Why Due Process Matters
Plus: A listener asks who was the better president: Trump or Obama?
In this week's The Reason Roundtable, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Matt Welch discuss how President Donald Trump is de-prioritizing due process by not adhering to a ruling from the Supreme Court. They also talk about how Harvard University's tax status could be in jeopardy and reflect on the legacy of Pope Francis.
0:00—Introduction
0:12—The Pope's legacy
5:56—Is the democracy emergency here?
15:27—Deportations without due process
29:19—Harvard funding pause
41:25—Weekly listener question
48:11—Lightning round: What's happening at the Pentagon? What's going on with tariffs now? And what's next for AI?
54:33—Weekly cultural recommendations
Mentioned in this podcast:
"On the 'Invasion' of 'Libertarianism,' Pope Francis' Ignorance Is Showing," by Stephanie Slade
"Pope Francis Is Wrong. Property Rights Are Human Rights," by Steven Greenhut
"The Pope Who Helped Bring Down Communism," by Stephanie Slade
"Alex Nowrasteh and Bryan Caplan: The Case for More Immigration," by Nick Gillespie
"Mass Deportations Are Bad for Everyone's Liberty," by Steven Greenhut
"You know who admitted that Abrego Garcia's deportation was a mistake? The Trump admin," by Nick Gillespie
"Anti-US Sentiment Could Deliver a $90 Billion Hit to US GDP This Year," by Rachel Wolff
"Trump Advisers Took Advantage of Navarro's Absence To Push for Tariff Pause," by Alexander Saeedy and Josh Dawsey
"Trump Tariffs: The Economic Impact of the Trump Trade War," by Erica York and Alex Durante
"Peter Navarro's No-Good Economic Nationalism," by Eric Boehm
"U.S. Confidence in Higher Education Now Closely Divided," by Jeffrey M. Jones
"Steven Pinker: What Went Wrong at Harvard," by Nick Gillespie
"Pope Francis Has Died," by Liz Wolfe
"Pope Francis Supports Free Speech, Unless It Offends People," by Jacob Sullum
"What Happens When Presidents Defy Court Orders?" by Damon Root
"Ignoring SCOTUS," by Liz Wolfe
"Federal Appeals Court Rejects Trump Administration's Attempt To Block Return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia," by C.J. Ciaramella
"The Trump Administration's Increasing Hostility to Basic Due Process," by Joe Lancaster
"Federal Judge in Deportation Case Finds Probable Cause To Hold the Trump Administration in Contempt," by Jacob Sullum
Reason Events
The Soho Forum Debate: Eric Brakey vs. Andrew Heaton, April 26, Concord, New Hampshire
Reason Speakeasy: Robert Rosenkranz on The Stoic Capitalist, May 6, New York City
The Soho Forum Debate: Dave Smith vs. Alex Nowrasteh on Immigration, May 21, New York City
We are looking for a producer for our show! Please submit a resume and cover letter to jobs@reason.com with the subject of the email labeled as "Podcast producer."
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When you get listener questions like that it's pretty clear that this is not a libertarian website.
Trick answer: Jared Polis.
Do I have to think of everything, people?
I can't top that.
>>de-prioritizing due process
lol clearly you people have no fucking clue what due process is it breaks my heart you put this nonsense out into the public & people think you're educating them
It is indeed embarrassingly ignorant and idiotic.
Reason's they/them of the year.
https://x.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1913728310527590472
We all need to confront MAPedo Jeffy about this guy. And insist he condemn him.
Want to bet that he won’t, no matter what?
That's the jackass who posted the Substack last week about killing officials.
“Why due process matters “ You miserable hypocrites all deserve to be made homeless.
I assume COVID restrictions were not mentioned at all...
Would be a better talk if you guys read up and learned what due process is.
Due process matters ... for americans. Why is this so hard to understand?
How will you be able to prove to the authorities that you are a citizen without some sort of due process giving you the opportunity to offer that proof?
Well I supplied a birth certificate with my passport application. Also for my driver's license at 16. And at age 21 because I let my drivers license expire at 18 and mostly road my bicycle for those three years in college.
I just pull out one of these IDs and I am good. Passport works great at the airport, even for domestic travel
Are you stupid? Oh yeah, you are.
Guess one found us.
Well, as someone here said, "Mistakes happen". Let's hope that the government never makes a "mistake" and thinks that your passport is forged. By your standard, you would have no opportunity to correct the mistake before you were hustled onto a plane bound for El Salvador.
