President Donald Trump has created a constitutional crisis, say the media, Democrats, and libertarians. The Trump administration defied a court order when it flew an El Salvadoran migrant, who had come to the US illegally, back to a prison in El Salvador, they note. It denied due process to Venezuelans sent on a plane to El Salvador, others add. And it is violating free speech rights of foreign student green card holders, law firms, and universities, many agree.
But we are not in a constitutional crisis, says Yale University constitutional law professor Jed Rubenfeld in a new interview with Public. The Supreme Court said a lower court “can't order the administration to return him now that he's in El Salvador,” upholding that the administration must “facilitate” his return but not requiring the administration to “effectuate” it. In terms of the Venezuelans, the courts are still considering their case, and ”we don't know what kind of individualized hearing each one is going to get or what the standards of evidence will be,” said Rubenfeld, “many of these guys might have had some due process within the immigration procedures.” As for the free speech cases, said Rubenfeld, the courts will likely strike down Trump’s Executive Orders on the law firms, uphold the use of speech to deny foreign students green cards, and deliver a mixed verdict on the administration’s restriction of funding to universities.
