S7 Ep18: Are You There, God? It’s Me, the Constitution.

What It Covers

This episode examines escalating federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota, where DHS deployed 2,300 officers leading to over 300 court orders violated in one month. The hosts analyze constitutional violations in detention practices, administrative subpoena abuse, Jeff Bezos slashing Washington Post staff by 30%, and a UAE official's $500 million stake in Trump's crypto company days before inauguration.

Key Questions Answered

• •Minnesota Immigration Enforcement Crisis: Federal deployment of 2,300 ICE officers to Minnesota generated 253 habeas petitions in January 2026 versus only 6 in January 2025. The Fifth Circuit ruled mandatory detention applies to anyone who originally entered without lawful admission, regardless of how long ago, contradicting 300 judges and decades of practice. This creates pressure to file habeas petitions before detainees transfer to Fifth Circuit jurisdiction where bond hearings become unavailable.
• •Administrative Subpoena Weaponization: DHS issues administrative subpoenas without grand jury or judicial approval to obtain personal information from Google, Meta, universities, and hospitals. A 67-year-old naturalized citizen who emailed DHS requesting merciful policies received a subpoena demanding months of online sessions, IP addresses, and alternate usernames. The pending Supreme Court case First Choice Women's Resource Centers v. Plattkin addresses whether these subpoenas can be challenged in federal court.
• •Board of Immigration Appeals Elimination: The administration announced plans to largely eliminate BIA appellate review, requiring majority board votes to hear appeals and reducing filing deadlines from 30 days to 10 days. This $1,000 appeal process previously allowed review of immigration judge decisions on removability and defenses. The policy change makes challenging individual immigration decisions significantly harder while people remain detained in conditions described as lacking food, clean clothes, and medical care.
• •Local News Infrastructure Collapse: Washington Post cuts 30% of workforce, particularly impacting foreign and metro desks covering DC local news. Local broadcasting consolidation by corporations like Sinclair creates conservative-skewed news coverage, exacerbating media siloing. Minnesota maintains robust independent local media including Star Tribune, enabling high-quality reporting on federal immigration enforcement abuses. This demonstrates how local news voids affect community awareness and government accountability.
• •Foreign Government Investment in Presidential Business: UAE national security advisor purchased 49% stake in Trump family's World Liberty Financial crypto company for $500 million four days before Trump's second inauguration, with $187 million going to Trump family entities. Months later, the US agreed to give UAE access to 500,000 advanced AI chips annually, a highly guarded scarce resource. Steve Witkoff, subsequently named Middle East envoy, is World Liberty Financial cofounder who received $31 million.
• •Supreme Court NDA Implementation: Chief Justice Roberts required Supreme Court employees to sign nondisclosure agreements in November 2024 threatening legal action for revealing confidential information. Five separate sources leaked the NDA existence to New York Times within two years of implementation. Justice Scalia previously told clerks he would ruin their lives for leaking, and Justice Barrett made similar statements. The NDAs function as threats rather than enforceable legal mechanisms.