Burningbird
The Judge set a hearing on the preliminary injunction for August 22 in the US vs Abbott case.
In the meantime, the US _just_ filed a notice that Texas has been moving the barrier in the dead of night. Most likely trying to drag it out of Mexican territory. It won’t matter, because it will just be moved the next storm.
But it does demonstrate Abbot’s total disregard of the law.
This is what happens when Republicans believe they own the courts.
And in my current favorite legal case, US vs Abbott, the federal government has responded to the reply Texas filed against the demand for a preliminary injunction.
This damn case is such a no brainer. The majority of the buoys are in Mexican territory and must be removed. Mexico has asked the federal government to remove them. This has become a real point of contention between the countries, and causing real harm. End of story.
As for the ‘navigable’ crap, as the filing notes, though portions of the Rio Grande may not be navigable now, they can be made to be navigable. And that’s the true definition of ‘navigable’ according to the laws of our land, though we know that Thomas wants to undermine this understanding.
In addition, there’s all sorts of foreign treaties between us and Mexico related to the river.
Lastly, as the federal government notes, an ‘invasion’ is not individuals seeking to immigrant. An ‘invasion’ according to Congress and US laws is an organized armed attack. And the US government is tasked with protecting the US border, also end of story.
Unless this judge is the worst in the country, and I don’t have reason to believe he is, the damn buoys will finally be removed.
And guess what, kiddos: We’re going to have to pay for it.
My concerns about the US vs Abbott case may have been unfounded.
The US and Mexico did a joint survey of the buoys placed by Abbott. They found that 787 feet of the buoys are actually in Mexico’s side of the Rio Grande. Yup, that’s right:
Abbott invaded Mexico.
Playing with definitions of ‘navigable’ or not, Abbott violated Mexico’s sovereign territory.
Unless the idiot wants to say that Mexico is now part of Texas, he’s going to have to move those damn things. And it’s time for the Judge to stop the Amicus nonsense and make the decision he should have made days ago.
Taking a breather from indictments, I grow increasingly alarmed at what’s happening with a court case, US vs Abbott.
The federal government sued Abbott and Texas because his putting those barbaric buoys in the Rio Grande violated the Rivers and Harbors Act.
Slam dunk, you’d think.
But the amicus briefs filed and the response from Texas has been to challenge the very concept of the term ‘navigable’, and reflects Thomas opinion in the Sacketts vs EPA WOTUS case decided by SCOTUS not too long ago.
They are literally using this case to launch an attack on the very concept of federal oversight of rivers and bodies of water, such as the Rio Grande that extend beyond state lines. An attack that, if it goes to SCOTUS, will gut whatever clean water protections we have left in this country.
This is all flying under the radar. I sure wish there were some friendlier faces paying attention to this.