COurts Hand Trump Several Important Loses
Courts Hand Trump Several Important Loses
Junious Ricardo Stanton
Last week Donald
J. Trump was handed major setbacks by Federal District Court Judge Cynthis F.
Rufe and the United States Supreme Court. On Monday February 16
th
Federal District Court Judge Cynthia F. Rufe ordered the Independence Hall
National Parks Service to completely restore the President’s House Slavery
Memorial exhibit, located at Sixth and Markets Streets adjacent to where the
Liberty Bell is located, to its original condition.
. The President’s House Slave Memorial Exhibit
is totally unique. It is the first exhibit on federal property created to pay
homage to enslaved persons. It was built to honor the lives of nine enslaved
persons of African descent who labored in bondage while George Washington
resided in Philadelphia during his presidency.
The Avenging The Ancestors Coalition a
grass-roots alliance of historians, activists, educators and elected officials
fought to have the exhibit erected. It has been standing since 2010 and is a
major tourist and educational attraction for the city of Philadelphia. It is
located within an historical area which include Independence Hall, Carpenter’s
Hall, the Liberty Bell and the Constitutional Visitors Center.
Judge Rufe
ordered all the instructive panels be returned and restored to their original condition,
the video monitors be in pristine working order and the whole site made
accessible to the public. She also ordered the site to be restored by Five PM
Friday February 20th.
A rally was held Thursday February 19
by the Avenging The Ancestors Coalition at Three- thirty PM, but the site had
not been totally restored at that time. National Parks Service workers were
working to comply with Judge Rufe’s order, but they stopped to allow the rally
to take place on site.
The Trump administration has filed an
appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals. The struggle intensifies.
Also on Friday February 20th,
the US Supreme Court voted 6-3 against Trump’s universal tariffs stating Trump
overstepped his authority imposing the tariffs. The majority decision which was
written by Chief Justice John Roberts noted the power to impose tariffs and taxes
lies with the US Congress not the executive branch as is written in the US
Constitution. The Supreme Court ruling confirmed a lower court ruling that use
of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act, (IEEPA) was not appropriate since the IEEPA lacks
specific language authorizing the levying of tariffs and taxes.
The ruling is a major blow to Trump’s
agenda and at least temporarily checked his willful pattern of taking unilateral
authoritarian actions since his return to the White House in 2025. But it
didn’t take long for Trump to react and respond. Following the Supreme Court
ruling, Trump in a fit of petulance immediately announced he would issue a 10%
universal global tariff then later in the day, he said he would add another 15%
to the tariffs! This is childish as his tariffs are not being used properly.
Tariffs are designed to protect domestic markets and producers as well as raise
money, not as bargaining chips and threats. The US Congress needs to step up
and do its job as outlined in the US Constitution.
What we are seeing is a man determined
to push the envelop on executive power, taking actions which are obviously
unconstitutional. Trump will attempt to use other legislation to circumvent the
US Constitution. He has used Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act in the past to
take action against nations in the various trade wars he has instituted during
his first administration.
While there are laws on the books that
sanction specific international trade actions, Trump’s use of them always seems
to blow up in his face. Take his trade wars with Canada, Mexico, China and the
EU during his first term. They were a disaster.
Neither Friday court ruling has
deterred Trump, he is pressing on. If his past patterns are a precursor to the
future, his actions will blow up in his face like a Wylie E. Coyote ACME
contraption. Stay tuned to see what happens.
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Tell The Truth Restore Our History
Tell The
Ruth Restore Our History
Junious Ricardo Stanton
When you
read Donald Trump’s March 27, 2025 deceitful and misnomered Executive Order # 14253,
Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/DCPD-202500408/pdf/DCPD-202500408.pdf
you discover Trump maliciously targeted the Presidents House Slavery Memorial located
a Sixth and Market Streets in Philadelphia and the Smithsonian African-American
Museum in Washington D.C. for shuttering. Trump’s Executive Order spells it out
based upon a disingenuous prism with the express intent of obliterating and
erasing the truth. The Executive Order is a shameful attempt to erase the factual
documentation of American history and foster ignorance about George Washington
and how deeply the institution of slavery was embroidered into the fabric of
the American tapestry.
On Thursday
January 22, 2026 Trump’s order was executed by National Parks Service employees
who dismantled and removed educational panels throughout the site which depicted
the truth about George Washington (a documented enslaver) who kept nine persons
of African descent in bondage and servitude while he resided in the Robert
Morris Mansion in Philadelphia during his tenure as the first President of the
United States.
The City of
Philadelphia immediately filed a lawsuit claiming the National Parks Service
violated aspects of the Administrative Procedure Act by unilaterally
dismantling the exhibit without conferring with the city. The legal team from Avenging
the Ancestors Coalition and the Presidents House Slavery Memorial
Alliance headed by University of Pennsylvania law school, Professor Cara
McClellan filed an Amicus brief in support of the City’s lawsuit claiming the
government’s action created irreparable harm to both the city and the
community.
Their brief asserted the exhibit’s
dismantling directly harmed the local tourism industry and the community at
large, from an historical, cultural, educational and economic standpoint. They
argued Trump’s actions were a violation of the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal
Protection clause. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and the Pennsylvania
Senate Democrats also joined the lawsuit as friends of the court and expressed
their unequivocal support of the City’s lawsuit.
As part of a
comprehensive response to Trump’s spiteful attempts to whitewash American
history the Avenging the Ancestors Coalition and the broader based President’s
House Slavery Memorial Alliance’s legal team presented their case during a
hearing at the Federal Courthouse on Friday January 30th.
Federal Judge Cynthia M. Rufe heard
oral arguments and insisted she wanted to inspect the removed panels and the
site before rendering her ruling on the motions. On Monday February 2 Judge
Rufe inspected the panels and visited the site where she was given a tour by
Mijuel K. Johnson a local activist and member of The Black Journey an organization
that provides walking tours of the Underground Railroad in Philadelphia. The
Judge said her decision will be rendered shortly, promising it would not drag
on into the Spring or Summer.
When they
learned about Trump’s Executive Order, activist attorney Michael a founder of Avenging
the Ancestors Coalition stated ATAC and The Presidents House Slavery
Memorial Alliance headed by Roslyn McPherson initiated a coordinated
campaign to bring attention to Trump’s reprehensible action. ATAC announced its
latest initiative entitled Tell the Truth and Restore Our History. It is
an concentrated thirty-day campaign designed to galvanize public opinion and pressure
by enlisting support from media, elected officials, coordinated activism which
includes social media, letter writing campaigns, a children’s letter writing
campaign, an Online petition, a rally on February 10th at the Independence
Park Presidents House Slavery Exhibit at Sixth and Market Streets, broad based
inclusive faith based organizations, activist recruitment and engagement designed
to keep this issue in the forefront of
America’s consciousness. They will also create a video testimony to chronical
how important the site is to individuals, the region and the nation.
For more
information on Tell the Truth Restore Our History, contact the Avenging the
Ancestors Coalition at ATAC.Avengingtheancestors@gmail.com
or, https://www.phslavery.org/ To sign
the Online petition go to https://www.change.org/p/tell-the-truth-restore-the-president-s-house-slavery-memorial?
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