A disaster, whether natural or man-made, is never the result of a single factor. Although, it is true that Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 4 storm when it struck New Orleans, the resulting damage and loss of life was primarily attributed to the alarming incompetence displayed by every level of government in preparation for, and response to, the storm’s wind and water.

So it also is with the catastrophic impact of the barbaric invasion of ICE into our country’s laws, culture, and essential constitutional freedoms. The ICE impact of this administration is a multifactorial tragedy. Beginning with Trump’s simplistic, racist solution to an extremely complex problem; continuing through the ill-conceived hiring and abbreviated training of an army of armed intellectual dwarfs and social misfits; and ending with the loosing of these storm trooper wannabes on the cities and counties of America, the resulting horror was the suppression of fundamental principles of freedom and safety for a wide swath of legal immigrants and US citizens.

Easily overlooked, but essential to the end result, in all of the mayhem caused by shooting unarmed citizens and caging infants and toddlers was a Supreme Court decision that legitimized these agents in carrying out their heinous crimes against our constitution. In the summer of 2025, ICE began using racial profiling to stop and question people in the greater Los Angeles area. In other words, if you were brown, they stopped you. You would be stopped, questioned, and sometimes detained, based solely on whether you looked Hispanic. Now, of course, you would say that the 4th Amendment to the Constitution protects people in the US from “illegal search and seizures” and that law enforcement must obtain a warrant based on “probable cause” and the warrant must be signed by a judge. Anyone who has regularly watched “Law and Order” knows those basic constitutional facts. Seems the Supreme Court doesn’t watch many television reruns because in Noem vs. Vasquez the conservative majority of our Supreme Court voted that the government could stop and search people based solely on race. Because the case came to the Court through the Shadow Docket, the justices did not have to justify their reasoning for this decision in writing. They just tossed out the 4th Amendment without justification.

Except for Justice Kavanaugh. For some strange reason, this odd man wrote a concurrence defending his opinion and released it to the public with no signatures from other Justices. As Pema Levy wrote in Mother Jones Magazine, “Boldly, Kavanaugh let neither the law nor the truth stop him from writing many stupid sentences defending the indefensible.”

There is way too much in Kavanaugh’s incredibly foolish opinion for me to cover in a single essay. Essentially, Kavanaugh, a sitting Supreme Court jurist, seemed to forget that the 4th Amendment is not aimed at the individual who is the subject of law enforcement’s interest, but is the bedrock constitutional amendment guaranteeing American’s from an unharnessed police state.

Without question, Kavanaugh’s most famous sentence in the opinion is, “Moreover, as for stops of those individuals who are legally in this country, the questioning in those circumstances is typically brief, and those individuals may promptly go free after making clear to the immigration officers that they are US citizens or otherwise legally in the United States.” That’s just exactly the way it works in real life, Brett. Just on the surface, this is a demented statement from an isolated, protected, rich, white male that is made worse by the fact that this scenario flies in the face of actual evidence presented in this case concerning the violence directed at those stopped by ICE agents, including multiple day detentions of US citizens because they couldn’t produce “their papers”. (I don’t have any “papers”. Do you? Do you carry them with you? Are you prepared to show them to masked, armed men with no insignias on their uniforms? If not for you, then why for every brown person in the US?) The man is an absolute moron.

Within one month of Kavanaugh’s opinion, Propublica found 170 citizens who had been “dragged, tackled, beaten, tased, or shot by ICE agents.” US citizens. “Typically brief . . . and those individuals may promptly go free.”

These racially profiled stops are now referred to in the American lexicon as “Kavanaugh stops”. Years from now, when we as a nation regain our sanity and legal scholars look back on these “ICE Capades”, a Supreme Court justice’s name will be irretrievably linked to permitting the suspension of the 4th Amendment for American citizens based on their race. That’s some legacy, Brett.

In case you think this is old news, ICE has not faltered in their abrogation of the 4th Amendment or our civil rights. The news media stopped caring about ICE activities, but ICE recently arrested over 10,000 people in a 5 day span. The black booted, masked thugs march on, but with much less national media highlighting their crimes.

Be careful out there. Be good. Stay active

In the early 1960’s the great songwriter Leonard Cohen met a young woman, Marianne Ihlen, on the Greek island of Hydra. They became lovers and she became his muse, not only for the few years they were together, but for many of his songs throughout his life. Fifty years later, in 2016, as Marianne lay dying from leukemia, a friend wrote to Cohen to tell him of her imminent death. Cohen wrote back to her and asked for his words to be read to Marianne. I’ve always found these words beautiful and incredibly touching.

“Dearest Marianne,

I’m just a little behind you, close enough to take your hand. This old body has given up, just as yours has too. I’ve never forgotten your love and your beauty. But you know that. I don’t have to say any more. Safe travels old friend. See you down the road. Endless love and gratitude.

your Leonard.

Marianne died within a few days and Leonard died 5 months later.