No trial? No Problem

January 24, 2025

The harsh overreach of Trump’s first law ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

January 23, 2025

Salutations, Meteor readers,

I love Ben Shelton more than I ever have. Ben, if you’re reading this, I want you to know that I will personally go to Australia and yell at all the broadcasters who are trying you this week. Save your energy, I got you.

In today’s newsletter, we go over a bill speeding toward Donald Trump’s desk. Plus: an emergency contraceptive newsbrief, an update on the “slut puppy” court case, and your weekend reading list.

See you at the semis,

Shannon Melero

WHAT’S GOING ON

Due process for some: Congress has passed the Laken Riley Act, named for a young woman in Georgia who was killed by a Venezuelan undocumented immigrant, and will be sending it to #47 to be signed. It will be among the first laws passed by his administration (although his hand must be tired from the other stuff he’s been signing) and it is ominously fitting that the first piece of legislation he executes is an anti-immigration bill.

So what’s in the bill? The top line item is that any undocumented immigrant accused of non-violent crimes like theft, either in the U.S. or their home country, will now be subject to mandatory indefinite detention by ICE. They will not be allowed bond hearings in their criminal case and, once in ICE custody, can be held until deportation, which will be the most likely outcome if they’re unable to leave the detention center for preliminary trial hearings. The bill also allows for state attorneys general to sue the federal government on behalf of residents who believe they’ve been harmed by immigration policies.

To be clear, there are already policies in place for detaining and deporting convicted violent offenders. But this bill expands those policies to include anyone arrested or charged with “theft, larceny, burglary, shoplifting” or assault against a law enforcement officer, regardless of any conviction or lack thereof. “What’s dangerous about this bill is that it takes away some of the basic fundamental due process tenets of our legal system,” one legal expert told NPR.

This bill is a direct response to the particulars of Laken Riley’s case: The man who murdered her had previously been charged with shoplifting, and supporters of the bill argue that had he been deported after that minor crime, Laken Riley would still be alive. That is possible—but overriding the Fifth Amendment for a vast number of people is not a sensible way to protect women from being murdered. (Riley was one of the roughly 2000 women killed by men in this country every year. Fortunately, in response to these crimes, two years ago, the White House formed the first-ever government plan to end gender-based violence… Oh, wait.)

The Laken Riley bill isn’t just a GOP favorite; 12 Democrats voted for it, too—see which here—which shows just how many people believe that immigrants to the U.S. commit more crimes than its citizens. (Which, of course, is demonstrably false.) Immigrants have long been used by the GOP as boogeyman responsible for America’s troubles, and now they’ve got the tools they need to disappear as many as possible.

AND:

Researchers have found that ulipristal acetate, an alternative to mifepristone, has a 97% completion rate for abortion. In a normal world, this would be good news, but in the context of an anti-abortion movement eager to demonize contraception, the news is complicated: Ulipristal acetate is also found in an emergency contraceptive called Ella. “It’s going to put wind in the sails of abortion opponents who have been saying things like contraceptives can be abortifacients,” an abortion expert at UC-Davis told the New York Times. Regardless: Stock up on Ella!
Last year we shared the story of Brenda Andrew, the only woman on death row in Oklahoma. Andrew, who was convicted of murdering her estranged husband in 2004, had been subject to a misogynist trial; prosecutors called her a “slut puppy” and showed her underwear to jurors as evidence of her character. Her lawyers argued that the jury had been unfairly influenced by irrelevant anecdotes about her sexual history. This week, the Supreme Court sided with Andrew, ruling that the lower courts must now revisit her case and determine whether that evidence biased the trial. One lower court judge, who believed Andrew was entitled to a resentencing after hearing her appeal in 2007, wrote at the time: “I find it impossible to say with confidence that the death penalty here was not imposed as a consequence of improper evidence and argument.”
On January 6, 2021, Pamela Hemphill, once nicknamed the “MAGA granny,” was at the Capitol filming her fellow rioters. As a result of her choices on that day, she was convicted and sentenced to two months in prison and three years probation. But this week, when Trump’s pardons rolled out, Hemphill rejected hers, saying, “I don’t want to be part of their trying to rewrite what happened that day.” The rejection is largely symbolic—it isn’t even clear if there’s a legal way to formally reject a pardon—but Hemphill admits that she “lost [her] critical thinking” and understands she had been lied to and gaslit by the “Stop the Steal” movement. I mean…I hate to say it but…

In more first-week-of-Trump news: The move to restrict online information has been swift. Instagram accounts like that of Hey Jane and Aid Access, organizations that help American women obtain abortion pills, have been shadow-banned with their content blurred out. (Meanwhile, you may have noticed that Meta is suddenly suggesting you follow Trump.) Official government resources like the Biden-era reproductive rights page have been 404’d. If you need an example of the kind of do-something energy we’ll need to deal with all this: The two cofounders of the newsletter The Skimm went ahead and bought reproductiverightsdotgov.com and transferred all the defunct page’s information there instead.

WEEKEND READING 📚

On what’s next: Could having an accused rapist returning to the White House be a death knell for the #MeToo movement? That’s the MAGA movement’s hope. (The 19th)

On a bad start: Puerto Rico’s new Trump-supporting governor has been at work for nearly a month. Things haven’t been going well. (The Latino Newsletter)

On film: The “worst movie of the year” just got nominated for 13 Oscars including Best Picture. (Slate)

On the inauguration: This week on our own UNDISTRACTED, Brittany Packnett Cunningham assembles her group chat to break down the excruciating spectacle of Martin Luther King Day coinciding with the inauguration. It’s a conversation about the price the country has paid for the success of Barack Obama, Trump’s demonizing of DEI programs and his ironic love of meritocracy. Or, as Dr. Brittney Cooper puts it, “The idea that America is a meritocracy when Donald Trump is the president is a white boy’s wet dream.” You can catch the full episode here.