Democracy in America has many layers and a Constitutional crisis has been going on since January 20 when the second presidency of Donald Trump began with a series of executive orders intended to secure power in the hands of the White House.
A series of 6-3 rulings by the United States Supreme Court appears to have given a green light for that executive authority. One ruling issued on June 27 effectively stopped a commonly used legal practice.
“The issue the Court decides is whether, under the Judiciary Act of 1789, federal courts have equitable authority to issue universal injunctions,” reads the first page of the ruling in Trump v. CASA.
The six Justices appointed by Republicans ruled that federal courts cannot place nationwide injunctions while the three appointed by Democrats dissented. While the case itself pertained to the issue of birthright citizenship, the ruling has removed a judicial check on executive power for all manner of topics.
Several people appeared before Charlottesville City Council on July 7 to protest what they see as federal overreach.
Alicia Lenahan, an Albemarle County resident, said injunctions imposed by lower federal courts kept other branches of government within the law. She paraphrased the dissenting opinion from Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
“Today it is birthright citizenship,” Lenahan said. “Tomorrow an executive order may do away with our right to free speech, freedom of assembly. Perhaps the administration will target the 10th Amendment in order to limit the powers vested in state, local and local governments and the people who live here. No right is safe in the new legal regime created by the Supreme Court.”
Other speakers expressed concern about how the budget bill adopted on July 3 will provide dozens of billions of dollars to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
“It provides $45 billion for detention facilities for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an increase of 265 percent in ICE’s annual detention budget,” said Susan McCulley, another Albemarle resident. “It provides $29.9 billion for ICE enforcement, a threefold increase in ICE’s annual budget.”
McCulley urged Council to pass a resolution to condemn the use of unmasked agents and unmarked cars in immigration enforcement pointing to a resolution adopted in Huntington Park, California. (read a June 28 article on CALÓ News)
Sage Bradburn, another Albemarle resident, drew attention to a U.S. Department of Justice memo from June 11 from Assistant Attorney General Brett A. Shumate entitled Civil Division Enforcement Priorities that announces the department will seek to enforce action against any entity in the private sector that employs diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. (read the memo)
“Instead of pursuing actual criminals defrauding the government, the DoJ will use the False Claims Act to prosecute entities receiving federal funds for knowingly violating civil rights laws if they have illegal DEI programs, cities, schools, nonprofits,” Bradburn said. “The list of potential targets is endless. They will seek treble damages, putting many out of business and forcing those opposing their hateful policies into compliance.”
Bradburn said this is likely why University of Virginia President Jim Ryan resigned. According to the Cavalier Daily, the Department of Justice sent a series of letters insisting that UVA had not done enough to remove policies related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Mary Stewart, another county resident, said the June 11 memo can be interpreted to allow the Department of Justice broad discretion to denaturalize the more than 25 million citizens who were born in other countries and later swore an oath. She said the Trump administration’s contempt for due process means many are vulnerable for political persecution.
“It could be exercising First Amendment rights or encouraging diversity in hiring, now recast as fraud against the United States,” Stewart said. “Or troublesome journalists who are naturalized citizens or students or university professors or infectious disease doctors who try to reveal the truth about epidemics or lawyers.”
Another county resident, Tom Dale, referred to a July 5 article in the New York Times that noted Virginia under Governor Glenn Youngkin has become a willing partner in the push to deport more people.
“The pace of immigration arrests has shot up across the country under the second Trump term, but few places have seen a spike quite as sharp as Virginia,” Dale said. “Arrests in the state by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are up more than 350 percent since 2024, one of the steepest increases in the country. Nearly 3,000 people were arrested by ICE in Virginia in the first five months of 2025, on par with numbers in a much larger state like New York.”
City Councilor Michael Payne said Charlottesville has made decisions to try to place limits on surveillance including a recent move to block other public safety agencies in Virginia from using footage from the Flock surveillance system. However, he said it will take more than just local government.
“With the tripling of ICE’s budget, the situation is going to change and it’s going to be a whole community effort required to respond to it,” Payne said.
All of the speakers asked that local media pay attention to the ongoing issue.
Before you go: This story was first published in the July 8, 2025 edition of Charlottesville Community Engagement and then posted here on the morning of July 11. The audio edition will be available via podcast shortly and can also be heard on WTJU at 6 a.m. on July 12.
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