WWJD? What Will John Roberts Do?

We are at the authoritarian abyss and all eyes turn to SCOTUS

April 17, 2025

By Marc Cooper

My belief is that the future of democratic rule will be determined this year, possibly as soon as soon as next month. This publication remain steadfast in an anti-fascist posture while adhering strictly to facts. It is free to all readers. But a strategic minority finances it for pennies a day. Would you please join us now?

Inside the Salvadoran Gulag. Source: President Bukele’s social media feed. ...

I knew from the outset that Trump’s second term would be dark and dangerous. I had little idea it would begin unraveling our constitutional democracy so quickly. But here we are, three months into his supposed four-year term, and the fate of American constitutional rule is now teetering on a knife’s edge. We may be only a handful of weeks away from its formal demise.

Yes, I’m dark. Very dark. If that bums you out, turn on a game show or smoke a joint. But reality bites.

Many assumed that Trump’s road to dictatorship would mimic the slow, superficially democratic path taken by Orbán in Hungary or Erdoğan in Turkey. Instead, Trump and his goon acolytes are trending more toward the Chilean/Argentine model of naked dictatorship.

We are now in the extremely precarious position of having our fate determined by a corrupt and radically biased Supreme Court majority, led by Chief Justice John Roberts (more on this shortly).

As I am not clairvoyant, and in fairness and caution, I refer you to my friend Micah Sifry’s recent post, which is somewhat more upbeat than this one, before I continue this journey into the dark unknown. To balance that out, here’s a very grim take on the moment from the terrific Ruth Ben-Ghiat, whose view I fully endorse.

Also, before I begin this written descent into hell, I fully acknowledge the growing resistance to Trump—a resistance I endorse, encourage, and urge you to join. There’s another Saturday of nationwide protests this weekend. Let’s make them bigger than ever. Harvard has refused Trump’s extortion attempt to politically cleanse the country’s oldest university and has organized more than a dozen (and growing) universities into a mutual defense pact, pooling resources to fend off Trump’s escalating attempt to MAGA-fy America’s leading educational institutions. This mirrors what the Nazis called “Gleichschaltung”—the forced synchronization of civil institutions to support the Reich.

Federal workers who have been leading this struggle and taking most of the casualties have joined with teams of lawyers to form a coordinated defense network for civil employees.

I’m also pleased to see Senator Chris Van Hollen travel to El Salvador to keep the spotlight on the Abrego Garcia case and the other 250 kidnapped prisoners caged in the Salvadoran gulag.. Kudos to him. But why isn’t there a permanent delegation of congressional Democrats camped out in San Salvador, holding daily 6 p.m. press briefings to turn up the heat? And as I write this, I see that the Senator’s motorcade was stopped by an armed military checkpoint less than two miles from the torture center. And Senator Corey Booker is also now preparing to drop in on President Bukele’s private little paradise.

We need COURAGE, not fear. Trump must fear us.

Please also note that I have witnessed firsthand the rise and eventual fall of both Chilean and Argentine dictatorships. That means my immediate pessimism is tempered by my conviction that, as bad as it gets here, it will not be sustainable. Trump and his lackeys will eventually fall—if not to prison, then into some ungodly hell of eternal shame. The American people will not tolerate this inhumanity forever.

Yet, this level of protest, while encouraging, is simply not enough. Not by a long shot. And we must escalate and grow, whatever comes.

Now... where to begin with today’s journey?

Let’s start with how the Trump regime is moving the goalposts on dictatorship day by day. Look at the issue of the kidnappings and rendition of hundreds of deportees to the foreign torture gulag in San Salvador.

While this story has been prominent for a couple of weeks, the media has largely treated it as a series of “news stories” rather than the five-alarm Code Red event it is—like 9/11. Isn’t rule of law and due process two fundamental pillars of American law?

And one major aspect of this atrocity has somehow been completely overlooked.

The regime hasn’t merely deported these men—they’ve sent them to a torture camp with no defined sentence. This has never been U.S. policy.

Lacking proper documentation, a migrant is in violation of a civil ordinance—not a criminal one. Until Trump, deportees might be held briefly in a DHS detention center, awaiting either a legal hearing—due process—or the logistics to remove them from the U.S. after such a hearing. They were typically taken by bus to the Mexican border and released. In more recent years, deportees were sent by charter flights to Mexico or their home countries in Central America. They were not considered prisoners—just deportees being returned.

Now, those being rendered to a third country like El Salvador are effectively condemned to a life sentence—or death—in dictator Bukele’s brutal gulag. There is no rule of law, no contact with the outside world, no access to lawyers, no judicial process, no bedding beyond a metal slab, and they are daily brutalized and literally worked to death. There is zero transparency—no Red Cross oversight, no press, no accountability. And no determined sentence.

The Trump regime has signed a contract with El Salvador to take custody of these unnamed victims. To the best of my knowledge, there is no contractual agreement that these men will ever be released. Not in a month, a year, or a decade. They are being discarded as human trash. Being undocumented in the U.S. has effectively become a capital crime—or at best, a life sentence without parole. After all, they’ve all been branded en masse as “terrorists,” and there’s no chance that Bukele is ever releasing people like that. Indeed, former Republican strategist Stuart Stevens, now a firm opponent of Trump, is suggesting that blue state Attorneys General bring charges of kidnapping and human trafficking against the DHS and Border Patrol. A magnificent idea!