I see you love your strawmen, Jeffy.
You have to understand that any answer MAPedo Jeffy gives, it will always be filtered through the lens of unlimited open borders no matter what. He will also, lie, obfuscate, and maintain an excruciating level of sophistry.
The Biden administration allowed somewhere between 8 - 12 million illegal immigrants into the country. They were not vetted, nor was there a legal process - hence 'illegal.'
There are 700 federal judges. There are 260 weekdays in a year. If one illegal has a day in court every day in front of each of those judges 182,000 could get their due process every year, or 55 years to see them all. If we only give them 2 hours in court to make their cases, that's about 14 years to see them all.
The only way to handle these incredible numbers is for ICE to round them up and allow a phone call to get documents indicating they are here legally, such as a visa, birth certificate, passport, or citizenship papers. If they were detained mistakenly apologize and pay some recompense for the error. Send the rest back whence they came.
First, Congress would have to get rid of the laws allowing aliens in removal proceedings to make asylum or withholding claims. Just as an example.
No, we just have to accept the Leftist Libertarian stance that trespassing is a death sentence on sight (see Ashleigh Babysit) and after 10k justified (by modern left libertarian standards) or so murders everything will sort itself out by modern "libertarian" standards.
A record number of apartments and hotel rooms were delivered the last several years…a libertarian blog shouldn’t have a problem with the immigration of the last several years especially when fentanyl deaths and violent crime spiked in 2020 when illegal immigration was at record lows. Basically you aren’t a libertarian, you just hated the black president because you are a racist. 😉
Fuck off and die, asswipe
Weak. Screaming ‘racist’ is so 2020.
Commit suicide.
Or - maybe - the government's approach to immigration should be smarter than 'round 'em all up'...
That’s what Trump was elected to do, fat boy.
You and your faggot democrat friends made it necessary, Fatfuck.
Maybe you open borders morons shouldn’t have cheered on the status-quo for 4 fucking years?
Nah, it’s the people that are left cleaning up the mess who are the real assholes.
More leftist theater.
The citizen arrested in tucson apparently claimed to be illegally here, even signing a statement. Glad reason didn't fall it this morning....
Tricia McLaughlin
@TriciaOhio
The narrative being pushed about Jose Hermosillo is false. On April 8, Hermosillo approached Border Patrol in Tucson and stated he had entered the U.S. illegally through Nogales. He said he wanted to turn himself in and completed a sworn statement identifying as a Mexican citizen who had entered unlawfully.
He was processed and appeared in court on April 11. Afterward, he was held by the U.S. Marshals in Florence, AZ. A few days later, his family presented documents showing U.S. citizenship. The charges were dismissed, and he was released to his family.
This arrest was the direct result of Hermosillo’s own actions and statements.
Oh shit. I've only briefly heard about this one and was skeptical of one person's hunch that it was an activist being deceptive for a media narrative. Guess I was wrong. Every time I think I have a grasp of how evil activists and media are they reveal how much worse they really are.
It's almost like finding a pregnant(!) ten yr old within 15 miles of the border, where a waiting, long-time and known abortion activist is talking on a cell phone to someone in the Biden administration, letting them know she's inbound.
Thank you for dutifully repeating government narrative/propaganda, Jesse.
Who is Tricia McLaughlin? Some rando on X? No, she is the assistant secretary for DHS. Therefore, take her claims with a grain of salt. She even got the date of the court appearance wrong.
I'll believe this is true when I see the primary source material.
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/immigration/2025/04/21/us-citizen-jose-hermosillo-arrested-held-10-days-immigration-charge-arizona/83196225007/
https://news.azpm.org/p/news-articles/2025/4/18/224512-us-citizen-in-arizona-detained-by-immigration-officials-for-10-days/
Um, you are a dumbass even if the idiot didn't sign the statement. Mistakes happen.
Hermosillo was only able to get the mistake corrected because - get this - he had access to due process.
He should be criminally charged with any relevant crime for lying and wasting taxpayer money like that.
Due process hasn't mattered since Jan 6th.
It jus that it's your turn now - - - - - -
Same goes for essentially all of Trump's legal cases. The novel interpretations of the law weren't a problem until it looked like they would lose. The prosecutorial and judicial misconduct wherein they didn't allow a defense and accepted "facts" that ran completely against all the evidence. They don't get to claim "due process" now especially when their bullshit examples include several instances of due process for illegals.
