William W. Bedsworth: Don’t let the Flyers and the moles win

In 1974, the Philadelphia Flyers won the championship of the National Hockey League, the prize known as the Stanley Cup. In 1975, they repeated that championship. They were known as the Broad Street Bullies, after the location of their arena and their unique style of play.

So why is a 50-year-old hockey team showing up in an opinion piece in the editorial pages? Because they gained control of the NHL in the exact same way the Trump administration is trying to gain control of this country.

The Flyers won their championships in large measure by simply ignoring the rules. Their avowed strategy was to commit fouls all over the ice on the theory that “the refs won’t dare call them all.”

And they were right. Even while they were setting individual records for fights and penalties, they got away with murder. The refs simply couldn’t keep up with their rule violations.

That’s exactly the strategy the Trump administration is employing right now. Every week, this newspaper is forced to publish editorials decrying a new lie, a new abuse of power, a new blatant violation of the Constitution that augurs “the type of strongman rule common in distressed countries such as El Salvador.” 

And every week, the courts order him to stop. His response? Just ignore the courts. 

His answer to a direct question about his administration’s apparent flaunting of a Supreme Court order requiring it to facilitate the return of a man it admits was mistakenly deported was classic Trump. He said the focus shouldn’t be on ignoring the Supreme Court order, it should be on keeping criminals out of the United States.

That’s right: “Forget the Supreme Court’s order, I’m in charge here, and I say this man is a criminal.” This with regard to a man who’s never been convicted of anything and was not only deported but imprisoned in a foreign country

If this heinous transgression were standing alone, it would be front-page news every day and would elicit outrage from everyone until it was corrected. But it’s not, any more than the Flyers’ fouls were.

It’s surrounded by other unconstitutional excesses: executive orders barring specific lawyers from courthouses. Orders refusing funds to states, agencies, and universities that didn’t comply with the Trump agenda. Refusal of emergency disaster relief law to states that didn’t embrace the Trump agenda. Ordering names of people here legally removed from the Social Security rolls and declared dead without warning, hearing or explanation. Arrest and deportation without explanation of college students here on valid visas, an anti-people-of-color abuse completely unrelated to the legality of their presence and found nowhere in any legitimate reading of the Constitution.

And why is all of this happening so fast? Because the administration is betting that the courts can’t call them all.

You ever play Whac-A-Mole, the arcade game where rodent puppets pop up out of holes, and you try to knock them down with a stick? That’s what’s going on here. (It shouldn’t be surprising that any analysis of the Trump administration’s governance comes down to the level of hockey matches and arcade games.)

But instead of one mole at a time, you have a dozen. You still have just one stick: the courts. And now the head mole wants to impeach your stick. 

Legislation has been introduced by a Tennessee congressman to impeach a federal judge for the “high crime and misdemeanor” of blocking an administration action until they show why it isn’t, as it patently is, unconstitutional.

I was a judge for 37 years. I was appointed to the Court of Appeal by a Republican governor. I’ve taken several oaths to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States,” which I still feel bound bound by.

So I’ve had a lot of experience evaluating unconstitutionality. I don’t always know it when I see it. Sometimes it’s difficult to recognize. This time it couldn’t be more clear.

This is the biggest constitutional crisis since Fort Sumter. At issue is, as this newspaper has recognized, “whether the United States remains a constitutional republic.”

The courts are fighting for that constitutional republic. They’re fighting to maintain “the great democratic experiment” that has endured for almost 250 years. They need your support.      

Don’t let the Flyers and the moles win. 

Grab a stick, pal; it’s time to fight for your freedoms

William W. Bedsworth was an associate justice of the California Court of Appeal from 1997-2024. Prior to that, he served as an Orange County Superior Court judge from 1987–1997.