Trump Blindsided as Cities Unleash Unexpected Pushback

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3:00Michael Popok:Blue cities and blue states are under attack. They will be invaded this week by Donald Trump's federal police force troops. His illegal shock troops made up of ICE and Border Patrol and armed National Guardsmen from other states as they invade Chicago and Boston, potentially New York, as Donald Trump tries to have blue cities and blue states buckle under his thumb. The problem is the resistance is being televised. The resistance's front lines are in the courts. And that's where the mayors and governors are going to defeat Donald Trump, especially with our help. I'm going to focus on a new lawsuit filed against Michelle Wu, the mayor of Boston, the safest big city in America, who is resisting Donald Trump and has been brought into court as a result.

3:52Michael Popok:I'll talk about the new lawsuit that's been filed by the Department of Justice and its chances of success. Let me not bury the lead. They are not going to win against Boston. And then talk about what's happening in Illinois and Chicago, ultimately in New York. The blueprint for the resistance is Gavin Newsom, the governor of California, Rob Bonta, the attorney general of California, and the success they have had resisting and opposing Donald Trump's advances in California, along with Brian Schwalber, the attorney general for the District of Columbia, in his successful efforts to expel Donald Trump's shock forces from the District of Columbia.

4:31Michael Popok:Make no mistake about it. We're going to talk in this hot take about federalism. We're going to talk in this hot take about the Supremacy Clause. But what we're really talking about at bottom is the first president since Abraham Lincoln, who has sent federal troops to attack states and for all the most wrong, depraved and unconstitutional reasons. That's what we're watching. A federal judge in San Francisco just put it succinctly last Tuesday when he found that Donald Trump has violated and will violate the Posse Comitatus Act unless stopped by using the U.S. military and armed guards, turning them on Americans and others here in pursuit of or for civil law enforcement purposes.

5:17Michael Popok:That is illegal. That is unconstitutional. And I'll talk more about the violations of the Supremacy Clause and the rest here on this hot take of the Midas Touch Network. We knew this was coming. Donald Trump has been threatening blue cities and blue states, ignoring the soaring crime rates in red cities and red states. Some of the highest are in red cities and red states. But he's going after for political purposes and to try to break the Democratic brand and Democratic Party over his knee. He's going after these cities. Chicago has and its violent crime is down 35 percent year over year this year alone.

5:57Michael Popok:D.C. similarly. Boston is the safest city, big city in America. Philadelphia's crime rate way down. So these mayors and governors are fighting it in the streets. They're fighting it in the courts. And let me break down the new lawsuit that was filed against the city of Boston and Michelle Wu. There's about 14 of these lawsuits that have been filed by Pam Bondi in the last 60 days. She's already lost one. And it has not been reversed on appeal. In Illinois, Judge Jenkins, a couple of months ago, I did a full report on it. after Pam Bondi sued claiming that the sanctuary cities and sanctuary states are unconstitutional because local law enforcement is refusing to cooperate with the federal government in detaining and retaining immigrants and aliens and others as part of the federal immigration law.

6:59Michael Popok:Trump's Department of Justice is arguing that that violates the supremacy clause because they premise it on something that itself is unconstitutional. The concept that states are required, required and can be compelled by the federal government to enforce federal law. No, they can't interfere, but they are not required to cooperate because that would be a violation of the 10th Amendment of the Constitution, which reserves the power in the states, all power that has not been given to the federal government. That is our system of federalism and states' rights and states' power. They can choose to cooperate.

7:44Michael Popok:Cities and states around America that are red or otherwise that want to cooperate with Donald Trump, they can. but they are not required to. In fact, to require them to do so would be to violate the 10th Amendment of the Constitution. And Judge Jenkins laid it out in a good 60-page order, yet Pam Bondi continues to bring these unconstitutional lawsuits against cities. Let me just show you the internally inconsistent arguments within the complaint. This complaint against Michelle Wu, the mayor of Boston. And Boston, I will post on Legal AF Substack for you to read as well later this afternoon. Cities, this is what they say in paragraph four.

8:25Michael Popok:Cities cannot obstruct the federal government from enforcing immigration laws. When that occurs, a city breaks the law. Okay. Well, Boston, through its Boston Trust Act, which says that local law enforcement, except for public safety reasons, cannot assist the federal government in immigration, hence Sanctuary City, doesn't say that they're going to obstruct the federal government. Not assisting is not the same thing as obstructing. Obstructing is, obviously, a federal officer tries to grab somebody, an immigrant, put them in the back of a van. Boston PD steps in the middle and stops them from doing that.

9:12Michael Popok:That's obstruction. federal government federal officer grabs somebody calls to the police department on the corner the police officer on the corner to assist unloading the person or detaining the person that's not obstruction when he refuses that is just not cooperating and there's no obligation in fact quite the opposite under the constitution that a city cooperate with the federal government and its federal officers you do you in other words you want to use and you want to implement your cruel and depraved immigration policy, Trump, you do it with your officers. You can't conscript state officials and state officers to do that dirty work with you or for you.

