ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones

Re:ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy... by fzeroracer on Tuesday October 07, 2025 @04:23PM (#45508355)

By definition, the law is what we, collectively, agree on as being the law. The Supreme Court is only able to serve as the executor of the law on the basis of the institution being seen as legitimate and by virtue of being given that right by society.

The Supreme Court suddenly deciding that the constitution does not matter does not make their decision law, it erodes trust in that institution and removes their mandate to execute the law. Said supreme court has decided to throw away all trust in favor of giving unchecked and clearly illegal power to the executive, overriding Congress's very clear authority as delegated by the constitution.

Many of the actions taken by this Supreme Court are illegitimate and are things that will need to be reckoned with assuming that the presidency changes hands in 2028. As well as the actions by ICE and this presidency in general.

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Re:ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy... by cortesoft on Tuesday October 07, 2025 @04:47PM (#45508647)

Well, the law of this land is based on the Constitution, which gives the Supreme Court ultimate authority to interpret the law. That is what gives it the force of law.

Now, the legitimacy of the CONSTITUTION is based on what we, collectively, agree on, however

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Re:ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy... by JumpCrisscross on Tuesday October 07, 2025 @05:36PM (#45509208)

> the law of this land is based on the Constitution, which gives the Supreme Court ultimate authority to interpret the law

The Constitution vests "the judicial Power of the United States" in "one supreme Court, and in such inferior Courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain and establish" [1].

That isn't the same as "ultimate authority to interpret the law." In practice, SCOTUS does usually have this power, due to Marbury and other precedent. In practice, too, it can be bullied, e.g. by FDR and potentially right now.

[1] https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/article-3/

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Re:ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy... by mothballed on Tuesday October 07, 2025 @05:22PM (#45509045)

If that's true that's the same thing as Supreme Court simply having all the power isn't it? SCOTUS largely serves as a veto power on the other two branches. If they can actually unilaterally make a binding interpretation of the constitution then they could simply declare the constitution is actually saying SCOTUS has all of the federal powers and that Clarence Thomas is King.

SCOTUS has been relied on far too much as a method of legitimation of extra-constitutional powers. People know they are lying bastard, but because the court-gods have used their holy powers to interpret the constitution as magically meaning stuff like intrastate commerce is actually interstate commerce and sawn off shotguns aren't actually protected 'arms' then many gullible zealots will actually believe that.

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Re:ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy... by cortesoft on Tuesday October 07, 2025 @06:23PM (#45509691)

There are supposed to be checks on the power of the supreme court through both the ability to impeach justices and the ability to pass constitutional amendments. Those checks are not working as they are supposed to for many reasons.

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Re:ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy... by FuriouslyAdrift on Tuesday October 07, 2025 @05:01PM (#45508824)

Immigration has always come under the plenary powers of The Congress and is not subject to judicial review. This plenary power doctrine has weakened over the centuries but it still holds.

https://cis.org/Report/Plenary-Power-Should-Judges-Control-U...

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