federal law, and any orders they issue ought to be declared void ab initio, or invalid, by an appellate court.

Immigration Proceedings: Criminal vs. Civil Actions

Regardless of their legal status, aliens are entitled to the same constitutional due process rights provided to criminal defendants who are citizens when they are being criminally prosecuted for assault, rape, burglary, kidnapping, murder, or other crimes.

However, immigration proceedings to bar an alien’s entry or to remove or deport an alien present inside the United States are not criminal proceedings. As the Supreme Court of the United States first outlined in 1893 in Fong Yue Ting v. U.S., a decision in which it rejected habeas corpus petitions filed by Chinese citizens who claimed that they were being unlawfully detained by U.S. marshals “without due process of law”:

The [immigration] proceeding…is in no proper sense a trial and sentence for a crime or offense. It is simply the ascertainment, by appropriate and lawful means, of the fact whether the conditions exist upon which Congress has enacted that an alien of this class may remain within the country. The order of deportation is not a punishment for crime.… It is but a method of enforcing the return to his own country of an alien who has not complied with the conditions upon the performance of which the Government of the nation, acting within its constitutional authority, and through the proper departments, has determined that his continuing to reside here shall depend.

The Court added that an alien being removed by the government is not being “deprived of life, liberty, or property” and that “the provisions of the Constitution securing the right to trial by jury and prohibiting unreasonable searches and seizures and cruel and unusual punishments [therefore] have no application.”  That is also why federal immigration officers do not need a warrant issued by a judge before arresting and detaining aliens and why aliens are not entitled to be advised of their Miranda rights or to the assistance of a government-appointed lawyer during their deportation proceedings.

The fact that the removal process is a civil proceeding was reaffirmed by the Supreme Court in 2010 in Padilla v. Kentucky.

The Court held in that case that a criminal defense attorney provided ineffective assistance of counsel when he misinformed his client, a permanent resident alien charged with transporting drugs, of the possible immigration consequences of pleading guilty. While that guilty plea in his criminal prosecution made “his deportation virtually mandatory” under federal immigration law, the Court noted that it had “long recognized that deportation is a particularly severe ‘penalty’” and is not “in a strict sense, a criminal sanction.” The Court emphasized that “[r]emoval proceedings are civil in nature.”

Aliens are not even entitled to the protection of the Ex Post Facto Clause of the Constitution. Article I, Section 9, Clause 3 provides that no “ex post facto Law shall be passed” by Congress.

Ex post facto laws impose criminal punishments on conduct that was lawful when it was done. In 1954, in a case involving the deportation of an alien who had been a member of the Communist Party before such membership had been made a deportable offense, the Supreme Court held that “it has been the unbroken rule of this Court that [the Ex Post Facto Clause] has no application to deportation.”

Aliens also cannot claim “selective prosecution” when they are contesting removal. In 1999, the Supreme Court held that “an alien unlawfully in this country has no constitutional right to assert selective enforcement as a defense against his deportation.”

The due process rights in civil immigration proceedings are far more limited, as outlined and defined by Congress in federal immigration laws and the procedural rules promulgated by the Attorney General for the conduct of federal immigration proceedings. In addition, federal immigration courts are not Article III courts in which judges must be confirmed by the Senate and enjoy life tenure; rather, they are administrative “courts” within the Department of Justice. Immigration “judges” are not federal judges at all; they are employees of the Justice Department who are selected by the Attorney General and who act as the Attorney General’s “delegates in the cases that come before them.”

Aliens Attempting to Enter or Reenter the United States

Aliens attempting to enter the United States have no constitutional due process rights to contest the government’s denial of their entry, and that includes (with only very limited exceptions) previously admitted aliens who are trying to reenter. Furthermore, no federal court has the authority to overrule the decision of the executive branch to exclude an alien.

In 1950, in U.S. ex rel. Knauff v. Shaughnessy, a woman who had served as a civilian employee of the U.S. War Department in Germany and who was the German war bride of an honorably discharged American serviceman, was denied entry without a hearing based on a decision by an immigration official and the Attorney General that her admission would be prejudicial to the United States.