9:51Michael Popok:That's the point. So they rightly, this is why their own complaint leads to its dismissal. It says in paragraph five, the Boston Trust Act is the city's ordinance that directs the Boston Police Department not to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement. Right. Correct. Not cooperating is not obstructing. You know, as much time as I spend prepping, reading and recording for Legal AF, I didn't realize how much sitting all day was dragging me down physically and mentally. By the end of the day, I felt stiff, foggy and worn out. That's why I started using this episode's sponsor, Uplift Desk.

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11:24Michael Popok:That's U-P-L-I-F-T-D-E-S-K dot com slash Legal AF for this exclusive offer only available through our link. In paragraph seven, they say, according to the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement ICE, the criminal charges on the detainer requests issued by the Boston field office include violent and serious crimes. Okay. But even the Boston Trust Act says that if there's a public safety issue, then the Boston police can intervene, if for public safety. Even in their paragraph 28 of their own complaint, it says Congress has preserved states and localities' ability to cooperate with the Secretary of Department of Homeland Security.

12:12Right.

12:13Michael Popok:The ability to cooperate is one thing. compelled, conscripted, forced service to do the dirty work of the federal government is something quite again. I am quite confident that this lawsuit will go the way of, and the Boston federal judge who has been assigned to this case, will, applying the same rulings as Judge Jenkins will dismiss this case as a violation of the 10th Amendment and and other unconstitutional power grab moments to get rid of this lawsuit. Let me show you a clip by Michelle Wu, because she is one of the leaders of the major resistance against the Trump administration. The anti-Trump resistance is being led by people like Michelle Wu, the mayor of Boston.

13:02Michael Popok:And I want I want you to see her in action. A freedom and a home for everyone. Tonight, the response given to an ultimatum from the federal government. This has always been a city of revolution, of innovation, of standing up for the public good and never bowing down to tyranny. Now, that's not the only city that's been threatened with these kind of suits or with the actions of an invading force led by Donald Trump. Chicago next. I mean, the Chicago governor, J.B. Pritzker, along with its mayor, has already revealed that they've gotten insider information from within the federal government that they are massing troops at a naval base near Chicago, that many of the armed and potentially masked invading forces, occupying forces by Donald Trump, are coming from the Texas National Guard.

13:56Michael Popok:So now we've got Texas invading Illinois. Where are we? I mean, is this a sequel to Civil Action, the movie? Or Civil War, the movie? What are we watching? Texas versus Illinois? And they should be, and the Texas people should throw their elected officials out for participating in this depraved and unconstitutional scheme to violate states' rights. I mean, warning to Texas. Is that what you want when a Democrat gets into power? You want Texas invaded by federal troops? Remember the Alamo. So they got in the word, they're ready. They're not going to obstruct the federal government, but they're not going to assist either.

14:54Michael Popok:Again, cities where crime is way down under Joe Biden, and Donald Trump wants to make political theater and political points at the expense of occupying a democratic city and state. Now, let's talk about what the cities and states can do in response. It's not impossible, but it's very hard for the states to block and or arrest federal officers executing duties that even appear and are unconstitutional. Self-help is not the way. So we get excited when we see snowplows blocking state buildings and other things to try to resist. But at the end of the day, it's going to be in the courts. Cities like Boston, states, Massachusetts and Illinois, Chicago and all that have to file lawsuits, get before federal judges, just like California did, just like Los Angeles participated, and get an injunction to stop the occupying forces and throw them out.

15:57Michael Popok:and argue that Donald Trump has violated the statute related to commandeering the National Guard. You see, he's bringing National Guard from outside the state now. He's adopting and adapting his strategies. He's bringing in Texas National Guard. He's not trying to nationalize and federalize the state guard of that state like he did in California because ultimately he got blocked by orders of Judge Breyer there. So now he's adapting. He's bringing in seven or eight other state red states that are willing to embarrass blue states and send in the troops now. And so it's going to be in the courts to get rid of these occupying forces because arresting them is not going to work.

16:43Michael Popok:They can try. But the Supremacy Clause works both ways of the Constitution, which says federal government and federal law in the area in which Congress has allowed it to operate reign supreme. I saw some sort of report that said, in every case, federal law blocks state law. That's not true. It has to occupy a certain sphere that has been given to it by Congress. But if you have an argument that they are coloring outside the lines when it comes to the Constitution, then you have to go to a federal judge as opposed to using self-help. So we're not going to see pitched battles between state law enforcement and federal law enforcement on the streets of Chicago and Boston and Philadelphia and New York.

17:27Michael Popok:But we are going to see pitched battles inside the courtrooms, and we're going to cover it right here on the Midas Touch Network and Legal AF. Slide over to Legal AF, the YouTube channel. Hit the free subscribe button there. We're going to hit 800 ,000 subscribers, likely before our one-year anniversary or one-year birthday on the 17th of September. We just crossed 250 million views of our work. That's all a testament to our audience and its devotion and fervent support of what we do on Legal AF. Brand new Legal AF sub stack up and running. We've already got 80 ,000 subscribers there, 4 million views a month because we're putting out content that people want to watch and building a community you want to be a part of.

18:05Michael Popok:I'm glad you're here. I'm honored to be in front of you every day, almost every hour on Legal AF, the YouTube sub stack. We're here on the Midas Dutch Network. So until my next report, I'm Michael Popok. Can't get your fill of Legal AF? Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF Substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the Substack. You'll find the court filing and the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do call, wait for it, Morning AF. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AF are there as well.

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