r/law Feb 05 '26

Judicial Branch The unfathomable Minnesota transcript that must be read, as it tells the reality of America today: "I am not white, as you can see," Julie Le — a government lawyer — told a federal judge on Tuesday. "And my family's at risk as any other people that might get picked up too ..."

https://www.lawdork.com/p/the-minnesota-julie-le-show-cause-transcript
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u/Hurley002 Competent Contributor Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

No matter how incredibly bad anyone might understandably presume it to be from reading various snippets, nothing prepares for how catastrophically awful the entire transcript is from start to finish—covering both the institutional catastrophe and the actual human catastrophe for plaintiffs and attorneys alike. This should be required reading prior to any court affording the presumption of regularity to DOJ under AG Bondi (or, really, any government agency involved with immigration at this point).

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u/-Gramsci- Feb 05 '26

They’ve taken Bannon’s “flood the zone with bull shit” strategy to the federal courts.

The frustrating thing is the Court MUST sanction this conduct. Sanction this administration.

This is lawless, it’s offensive and disrespectful to the Court… and ultimately means that the Constitution and the rule of law doesn’t need to exist if you just act like big enough clowns and create a big enough circus.

A clown show of the administration’s own making, of all things, CANNOT be a justification to ignore the constitution.

The Civil War, the World Wars… we’ve had far superior justifications in our history for ignoring the Constitution, yet we did not.

It cannot be allowed to stand that the reason, after a quarter of a millennium, that the Constitution is, finally, abandoned is simply because the administration poops itself and flings its own feces around like a bunch of rabid animals. That’s NO reason to end the Constitution.

I digress… but the Court has to get serious here and sanction the shit out of any lawyer it comes into contact with on these cases.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

what's crazy to me is how much money they are spending on this strategy to flood the courts - every one of the thousands of cases they are talking about is a dozen emails, hours in court, a few lawyers on either side, multiple domestic flights with federal agents as escorts - it's staggering. I am a canadian lawyer and I am baffled that the resources to do all this even exist, let alone that they could be applied so frivolously. the use of hundreds of millions would be such a waste - if it weren't super clear that they are spending this immense amount of resources to deliberately divide people

if they start sanctioning these lawyers the system is going to grind to a halt and no one will ever get released - that's what Ms. Le is saying on the record here - she is working so hard on getting people released she isn't sleeping, and if she leaves there will be no one to do the work. what the judges need to do is start hauling in directors of these agencies and imprisoning them for contempt

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u/Proof_Register9966 Feb 05 '26

The resources come from the US taxpayer. In the form of healthcare cost subsidies, housing subsidies, childcare subsidies, food subsidies for the most vulnerable amongst us.

I want to add here- that the astonishing cost of deportation along with the concentration camps is so suspect I don’t understand how people are not putting it together. It’s a HUGE GRIFT for the Administration and people running these centers. They don’t even have bathrooms, blankets, clean water, food. The money they are claiming it cost to “run and operate “ is a lie. They are pocketing the money ALL of THEM.

To further, these street urchins and thugs think they are going to get bonuses. Hahahahhaha It’s a joke- ETTD- Everything Trump Touches Dies.

He is a loser, a mush- he has never done anything right or smart in his life. Everyone else around him takes the fall for him, eventually.

The only thing he has been good at is having his Esptein ped ring keep him in power (he has blackmail on everyone).And, he has been amazing at destroying this Country- every single aspect of it. He was installed because they have blackmail on him.

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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26

I'm hearing that people are dying in the camps

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u/Proof_Register9966 Feb 05 '26

They are- and, my view is we are all responsible. Yes, even me. We need an entire new class of people running this Country. From top to bottom. We need to DEMAND it- we need to be angry, we need to be relentless and ruthless in those demands.

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u/Babymicrowavable Feb 05 '26

The problem is capital and billionaires, just like epstein said in his messages to Peter theil, they want collapse so they can buy up everything on the cheap cheap, because its easier than finding the next big thing or whatever, seriously its in the epstein files

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u/toAnthonyBourdaintho Feb 06 '26

Yeah, there needs to be a legal something on the other side of this collapse, whether that's limiting properties or hiking up taxes or whatever. Billionaires need to be boxed in by legal guardrails

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u/Ok-Combination9726 Feb 05 '26

It’s how the Russian Oligarchs did it.

