Object permanence

So by now I believe even CNN is starting to get a handle on the fact the executive order Trump signed yesterday doesn't have anything to do with "caving" on child detentions but is instead another move toward establishing a legal right to detain everybody indefinitely.

 Anyway here is a look at what comes next.

What happens if the government fights it up to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court says that detaining kids is totally fine?

They might well decide that detaining kids is fine! It’s hard to say. I mean, the Supreme Court did issue a decision this March basically stating that immigrants in long-term detention have no constitutional right to a bail hearing because—get this—they are not legal “persons” and are not, as a matter of law, “present in” the United States. I mean, they’re physically here, but they’re not legally here, you know? “Why do we allow people to become judges who are apparently too stupid to grasp the concept of object permanence,” you may be thinking, and you are correct. Any court that would accept reasoning that morally callous and comically divorced from reality is really capable of anything.

If the Supreme Court gives the green light, the government could keep moms and kids interned together in longer-term detention facilities. This will have a number of consequences. One is trauma to children: being ripped away from your parent is horrific, but being trapped in a jail or a camp surrounded by armed guards is also horrific.