These are very great points.
Where was due process when the westfold fell?
You Leftist cunts had not one shit to give about due process during the entire Biden admin but now that people who were legally ordered out of the country years ago are being moved out of the country you pretend to care? Fuck off you lying POS journo hacks.
There is no peace with democrats. We are at war. They will never stop.
They must go, now.
If only there were such a thing as principles...
If only you knew what principles are.
You're retarded, is what I know.
Narrator: Said as 5.56 was looking in the mirror.
On a different note, the republicans are toast. Hope you'll be around to see it and weep. You may expire from obesity before that though.
That’s an interesting way to interpret a 20% democrat approval rate.
Cool story fag. You got any other democrat fan fiction you want to puke up.
Let us hear more of it.
I’m guessing he has some rambling bullshit about how Biden created the greatest economy in history, and now Trump has put us into the worst depression in world history, because the markets were a little off recently.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if there are also passages with explicit descriptions about taping children. His kind are into that.
Sure, when it's the Democrats that have an approval rating below 30 percent. Let me know how that works out for you, bubba.
Reason would have spent 10% of this effort on Obama droning American Citizens not convicted of any crime
Its actually simple: put someone in power, let them show how much of a tyrant they are. Both have failed this test spectacularly.
No, the test is to elect someone who is willing to attempt to drain the swamp and let steaming piles of lefty shit like you whine.
Fuck off and die, shitstain.
BTW, please tell us, specifically, how he is a "tyrant".
All those cuts he wants to the executive branch are tyrannical.
If Trump was a tyrant you wouldn't be able to post here, loser.
Plus: A listener asks who was the better president: Trump or Obama?
On the one hand...
Why are you people fighting so hard against the idea of due process for those that the government wishes to deport?
Surely you don't think the government is 100% correct every time when it decides to deport someone, right? The government makes mistakes, as we all plainly can see. Due process makes it less likely that these mistakes will lead to irreparable harm.
Plus, without due process, YOU aren't able to prove that you are a citizen if/when the government starts to question your citizenship. All the government has to do is declare that you aren't a citizen and - poof - your rights go away.
These are such logical, common-sense arguments, particularly on a libertarian forum, that I find it hard to understand why you all are fighting against it so hard.
Wait wait I know... is it because you don't give a shit about the migrants, and granting them due process would mean "the left wins"? Is that it?
I also don't want to spend a fortune on f'ng lawyers and judges to mitigate the same case over 20 million times. Our country is broke. We, the taxpayer don't want us or our kids paying for it. I just got done sending a lot of my money for dumbasses like you who want to spend it on people who broke the law. How much did you pay in taxes this year? Can't be much as you seem to spend you life arguing leftist crap on the internet.
You must be overjoyed by how your limousine values stick it to the working man. Sad loser that you are.
And yes.due process for non citizens is different from citizens.You may not like it but Too bad. How much money did you send to non citizens defense funds? Oh yeah, assholes like you don't answer questions that show you for the loser that you are.
This is what Jeffy wants. Not due process, but legal gridlock so his precious illegals can stay.
Jeffy is a traitor.
Jeffy. You pay the legal fees for those wrongly deported. Go for it. Tell us how the Jeffy d
Defense Funds is doing great deeds. Set up a fund and 6
I will donate $0.10. I am sure others here will put up even more based on your virtuoso arguments. Show us what a good libertarian man you are, be the better of all of us. Or be the Marxist Asshole we see here and demand tax paying citizens be forced to pay legal fees for criminals we have no control over. Your virtue signalling rings hollow here, dumbass
So are you a complete anarchist then? No tax money even for courts and law enforcement?
I am not an anarchist. I think the government has an obligation to pay for courts and law enforcement, in the pursuit of justice. Part of that pursuit means that taxpayers pay for courtroom expenses even for criminals in order to determine guilt or innocence. Do you agree with this basic idea?
Why would we pay to give lawyers to foreigners?
No dumbass with the extra stupid anarchist response. No a realist tired of your crap. The country is broke. Suggesting I be made to psy for their defense confirms your asshole status.
Round up all the scum like MAPedo Jeffy and put them in shipping containers. The containers are to be sent to Antarctica.
The end.