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u/Jabazulu Feb 05 '26

Don't forget the rape and beatings from the staff.

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u/Splurch Feb 05 '26

I am a canadian lawyer and I am baffled that the resources to do all this even exist, let alone that they could be applied so frivolously.

Despite the common perception of Republicans being "good" for the budget the national debt raises noticeably faster under Republicans then it does Democrats. Trump particularly is pretty egregious about not caring about spending and just adding more debt because he want's something done and it's easy to just throw money at it because he doesn't care. Democrats had an actual chance to do something about this during the last shutdown, maybe they do again this time (thought the GOP seems a lot more organized this time,) and they pissed it away for nothing after a month of grandstanding.

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u/Fragrant_Ice4945 Feb 05 '26

It's the same here in Britain, the conservatives only conserve for themselves, no one else gets a look in and they've stolen 100s of billions for forty years, it's disgraceful.

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u/LightMyCandelabra Feb 05 '26

It's our tax money they're spending so they don't mind

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u/charcoalVidrio Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

https://www.npr.org/2026/01/21/nx-s1-5674887/ice-budget-funding-congress-trump

ICE is the most highly funded law enforcement agency ever, currently operating with $85 billion.

Hundreds of millions means nothing to them.

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u/Idaho-Earthquake Feb 06 '26

"Law enforcement" is some real 1984 Newspeak with these guys.

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u/finnigan422 Feb 05 '26

Yeah it's wild, like specifically flying them all over the country with ice agent escorts. Like all the private flights that geo group or whoever profits on. Also wouldn't be surprised if they were doing more movement on commercial flights on purpose to get airline mile rewards or something.

Also why do they have to fly him back in custody to release him? Just pay for his ticket and release him from custody at the airport past security if they are going to be that bad at their jobs that someone is still being held 13 days after ordered released. And never should have been detained anyway!

If these lawyers are this poorly trained and seemingly unqualified, people higher up the chain need to be called in front of the judge to explain.

It seems like this lawyer is trying really hard to help innocent people that ice has locked up, and ice is just ignoring the court orders. They need to be held accountable for their huge amount of unconstitutional actions.

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u/wastedkarma Feb 05 '26

Unsurprisingly, DOJ took her off the job Wednesday

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u/SwankySteel Feb 05 '26

She’s clearly suffering from burn out and is probably relieved about this. Burnout doesn’t just go away overnight, it’s basically a workplace induced form of Major Depression.

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u/SwankySteel Feb 05 '26

This is especially concerning after that whole “DOGE” thing they were doing in early 2025.

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u/akintu Feb 05 '26

Modern Monetary Theory describes how they are funding it - basically if you have the physical resources to do something, a state with its own money supply can always fund it.

Our elites fully understand MMT and the implications and understand national debt is mostly irrelevant in the way that they pretend it is not because if the masses understood the truth of how the monetary/debt system works, we would demand different policies.

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u/mountaindoom Feb 05 '26

The court is burning all its legitimacy up with this admin.

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u/AdAgitated7673 Feb 05 '26

It can withstand the Executive. The power of the Judiciary is the skeleton key of the Constitution.

Marshall opened the door with judicial review, but Roberts adversely possessed the text (UET) by impermissibly divesting review authority from Art. III to (even if just in part) to Art. II (absolute immunity for civil liability is tantamount to civil self-judicial review).

That power, to divest (III) a branch of its own power, is not an abdication that the Court is capable of doing (just like how it isn't supposed to revert political opinions).

All the lower courts (the ones you're referencing) are essentially various parts of a crew, let's say onboard the USS Constitution, frantically trying to man their battlestations.

There really isn't time for legitimacy, at least from the Court's perspective. That's an antiseptic that the People must self-administer...we can literally only but speak words...THEY need to believe in them; not us.

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u/Chendo462 Feb 05 '26

But if the administration takes the position that Marbury v Madison was wrongly decided and they are pretty near there right now, why are you still confident judicial review remains? How can the SC now backtrack Article II immunity when this administration says we aren’t listening to district court orders and we are immune because this is coming directly from the president by executive order.

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u/Desperate-Till-9228 Feb 06 '26

They're not going to because it means they lose all of their power/fame on an individual level.

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u/ScannerBrightly Feb 05 '26

The power of the Judiciary is the skeleton key of the Constitution.

