The Emperor Has No Clothes

You remember the Hans Christian Anderson story: the vain emperor orders the most beautiful suit of clothes from swindlers who dress him in exactly nothing. The sycophants around him exclaim over the beautify of his new clothes. And everyone agrees, afraid to say that they cannot see anything, because that would mean they are stupid or traitors. Finally, as the emperor parades through the city, a small child says, “But he hasn’t got anything on.”

This time a federal judge called out the sycophants and swindlers surrounding the emperor. 

The emperor called Portland “war ravaged,” as a chicken-suited protester with an American flag kept vigil outside ICE headquarters. The emperor ordered the National Guard federalized and deployed to Portland. 

Not a child this time, but a federal judge, a former prosecutor appointed judge by the emperor himself, delivered the message. 

Her language was a little different, but the message was clear.  Portland is not war ravaged. Protest is legal. Law enforcement is doing just fine without the military. The president is acting ultra vires, beyond his legal power or authority. The emperor has no clothes. 

There is no war in Portland, though the number of protesters at the ICE facility surged from a handful before Trump ordered the National Guard deployment to hundreds. Protest is not insurrection. The protester in the chicken suit is not a threat to national security. Nor is the person in the inflatable frog costume, or the parents and their children, or the 84-year-old Vietnam War veteran. 

On Friday, the judge reviewed the facts and issued her order halting “the federalization and deployment of Oregon National Guard service members to Portland.” 

The president is acting ultra vires. The emperor has no clothes. 

On Saturday, the federal agents who make up Trump’s militia escalate their violence, firing tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and pepper balls into the protesters, with no apparent provocation. 

Then the president ordered the California and Texas National Guard into Oregon. 

In an emergency hearing on Sunday night, the judge issued a new order against “the relocation, federalization or deployment of members of the National Guard of any state or the District of Columbia in the state of Oregon.”

The president is acting beyond his legal authority and may not federalize the Oregon Guard, may not send in the already-federalized California National Guard, over the California governor’s protest, may not federalize and send in the Texas National Guard, with the acquiescence of that state’s governor, may not send in any National Guard at all, because there is no insurrection, no riot, no burning. Because the emperor has no clothes. 

In front of Portland’s ICE building, a frog-suited jester in an inflatable costume faces off with federal forces. They pepper spray into the air intake of the costume. 

An 84-year-old couple joints the protest. He is leaning on his walker, wearing his Vietnam veteran cap, when federal agents rush the couple and shove them roughly to the ground. Richard Eckman suffers no serious injury. Laurie Eckman is hit in the head by something, suffering a concussion. 

[The Oregonian] “‘It was totally unprovoked. It was not the kind of crowd that shouts the ‘F word.’ It was people like us, our neighbors. There were families, there were several veterans,’ Laurie Eckman told The Oregonian/OregonLive. ‘With no warning the feds charged into us, knocked us down and sprayed us. I was hit in the head with a projectile.’” 

The emperor has guns and drones and Blackhawk helicopters. The emperor has pepper spray and tear gas and “less-than-lethal” munitions. The emperor has armies. But the emperor has no clothes.