Ian Millhiser

You'll get money paid out of the United States Treasury.

The bad news is that that money is going to come from the United States Treasury, like the taxpayer.

And so, like, if I'm a rogue ICE officer or for that matter, if I'm a rogue president who is ordering these ICE officers to violate the law, what do I care if the United States Treasury has to pay out some money?

Like, you know, it gives people some compensation after the fact.

And that's not nothing.

But I doubt that this is going to be effective in deterring bad actions by bad law enforcement officers or by bad political officials because they aren't on the hook for the money.

The taxpayers are on the hook.

Yeah.

So both of the remaining options fall under the same umbrella, and that is criminal prosecutions.

So, I mean, there are some federal laws which govern how law enforcement officers are supposed to behave.

And conceivably, if an officer violates one of those laws, they can be charged with a crime.

The problem with that approach is, first of all, federal criminal charges have to be filed by the Department of Justice.

And the Department of Justice right now is controlled by Donald Trump.

And so I am very skeptical that the Trump Justice Department is going to bring any of these cases.

Now, you know, the fifth category that I discussed, I'll just discuss very briefly, because this is something the Supreme Court has cut off entirely.

But until last year,

The president could potentially be charged with a crime if they give an illegal order or otherwise engage in criminal activity.

But of course, the Supreme Court cut that off in Trump v. United States, which said that the president is immune from criminal prosecution for his official acts.

There was even a whole two page section in that opinion, which said specifically that Trump cannot be charged with the crime, even if he orders the Justice Department to target someone for an improper purpose.

That was the court's words.