The Supreme Court said that “whatever the rule may be concerning deportation of persons who have gained entry into the United States, it is not within the province of any court, unless expressly authorized by law, to review the determination of the political branch of the Government to exclude a given alien.” The Court also emphasized more importantly that the due process rights of such aliens are limited to “the procedure authorized by Congress” if Congress provides such a procedure.

Any alien who seeks admission “may not do so under any claim of right.” Such admission “is a privilege granted by the sovereign United States Government” and will be granted “only upon such terms as the United States shall prescribe.”

The “exclusion of aliens is a fundamental act of sovereignty” and “stems not only from legislative power but is inherent in the executive power to control the foreign affairs of the nation.”

In 1953, the Court emphasized this once again in Shaughnessy v. U.S. ex rel. Mezei, stating that “[c]ourts have long recognized the power to expel or exclude aliens as a fundamental sovereign attribute exercised by the Government’s political departments largely immune from judicial control.”

 Mezei involved an alien who had lived in the United States for 25 years but was denied reentry by an immigration official and the Attorney General without a hearing after trying to return from Hungary, which was behind the Iron Curtain at the time, “on the basis of confidential information, the disclosure of which would be prejudicial to the public interest” for security reasons.

The Court declared that aliens “who have once passed our gates, even illegally, may be expelled only after proceedings conforming to traditional standards of fairness encompassed in due process of law.… But an alien on the threshold of initial entry stands on a different footing.” The only “due process” to which aliens seeking to enter the country are entitled is whatever “the procedure authorized by Congress is.” That is “due process as far as an alien denied entry is concerned.”

The Court emphasized that because the “action of the executive officer” to deny admission to an alien is “final and conclusive, the Attorney General cannot be compelled to disclose the evidence underlying his determination in an exclusion case.” Thus, “courts cannot retry the determination of the Attorney General.”

The fact that an alien has previously been admitted is irrelevant. As the Court outlined: “For purposes of the immigration laws,” the Court observed, “the legal incidents of an alien’s entry remain unaltered whether he has been here once before or not. He is an entering alien just the same, and may be excluded if unqualified to admission under existing immigration law.” The Supreme Court confirmed its views in 2020 in Department of Homeland Security v. Thuraissgiam.

 The alien in that case was caught 25 yards inside the United States and claimed asylum; eventually, an immigration judge confirmed an immigration official’s denial of his claim. The Court threw out his habeas corpus claim as barred by federal immigration law and reemphasized that more than a century of precedent establishes that a decision by an executive or administrative officer, acting within the scope of authority previously conferred by Congress, is all the process that is due for aliens seeking initial entry to our country.

The Supreme Court overturned the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals holding that the bar on habeas corpus claims by aliens in federal immigration law violates the Suspension Clause of the U.S. Constitution.

Congress has provided the President with virtually unfettered authority to exclude any aliens. In addition to the multiple grounds provided in 8 U.S.C. § 1182, section (f) of the statute gives the President the right to suspend the entry of “any aliens or of any class of aliens” if he determines that their entry “would be detrimental to the interests of the United States.”

In 2018, the Supreme Court upheld the President’s authority under that section in Trump v. Hawaii. President Donald Trump had suspended the entry of aliens from certain countries after “conclud[ing] that it was necessary to impose entry restrictions on nationals of countries that do not share adequate information for an informed entry determination, or that otherwise present national security risks.”

The Court concluded that this provision gives the President “broad discretion” to bar the entry of aliens and that the language of the statute “exudes deference to the President in every clause.”

The one very limited exception to the ability to exclude even returning aliens was illustrated in a 1953 decision, Kwong Hai Chew v. Colding. In Colding, an alien seaman who was a permanent resident was out of the country for four months as the chief steward on an American-registered ship homeported in New York. The Supreme Court overturned the government’s refusal to allow his reentry on security grounds without a hearing, treating him as a “continuously present alien” resident who was entitled to a hearing “at least before an executive or administrative tribunal.” But that was because the alien had been cleared by the Coast Guard and was employed and stationed on an American ship that qualified as American soil for purposes of jurisdiction.

Those are highly unusual circumstances that rarely occur.

