Summary
A senior FEMA official froze grant funding despite a federal judge’s order to resume payments.
Stacey Street, FEMA’s Grant Administration director, emailed subordinates to freeze awards in an urgent email just after the judge’s order.
The freeze affected programs for emergency preparedness, homeland security, firefighting, church security, and tribal safety.
Trump called for FEMA’s termination, criticizing its aid distribution. The White House defended Trump’s executive authority, rejecting court injunctions as politically motivated.
Courts can deputize bailiffs. You ever see an Old West movie where a judge appoints a posse to round up a criminal? That’s something courts can do. I’m sure there are no shortage of currently out of work federal employees who would be more than willing to volunteer for the job. And I’m sure you would have no problem finding people willing to donate firearms to arm these bailiffs as necessary.
The only reason we haven’t seen violence already is that people are afraid of being arrested and thrown in prison themselves. The fed workers know full well that what Musk is doing is incredibly illegal. The only reason he hasn’t been lynched by a gang of angry fed employees is that no one wants to go to jail forever. But if they are simply enforcing court orders, and are legally empowered to use force to stop these people? Well now they have the full power of the law behind them, and they aren’t facing personal criminal liability. The courts need to deputize large numbers of bailiffs and haul Musk and his goons into court, at bayonet point if necessary.
What if Trump pardons Musk?
It wouldn’t matter in this case. If someone violates courts enough, they can be actually indicted and charged with crimes for that. If someone was convicted on a charge of obstruction of justice, then the president could pardon them of that conviction.
But I’m not talking about charging people with obstruction of justice. Judges can’t even indict people on their own without the cooperation of the executive. What I’m talking about is the enforcement powers courts have outside of convictions, the powers of contempt of court.
For example, let’s say you come in for a traffic ticket in your local county courthouse. When your case comes up, you don’t even try to engage with the judge. You just start calling the judge every name and curse word in the book, and you threaten to kill him and his family. The judge at that point can simply throw you in the court’s jail cell. He doesn’t need to convict you of anything. He can just say, “you know what, I’m going to hold you until you respect this court and agree to engage with the process.” That kind of holding can’t be pardoned. You can’t be pardoned for that, because you haven’t been charged or convicted of anything. This kind of hold is constitutional because you hold the keys to your own cell. All you have to do to get out is to stop being a jackass to the judge. A judge holding you in contempt of court can’t be pardoned by the governor or president.
That is what I’m suggesting the courts do on a large scale. You don’t try and convict Musk and his goons of anything. If they continue to violate court orders, you just round them all up and lock them up on contempt of court until they agree to abide by court orders. And again, this is constitutional because they can get out at any time, as long as they follow the orders of the court.
You might need to hold a large number of people this way, but so be it. Be creative. I’m sure the judges can work something out. Maybe the governors of Maryland or Virginia would be willing to offer spaces in their state jails to hold prisoners being held by federal judges on contempt of court charges.