Breakingviews - Defiance of US Supreme Court is tricky to price

Gabriel Rubin - Reuters - 17/04
Beyond advantages in geography, resources and demographics, the United States’ economic might depends upon the predictable rule of law. Key to its function is the co-equal status of the executive branch, legislature and judiciary. By flouting a unanimous Supreme Court ruling that it return a wrongfully deported man, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration threatens that framework. If this pushes further, global investors holding trillions of dollars’ worth of U.S. assets face a grave capital quandary.
WASHINGTON, April 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Beyond advantages in geography, resources and demographics, the United States’ economic might depends upon the predictable rule of law. Key to its function is the co-equal status of the executive branch, legislature and judiciary. By flouting a unanimous Supreme Court ruling that it return a wrongfully deported man, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration threatens that framework. If this pushes further, global investors holding trillions of dollars’ worth of U.S. assets face a grave capital quandary.
Federal Judge Paula Xinis lambasted government lawyers during a Tuesday hearing dedicated to the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident whom prosecutors admitted was mistakenly deported to a detention center in El Salvador. By a 9-0 vote, the Supreme Court largely upheld Xinis’s order to “facilitate” his return. Yet the judge noted that “to date, what the record shows is that nothing has been done.”
President Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, in an Oval Office meeting on Monday, claimed that returning the imprisoned man was impossible. On Wednesday, a judge in a separate deportation case found “probable cause” to hold officials in contempt.
Officials assert that any directive must not overstep deferen...
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