It should be noted that under 8 U.S.C. § 1101(a)(13), lawful permanent residents are not generally considered to be seeking admission to the United States when returning from a visit abroad. That rule, however, does not apply to such residents attempting to reenter if, among other exceptions, they have:

  • “Abandoned or relinquished” their status,
  • Been “absent” from the U.S. continuously for more than 180 days,
  • “[E]ngaged in illegal activity” abroad,
  • Left the U.S. in the middle of removal proceedings, or
  • Committed certain crimes.

First Amendment Rights and Aliens

Aliens seeking entry to the United States have no First Amendment right that would somehow give them the ability to contest the government’s refusal to admit them because of their views, opinions, or other speech. (The citizens who may have invited them to speak also have no such right.)

In 1972, in Kleindienst v. Mandel, the Supreme Court upheld the Attorney General’s refusal to waive the denial of a visa to Ernest Mandel, a Belgian journalist who described himself as a “revolutionary Marxist,” under a provision of immigration law barring the entry of those who advocate or publish the “doctrines of World communism.”

Mandel had previously been admitted to the United States under a waiver of this prohibition by the Attorney General and had been invited to speak at Stanford University and numerous other universities and conferences. Although a lower court determined that Mandel had no First Amendment right to entry, it held that the government’s rejection of his visa violated the First Amendment rights of the professors and students who invited him.

The Supreme Court agreed that “Mandel personally, as an unadmitted and nonresident alien, had no constitutional rights of entry to this country as a nonimmigrant or otherwise.”

However, it disagreed with the lower court’s First Amendment holding. Justice Harry Blackmun’s majority opinion noted that the “[Supreme] Court, without exception, has sustained Congress’ ‘plenary power to make rules for the admission of aliens and to exclude those who possess those characteristics which Congress has forbidden.’”

 Moreover:

Were we to endorse the proposition that governmental power to withhold a waiver must yield whenever a bona fide claim is made that American citizens wish to meet and talk with an alien excludable under § 212(a)(28) [of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952], one of two unsatisfactory results would necessarily ensue. Either every claim would prevail, in which case the plenary discretionary authority Congress granted the Executive becomes a nullity, or courts in each case would be required to weigh the strength of the audience’s interest against that of the Government…according to some as yet undetermined standard.

The Court further found that the “dangers and the undesirability of making that determination…are obvious” and that it was “for precisely this reason” that this “decision has, properly, been placed in the hands of the Executive.”

Even aliens who are legally inside the United States do not enjoy the full panoply of First Amendment rights. Federal campaign finance laws, for example, prohibit foreign nationals (with the exception of permanent resident aliens) from participating in local, state, and federal elections of candidates for office by making any contributions, donations, or expenditures related to campaigns—activity in which citizens have a right to engage under the First Amendment.

In upholding this prohibition in 2011 in a First Amendment challenge filed by two aliens who were lawfully present in the United States with temporary work visas, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit explained that:

The Supreme Court has long held that the government (federal, state, and local) may exclude foreign citizens from activities that are part of democratic self-government. For example, the Supreme Court has ruled that the government may bar aliens from voting, serving as jurors, working as police or probation officers, or teaching at public schools. Under those precedents, the federal ban at issue here readily passes constitutional muster.

As the Supreme Court has said, “a State’s historical power to exclude aliens from participation in its democratic political institutions [is] part of the sovereign’s obligation to preserve the basic conception of a political community.”

Additionally, Congress has imposed restrictions on lawfully present aliens that, if violated, make those aliens deportable even though such restrictions could not be imposed on a citizen because they could violate a citizen’s First Amendment rights. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1227, for example, the Secretary of Homeland Security can order the removal of aliens “in and admitted to the United States” for activities that the Secretary of State “has reasonable grounds to believe would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.”

 An alien who “endorses or espouses terrorist activity or persuades others to endorse or espouse terrorist activity or support a terrorist organization” can also be deported.

The government clearly could not prosecute and punish a citizen because of speech that the Secretary of State believes could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.” Moreover, while providing “material support” for a terrorist organization is a criminal violation of the law, the government cannot prosecute a citizen for simply publicly endorsing a terrorist organization like Hamas. But such actions would subject an alien to deportation, thereby demonstrating the difference between the First Amendment rights of citizens and the much more limited rights of aliens.

Removing Aliens Who Are Inside the U.S.