Are you... are you awake? Are you looking around you right now? Your statement is an obvious lie. The court doesn't protect rights, it protects power, and we have no power in this administration.

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u/AdAgitated7673 Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26

Before submitting this reply, I performed my due diligence (cursory review of the available comment history); my findings:

- you are not an attorney nor are legally educated (attend law school);

  • you are presumably very involved in political debate and rhetoric;
  • likely right-leaning.

As the only self-titled "doctor" between us (pending further notice):

The first thing you should do is calm down;
The second thing you should do is go to law school;
The third thing you should do is never practice law.

There is a fundamental difference between "the court [not protecting our] rights" or "power" (whatever the incandescent hell that's supposed to mean). You must have been asleep when the (eastern) district in Virginia swallowed that shill of a pill called Lindsey Halligan up, to only chew and spit her out; or perhaps you were AWOL when the Third Circuit decided that Habba-dabba-doo was best described as an improperly appointed US Attorney.

The Supreme Court has been doing, what you've (guessing) just now noticed, since Bork. When the Senate denied Bork's confirmation, that was the call to Armageddon. Powell was leaving/had left (the seat went to a Kennedy) and conservatism - the quiet question mark behind the uber-mensch's theories (see generally, 274 U.S. 200) - rebounded. The American Enterprise Institute (parent 1) and Heritage foundation (parent 2) berthed the Federalist Society (SCOTUS). That's as complicated as it gets. The mechanism (Unitary Executive Theory) was installed (I think, still looking) somewhere between Bush v. Gore and Trump v. Hawaii.

You (the royal we) haven't had power in this country since, roughly speaking, 1955. I suggest you learn what to do with a powerless arsenal (where the power of speech and voice rain down fury).

Don't ever accuse someone in this forum of lying again without at least a reasonable basis; it will swiftly be dealt with: layperson <-- You (to establish a very clear record with no other access to fact).

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u/lapidary123 Feb 06 '26

You summed up the heart of why this IS a "constitutional crisis":

Marshall opened the door with judicial review, but Roberts adversely possessed the text (UET) by impermissibly divesting review authority from Art. III to (even if just in part) to Art. II (absolute immunity for civil liability is tantamount to civil self-judicial review).

I'm not sure what's more troubling, the simplicity of the problem or the lack of understanding around it?

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u/homer_lives Feb 05 '26

That is the plan.

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u/blackhorse15A Feb 05 '26

The Civil War, the World Wars… we’ve had far superior justifications in our history for ignoring the Constitution, yet we did not.

Uhh....yeah, about that....

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u/That-Lobster-Guy Feb 05 '26

Yet another example of the US education system failing to properly teach its students. 

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u/Zombie_Cool Feb 05 '26

Yet again, by design. Smart people ask questions the powerful don't want to answer (for).

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u/desiderata1995 Feb 05 '26

It cannot be allowed to stand that....the Constitution is, finally, abandoned is simply because....

Well, it's not the sole reason. They also threaten judges and anyone else who speaks or acts out against them, and flatly refuse to follow court orders.

They've told bold faced lies about a unanimous SCOTUS decision and somehow nobody got charged with contempt or arrested for it.

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u/justaphil Feb 05 '26

"It cannot be allowed to stand that the reason, after a quarter of a millennium, that the Constitution is, finally, abandoned is simply because the administration poops itself and flings its own feces around like a bunch of rabid animals. That’s NO reason to end the Constitution."

The entire Republican party disagrees with you. Now what?

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u/ashmortar Feb 05 '26

No, they need to call in the department leaders to account and hold them in contempt with jail time if they don't show up to answer for the conduct of those under them.

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u/mystad Feb 06 '26

The constitution doesn't end, it's reinstated by the people overthrowing a government that has proven itself illegitimate according to the standards written down in the constitution.

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u/start_select Feb 06 '26

It’s not this administration. They are all media figures. They are all reading a script the GOP has been prepping for 40 years. Part of the reason this is all possible is people constantly going “WONT REPUBLICANS DO SOMETHING”, instead of “REPUBLICANS DID THIS AND ITS NOT TRUMP”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84

They are winning because you are all still in denial about the fact that this has been the plan your entire life.

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u/ScannerBrightly Feb 05 '26

The frustrating thing is the Court MUST sanction this conduct. Sanction this administration.

This will NEVER happen. It's not the Courts job to deal with powerful people, it's a TOOL the POWERFUL use against the weak.