Ruth Marcus: “In the interplay between the courts and the executive branch, judges apply what is known as the ‘presumption of regularity.’ Courts generally proceed on the assumption that government officials have acted properly. ‘The presumption of regularity supports the official acts of public officers, and, in the absence of clear evidence to the contrary, courts presume that they have properly discharged their official duties,’ the Court ruled in a 1926 case.”
“But the presumption of regularity is not an imperative of ignorance or a rule mandating that judges be ostriches. The Trump Administration has, repeatedly and flagrantly, squandered its entitlement to the presumption. It has dismissed lower-court judges as pesky underlings whose orders can be disregarded. Now, with its escalating defiance in the case of Abrego Garcia, it is treating instructions from the Justices themselves with similar disrespect. The country is about to see whether the judiciary will insure that it suffers consequences.”
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