Expedited Removal. Some aliens who are in the country illegally are subject to expedited removal, which severely limits their access to federal courts or any type of administrative hearing process. Under the Immigration and Nationality Act, an alien arriving at the border can be removed “without further hearing or review” if he or she is deemed inadmissible by an immigration officer unless the alien requests asylum or asserts a credible fear of persecution if returned to his or her native country.

This provision can also be applied to aliens who have been inside the country for less than two years and, instead of being properly admitted or paroled, had entered without inspection at an established border crossing. In other words, if an inadmissible alien attempts to enter or makes it into the country illegally but is found and detained within two years, that alien can be removed without a hearing or any other proceeding.

There is also an expedited removal proceeding for aliens convicted of one of a specified list of criminal offenses. These range from such crimes as misdemeanor shoplifting and theft all the way to felony firearms, drug offenses, domestic violence, stalking, and child abuse as well as terrorism and espionage.

In such cases, the Secretary of Homeland Security can order the removal of an alien who is not a permanent resident alien. The only limitation on that authority is that the order cannot be enforced for 14 calendar days and the alien must be given “reasonable notice of the charges” and “a reasonable opportunity to inspect the evidence and rebut the charges.”

Removal of Aliens Through the Immigration Court System. Once outside that two-year, statutorily granted grace period, aliens who are in the country illegally are entitled to the due process of a hearing in the administrative immigration court system, not the federal Article III court system. Such immigration court proceedings are conducted by the Executive Office for Immigration Reviews (EOIR), an agency inside the U.S. Department of Justice that was established in 1983. EOIR is “responsible for adjudicating immigration cases” and does so “under delegated authority from the Attorney General.”

Immigration judges, who are employees of the Justice Department, determine the eligibility of an alien to remain in the United States or to be removed, including the legitimacy of an asylum claim or other possible justifications for a waiver of applicable immigration provisions. Those judges are authorized by Justice Department regulations to hold in absentia hearings when the alien does not appear at the hearing.

 Large numbers of aliens who are illegally in the country fail to appear for their scheduled hearings, most likely because they know they have no valid reason for overcoming removal and remaining in the country legally. Aliens are entitled to legal representation in such hearings, but “at no expense to the government. Aliens can cross-examine witnesses and have a right to review and rebut the evidence presented by the government, but hearsay evidence is not barred as it is in federal and state courts. Aliens also have no right to review evidence that, “if disclosed, [would] harm the national security…or law enforcement interests of the United States.”

Appeals of an immigration judge’s decision are filed with the Board of Immigration Appeals, which is also an administrative court within EOIR. Such appeals must be filed within 30 days. Deportation orders issued by immigration judges are enforced by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), an agency within the Department of Homeland Security.

As previously noted, immigration judges act as “delegates” of the Attorney General, as do the members of the Board of Immigration Appeals. Therefore, all of their decisions are subject to the “decisions of the Attorney General (through review of a decision of the Board, by written order, or by determination and ruling pursuant to [8 U.S.C. §1103]).”

 That statute provides the Attorney General with virtually plenary power over the adjudication of all “laws relating to the immigration and naturalization of aliens,” subject to the “power, functions, and duties conferred upon the President.”

Thus, for example, even if an immigration judge and/or the Board of Immigration Appeals grants an inadmissible alien a waiver from removal, the Attorney General can overrule that decision and direct the implementation of whatever other policies, procedures, and rules are required to enforce federal immigration laws against any and all aliens. As an example, this power of “referral and review” was exercised in 2008 by Attorney General Michael Mukasey to overturn a decision by the Board of Immigration Appeals in a specific case in which the judge and the Board refused to grant an alien’s request for a waiver of removal.

Most important, federal law prohibits what is apparently happening in federal district courts where judges are presiding over aliens with outstanding deportation orders disputing their removal from the United States. Federal district courts have no original jurisdiction to decide whether an alien may remain in the United States whether through a trial or de novo review of an immigration trial court’s decision. Authority to review decisions by the Board of Immigration Appeals rests solely with the federal circuit courts of appeal. This is the “exclusive means of review” provided by Congress in federal immigration law for any “order of removal entered or issued” by the administrative immigration court system.