Surely you don't think the government is 100% correct every time when it decides to deport someone, right? The government makes mistakes, as we all plainly can see.
What is the acceptable failure rate?
All laws are worthless to enforce unless you can give it.
Who, exactly, has not received due process?
Bear in mind that different situations and rules come with different processes.
Any person in prison that was never convicted of a crime for starters.
werent there J6ers that spent time - not just in jail - but in solitary confinement without being convicted... and for substantial periods of time?
Yeah, there sure was. And we complained about it here, for the injustice and illegal action of the government as we should in this case.
...yet nothing was done about it. John Roberts could not be bothered for years, and even then, he did not do a damned thing. It took Trump (and having to send marshals to DC jails as they STILL refused to release them after their pardons) to liberate them.
Democrats are utterly lawless marxist traitors. We must be rid of them.
The time is now.
Do we not generally keep illegal immigrants with deportation orders in some kind of prison?
If ICE picks up a bunch of people they suspect of being here illegally, aren’t they held in prison while their status is determined?
Not under Biden.
Prison? No. Not in the common use of the word. They may be held temporarily in a jail or holding cell awaiting due process.
This guy's in prison. He's not going to see a judge. He has no options for appeal in El Salvador. He has no option for due process unless Trump relents.
What part of "He is a citizen of El Salvador currently located in El Salvador" is getting lost in translation here?
Understand --- if Trump does EXACTLY what you want in the precise way you want him to --- he STILL does not enter the USA ever. Literally never will ever.
We will just send somewhere less pleasant.
Worse than a notorious El Salvador prison? OK.
I understand your distinction. Thank you.
FWIW, I think the Trump Admin should request the El Salvadoran government to provide Garcia a trial for whatever crime they (the El Salvadoran government) think warrants him being imprisoned in his country. But that’s literally all they can realistically do. (I also think he should have been immediately deported 4 years ago when his appeal was denied, and that it’s more than a little stupid to deny asylum but then say he can’t be sent back to his home country, but that’s just me.)
Were you nor the commenter that excused rapefugees in Europe?
He most certainly was, and still is. He also sees no problem with allowing known sexual predators of children to enter the US at will. Even if they were previously convicted of child rape.
“ Surely you don't think the government is 100% correct every time when it decides to deport someone, right? ”
Surely the government isn’t 100% correct in granting protected status every time.
Garcia claimed fear of criminal gangs in his home country (which is not grounds for asylum) eight years after his illegal entry into the U.S. and was granted TPS.
That TPS status for citizens of El Salvador was enacted for volcanic activity in 2001. I’m guessing they’ve had plenty of time to recover but the outgoing administration extended the TPS status for 18 months citing on going weather conditions.
At some point the immigration laws and asylum processes need to be followed as written. Grounds for asylum are very narrow and fear of crime is not one of them, nor is lack of economic opportunity nor is “wanting a better life.” Persecution by the government of one’s home country is the only legal grounds.
There is a legal immigration pathway - it needs to be followed.
X
"Why Due Process Matters"
Whoever writes the headlines needs to be fired. The proper headline here is:
"Why TDS-addled Shits Continue to Write for Reason Matters"
">>de-prioritizing due process
lol clearly you people have no fucking clue what due process is it breaks my heart you put this nonsense out into the public & people think you're educating them"
You'd imagine that a non-TDS addled steaming piles of shit might have noticed that whoever was acting POTUS for four years (also ignored by the steaming pile of shit Welsh and the "editors") had nothing to say regarding 'due process' in opening the gates in Texas, nor even ONE SINGLE article attempting to identify who was financing the hordes marching north through Mexico.
NOT ONE SINGLE ARTICLE, you steaming pile of shit Welsh!
Fuck off and die, asshole.
BTW, please refund me every penny you've ever gotten from me, ass-wipe.
BTW, I notice that in the four years where we had an acting, unknown, POTUS, neither the shitbag Welsh, nor any of the other swampshits writing for "REASON" (yes, those a scare-quotes) had any concern about "due process" regarding the arrival of those millions, nor a single article trying to determine who paid for the hordes to traverse Mexico to the southern border.
Fuck you with a barb-wire wrapped broomstick, Welsh!
Yes, Welsh needs to get reamed twice.
