'Death knell': Legal expert astounded as Trump just unwound decades of legal order
A prominent legal expert skewered President Donald Trump's move to capture Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro over the weekend, a move that he described as an "inversion of our constitutional order." Even so, he warned there is little chance Trump or anyone involved in the operation will be held accountable.
Over the weekend, U.S. forces arrested Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, at the presidential palace and brought them to the U.S. to be prosecuted for narco-terrorism and weapons crimes. Maduro and Flores pleaded "not guilty" to the charges on Monday. They are being represented by Barry Pollack, a partner at the boutique law firm Harris St. Laurent & Weschler LLP in New York, who previously represented Julian Assange.
Mark Joseph Stern, a senior writer at Slate, wrote in a new column on Monday that Trump's actions were "flatly illegal."
"President Donald Trump’s military operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro is flatly illegal under international law and almost certainly illegal under federal law—an unauthorized use of force against a foreign nation that pushes executive power past its breaking point," Stern wrote.
"Yet there is no real chance that the courts will curb it, even as the mission evolves into a possible occupation of Venezuela and an expansion of hostilities to its neighbors," he continued. "Nor is there any signal that Congress will impose restraints on what appears to be the dawn of a new conflict overseas, surrendering its constitutional war powers to Trump without objection. And even if Congress does try to assert its authority to oversee (or end) military action in South America, it will face an uphill battle in a judiciary that persistently favors the commander in chief."
Stern also warned that Maduro's arrest could "reverberate" long after the Trump administration ends.
"This inversion of our constitutional order sets a perilous precedent that even many celebrating Maduro’s fall may come to regret," Stern wrote. "It marks the death knell of the post–World War II settlement that, however imperfect, wrestled the anarchy of war into a framework designed to condition armed aggression on legal justification."
"The executive branch’s consolidation of power now reverberates far beyond the United States’ shores as a saber-rattling president abandons any pretense that the law can constrain his resort to military force," he added.