Thus, any order issued by a federal district court and not a court of appeals in such a case violates federal law and should be considered void ab initio.

Additionally, any appeal of a deportation order affirmed by the Board of Immigration Appeals must be filed within 60 days with the relevant court of appeals. Therefore, appeals filed by aliens years after the issuance of a deportation order contesting the finding of ineligibility due to the government’s delay in enforcing the order are also invalid because they were filed long past the filing deadline.

Moreover, the statute also provides that “no court shall have jurisdiction to hear any cause or claim by or on behalf of any alien arising from the decision or action by the [Secretary of Homeland Security] to commence proceedings, adjudicate cases, or execute removal orders against any alien.

The Supreme Court upheld this provision depriving federal courts of jurisdiction in 1999 in Reno v. American–Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Temporary Protected Status.

Aliens with Temporary Protected Status (TPS) are lawfully present in the country but are not included in the jurisdiction of the immigration court system. Under 8 U.S.C. § 1254a, the Secretary of Homeland Security has the authority to provide temporary lawful status to aliens who cannot safely return to their native country due to an “ongoing armed conflict”; “an earthquake, flood, drought, epidemic, or other environmental disaster…resulting in a substantial, but temporary, disruption of living conditions”; or other “extraordinary and temporary conditions” unless allowing them to remain would be “contrary to the national interest.”

This statute gives the Secretary the sole discretion to make this decision by “designating,” after “consultation with appropriate agencies of the Government,” a foreign state as a country whose citizens will receive TPS. In fact, the statute prohibits federal courts from interfering in the executive branch’s decision on such a designation and whether any aliens will receive TPS or such designation will be revoked. It specifically provides that “[t]here is no judicial review of any determination of the [Secretary] with respect to the designation, or termination or extension of a designation, of a foreign state under this” statute. Thus, aliens whose TPS is revoked have no due process rights to contest that revocation and can be removed immediately from the country.

Despite that stark prohibition on judicial review, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals refused to stay a blatantly unlawful decision by a California federal district court that enjoined the government’s recent cancellation of TPS for certain specified Venezuelan citizens that was originally granted in 2021 and renewed in 2023. However, on May 19, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court, acting on an emergency appeal filed by the government, issued a stay of the injunction pending disposition of the case in the Ninth Circuit and a possible writ of certiorari filed with the Supreme Court.

The Alien Enemies Act

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA) gives the President the authority to apprehend and remove any aliens 14 years old and older when “there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government” of which those aliens are “natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects.”

This statute imposes few limitations on the President. If an alien is “not chargeable with actual hostility, or other crime against the public safety,” he shall be allowed time to recover and remove his “goods and effects,” according to the time allowed for that as provided in “any treaty then in force between the United States and the hostile nation or government.” If there is no such treaty, the President gets to decide how much time is reasonable “consistent with public safety, and according to the dictates of humanity and national hospitality.”

Moreover, no judicial warrants are necessary to arrest, detain, and remove aliens subject to the President’s proclamation invoking the AEA. The AEA specifically says that federal marshals “for such removal shall have the warrant of the President.”When the Alien Enemies Act was passed, the U.S. Marshals Service was the first and only federal law enforcement agency, having been established by the Judiciary Act of 1789.

On March 15, 2025, President Trump issued a proclamation under the AEA directing the removal of members of Venezuelan-based Tren de Aragua (TdA) as a “designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.”

The proclamation describes TdA as operating in “conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela.” The “result,” says the proclamation, “is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.”

After five members of TdA who were detained and being removed from the country filed a lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia, Chief Judge James Boasberg issued temporary restraining orders prohibiting the government from removing those five aliens or any other aliens subject to the proclamation. He also provisionally certified a class action of all similarly situated aliens with those five gang members serving as representatives of the class.

However, the Supreme Court, responding to an emergency motion filed by the government, entered an order staying that ruling and vacating the restraining orders. Not only that, but the Court held that Boasberg never had jurisdiction over the actions of the government. Challenges to actions under the AEA, the Court said, can be brought only by habeas corpus petitions, and such petitions can be filed only in the judicial district where the detainee is confined: “The detainees are confined in Texas, so venue is improper in the District of Columbia.” Thus, Boasberg had no legal authority either to consider the claims in the first place or to issue any orders against the government

According to the Court, “judicial review under the AEA is limited,” although a court can review “questions of interpretation and constitutionality” involving the AEA as applied to a specific alien, as well as “whether he or she ‘is in fact an alien enemy fourteen years of age or older.’”