But you have to wonder how did being an “illegal alien” subject to being driven to a border crossing become equivalent to terrorism with a life sentence? Well, it did. Are we going to shrug this off?

Let it be noted: Both the Argentine and Chilean dictatorships never recognized the words “dissident” or “opponent.” Whether you were arrested with an AK-47 in your trunk or you were a mild-mannered socialist sociology professor, you immediately became a “terrorist” in the hands of militarized police or regime-backed death squads.

Our regime is now mimicking those dictatorships. Look how the margins have moved. First, Trump claimed he’d deport only the “worst of the worst.” Yet we now know from family testimonies and investigative reporting that many of these so-called “terrorists” were nonviolent, had no gang affiliations, and no criminal records.

Then the margin shifted further. Legal college students were snatched from campuses, laughably, in the name of fighting anti-Semitism—but in reality, they were pro-Palestinian activists who had committed no crimes other than simply exercising First Amendment rights. But now, they’re “terrorists.”

Then we learned that Secretary of State Marco Rubio—moral midget that he is—used his newfound ESP powers to revoke 300 foreign student visas. Why? Not because of any crimes, but because his staff “investigated” their social media and decided they might endanger U.S. foreign policy in the future. It made no difference to him that most of these student visas were issued in the home countries AFTER being vetted by the respective U.S. consulates.

Next came the harassment of foreign tourists and visitors by Customs and Border Protection at U.S. airports—detaining, interrogating, and in some cases turning them away as “terrorists.” Airlines, hotels and restaurants are bracing for a radical drop off in foreign tourism to the U.S., already taking hold.

And finally, last Monday, Trump and his top officials stood grinning before the cameras with the despicable Salvadoran Napoleon, President Bukele. They laughed like jackals as Trump mused aloud that it might be cool to start rendering “homegrown” terrorists—U.S. citizens—to Bukele’s concentration camp. Trump even suggested Bukele build five more. Bukele is reportedly considering it.

Do I think Trump will begin mass detentions of U.S. citizens or start rendering them overseas? Probably not. Hopefully not. But in 1973, when I was in Chile during Pinochet’s coup, I couldn’t have imagined they’d soon be throwing “terrorists” from helicopters into the Pacific. My failure of imagination—despite seeing bodies in the streets from my hiding place.

All of this brings us to the courts—and eventually, to John Roberts.

This past week, the Trump regime was hit with two major federal court orders. First, Federal Judge Paula Xinis, overseeing the Abrego Garcia case, said she was fed up with the DOJ’s stonewalling. She gave them one week to convince her with tangible evidence justifying his rendition or she would consider contempt of court charges.

Then, Federal Judge James Boasberg—whose March 15 order to stop planes mid-flight en route to El Salvador was brazenly ignored—issued a blistering 46-page ruling stating he had “probable cause” for contempt charges. He gave the administration a few days to retrieve all the deportees or face sworn depositions and cross examination under oath by the plaintiffs to identify who defied his order. He warned that if the DOJ refused to prosecute, he’d appoint an independent prosecutor and if U.S. Marshals who are managed by the DOJ refused to make the arrests, he would even federalize local law enforcement to carry them out. It was one hell of a ruling.

Naturally, Trump is appealing both decisions to the U.S. Supreme Court—his last hope, and ours. Not only will the court hear these cases, which center on due process, but it also agreed to hear Trump’s challenge to birthright citizenship. That’s grim. The Constitution clearly bars such a measure, and no justices should’ve agreed to hear it. But it only takes four to accept a case—meaning either Roberts or Amy Coney Barrett — the more “moderate reactionaries” joined the three lawless anti blatantly anti-democratic justices to hear argument.

Trump is itching to get back before the Court, confident they’ll green light his dictatorship. After all, it was Roberts who authored the majority opinion less than a year ago declaring the president immune from prosecution for acts or crimes committed as part of his “official duties”—whatever that means.

On the other hand, the Court ruled 9–0 last week that Trump must “facilitate” the return of the 250 deportees from El Salvador. It could have been a bolder order, actually ordering the president to make the release. But its ambiguous use of the word “facilitate” and a phrase saying any action should pay due deference to the executive setting foreign policy left too much wriggle room for Trump as if due process had anything to do with foreign policy. Must court observers, nevertheless, said the ruling was clearly made to bring the deportees back. Of course, Trump’s people claimed that was a victory too—like the fall of Berlin to the Red Army being a win for Hitler. That case is now part of the Boasberg appeal.

It’s Roberts who’s now in the hot seat. By the end of next month, his Court—his legacy—will decide whether to uphold democracy or deliver the coup de grâce. Will he be the Roberts who gave Trump near-total immunity, or the Roberts who at least meekly nodded toward the rule of law last week?

A confrontation between the White House and SCOTUS has been inevitable. Roberts has twisted himself into knots trying to avoid it. But here it comes—barreling straight into his courtroom. His Court must either defend democratic norms or cave to a pathetic, power-hungry wannabe dictator. He can be a flawed hero—or just another painted clown in the Trump Fascist Circus.

In the meantime, the court of public opinion remains vital. We must apply maximum pressure on Trump—and on Roberts. Trump doesn’t care. But Roberts does. He’s sensitive about his image and the reputation of his already tainted Court. Does he really want to go down in history as the two-bit flunky who birthed an American dictatorship?

Get into the streets. Join the protests. Organize your own. The clock is ticking—loudly, ominously. ++

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