Please start posting a transcript!
https://babylonbee.com/news/people-who-bypassed-legal-process-in-migrating-to-usa-demand-due-process-before-being-kicked-out
It's become a due process trap whereby the law was ignored to bring them in but has to be scrupulously followed to get them out. These sorts of procedural antics have been used against the West for decades upon decades and partially responsible for some of the rot in the West. The Congress needs to change and/or streamline the law else the next Dem admin will do the same shit. Let millions in unlawfully then scream "due process" when trying to remove them.
This. Garcia admitted to entering the US illegally in 2011/2012 (reports vary on the year). If he entered seeking affirmative asylum, he had one year to apply for it and he did not. He is arrested in 2019 at which point he claims fear of criminal gang violence if returned to El Salvador and is granted temporary protection status (TPS) blocking deportation to his home country.
Fear of criminal gang violence is not grounds for asylum. A blanket, for lack of better terms, TPS for citizens of El Salvador was issued in 2001 due to the effects of two earthquakes. That TPS designation has been renewed numerous times since 2001, the most recent was by the outgoing administration in January 2025 due to "ongoing environmental conditions, specifically geological and weather events, that continue to disrupt living conditions in the affected areas." Sorry, that's just bullshit.
Enforce the asylum laws as written, that is the "due process."
National Emergency vs. "Due Process"
“In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice, there is.” -Yogi Berra (1925-2015)
The Biden cabal created a national emergency. Twenty million or more illegal aliens invaded this nation only to be welcomed by the federal government and others. How to correct this flagrant violation of a constitution that demands of the president that he protect the integrity of the borders?
As President Trump has opined, conferring "due process" on every illegal alien before deportation is mathematically impossible. Immigration Court. Then an appeal. Then a friendly federal district court. Then another appeal by the defendant or the government. Then a federal court of appeals. Then an appeal. Then SCOTUS. When all the procedures have been exhausted, the illegal alien will have died of old age here in the USA. Such is justice?
Excerpt from the novel, Retribution Fever:
To paraphrase Judge Jerome Frank (1889-1957), the judicial behavior of a judge depends less upon jurisprudence or the letter of the law and more upon the breakfast eaten that morning.
Never in history had a people bestowed so many powers so great upon so few judges. Even under the British system, the Judiciary was made answerable to Parliament. Yet, the Framers of the Constitution knowingly created a Judiciary with such vast and sweeping powers as never had been witnessed before.
Very true. And the judicial treason we are now experiencing is just more proof that we need to get rid of the democrats.
DNC delenda est.
" A listener asks who was the better president: Trump or Obama?"
Obama.
Just ask the Iranian mullahs.
They'll tell you Obama is wonderful especially after he gave them $4 billion in cash.
Obama and Biden basically handed the Iranian government nuclear weapons. Gift wrapped. While filth like JeffSarc cheered it on.
Totally wrong, just ignorant of eg Lincoln's habeas corpus ruling and vindication of him by Congress. You are seriously out of touch because Tren de Aragua is not outside your door and MS-13 is following your daughter. You are irrelevant
Reason has as part of their business model a deep dependency on endemic Gell-Mann amnesia in their putative readership. Apparently some “due process” violations are just (D)ifferent, and are to be ignored in service of the Cause.
'due process' does matter. In ensuring said subject is a US citizen or not.
Beyond that; It's just being used as a stall and distract tool.
There is no-right for foreigners to be here against US wishes/legislation.
Typical lawyer evil: Let's ahve a trial for each of the 20 million illegals....That kind of talk bars legal recourse to almost every citizen in the country. Nice try but pellucidly dishonest
Nobody who opposes you is saying "Due Process does not matter" that is juvenille of you. If you got your way the 20 million due process trials of virtually all illegals would stop due process for murder, rape, kidnapping and sexual ldeviancy crimes. And you claim to be for the common man? Bullshit, a Google search will not reveal you showing any concern under Biden that this thorougly predicatble event would happen. I won't accuse you of bad matives but it is damn near impossible that Trump's prosecutions suddenly alerted you to what must inevitably happen when Biden lets all those people in. Simply NOT BELIEVABLE
This is the corrosive influence of Ayn Rand....We can accept X number of rapists, murderers, terrorists if Y number of acceptable people cross the border with them
With charity toward none;: An analysis of Ayn Rand's philosophy
by William F O'Neill
"the same inconsistencies and factual errors that the objectivists are guilty of permeate libertarianism and the debunked but still influential economic theories like supply-side or Austrian economics that have political power long after working economists despaired of finding any practical use for them."