 In addition, it is “well established” that aliens are entitled to due process in immigration removal proceedings, but that is limited to receiving notice that “they are subject to removal under the” AEA, and notice must be provided “within a reasonable time and in such a manner as will allow them to actually seek habeas relief in the proper venue before such removal occurs.”

In a second case involving TdA gang members, the Supreme Court issued an injunction against the government removing the aliens until sufficient notice had been given to the aliens. The Court held that “[u]nder these circumstances, notice roughly 24 hours before removal, devoid of information about how to exercise due process rights to contest that removal, surely does not pass muster.”

 However, it refused to specify “the precise process necessary” to satisfy due process requirements and instead remanded the case to the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals to make that determination.

Conclusion

As federal immigration law and court precedents make clear, aliens do not have full access to all of the constitutional rights afforded to citizens. In immigration cases, which are civil and not criminal proceedings, aliens have only certain limited due process rights as defined by Congress and prior Supreme Court precedents. Those rights differ depending on the status of the aliens and whether they are outside the United States and trying to enter this country or are already in the country, either legally or illegally, as well as their visa or other status.

Moreover, a number of federal immigration statutes bar aliens from even asserting certain claims in federal courts, prohibit any federal court from reviewing specified actions of the federal government such as enforcement of deportation orders by the Attorney General, or limit which federal courts have jurisdiction over particular claims by aliens. Federal courts that try to assume jurisdiction over such banned, prohibited, or limited claims by aliens are violating federal law, and the Supreme Court, if necessary, should tell them so.

Hans von Spakovsky is Manager of the Election Law Reform Initiative and Senior Legal Fellow in the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies at The Heritage Foundation.

For ease of reading and due to formatting limitations, I removed footnotes from the above text. The original text has 69 footnotes, many to laws and to Supreme Court decisions. For those who want to do a deeper dive, to read this study in its original online form, and who may want to follow the footnotes, see this link. Also note that the highlighting in the above text is mine.

For those who are interested in reading what other sources say about aliens and due process, see the below:



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Roberts is One of the Twenty-nine Best Bars in America.

by Rod Williams, August 18, 2025- USA TODAY recently published its Bars of the Year 2025 list, and Nashville's Roberts Western World made the list as one of the twenty-nine best bars in America. Two other Tennessee bars also made the list, those being Brother Wolf in Knoxville and Fat Charlie's Speakeasy in Memphis.

I am well acquainted with Robert's. I have downed many a beer sitting in this iconic honky tonk. As an old man now, I don't get around much anymore and have, for the most part, roudied on down.  When I do get to lower Broadway, my two favorite bars are Roberts and A J's. At these two bars, you can find authentic country music. I like the old stuff. There is some contemporary I like, but it is the contemporary that sounds like the old stuff.  I find most contemporary country soulless and boring. At most bars downtown, you will hear a mix of today's country and warmed-over rock from the 70's and 80's. In addition to the good music, I just like the vibe of Robert's, the art on the wall, and the atmosphere that just feels different from most of the other lower Broadway honky tonks. This is what USA Today said of Robert's:


Robert’s Western World is an icon among icons. Among the noise on Nashville’s bright, boisterous Broadway, it stands alone. And it does so with a (relatively) quiet reverence for Nashville’s spirit, the one that existed before the crowds. It’s a shotgun shack of a place in a street full of multistory bars named after famed country music makers. At its barrel is a tiny stage where musicians play beneath the visages of long-gone country stars, while the masses whirl and two-step in front of them. Robert’s is neon beer signs and crooked tile. It’s fried bologna sandwiches and ice-cold PBRs. It’s an Old Fashioned and a twang of real country music in the air. If the Ryman Auditorium is the Mother Church of Country Music, Robert’s Western World, just a stone’s throw from its back door, is the Holy Ghost. 

For more on this topic, see These are the best 29 bars in America in 2025.

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