Good evening. I’m British Chris, and this is Raw America.
A retired conservative judge is warning that Trump may try to blow up the next session of Congress if Republicans lose the midterms. Protesters in kayaks recently confronted Chief Justice John Roberts at his private island in Maine. An Air Force major who called for Donald Trump’s impeachment now faces ten counts under military law, including for “contemptuous words” against the president. And a federal judge in Texas just ordered the release of a construction worker who was there when ICE agents fatally shot his coworker.
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Retired 4th Circuit Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig is about as conservative as judges come. He was appointed by George H.W. Bush, commands respect from both sides of the aisle and isn’t exactly known for hyperbole. So when he goes on a podcast and talks about us waging a “final battle for America’s democracy” in the upcoming midterms, that’s a significant development.
Luttig warned on a recent episode of the “Court of History” podcast that should Democrats take back the House and Senate in the midterms, Trump won’t accept the loss lying down, but will instead look for a procedural trick to exploit. And the new January 6, 2021 could be January 3rd, 2027, when the 120th Congress is sworn in.
We all remember when Speaker Mike Johnson already delayed seating a duly elected Democrat for fifty days back in 2025, when Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva of Arizona waited for nearly two months to be seated after winning a special election. Luttig thinks Johnson could try to help Trump by replacing the House Clerk with a MAGA loyalist who simply refuses to notify certain newly elected members that they’ve been officially seated.
When combining a gambit like that with states whose top election officials are by conspiracy theorists who may refuse to certify results they don’t like, and we could feasibly have a scenario in which a Congress that voters duly elected never actually gets to serve.
Trump suggested something like this back in February, telling a MAGA podcaster that Republicans need to control the midterms to win elections. Luttig said that comment from the president was “breathtaking.” Keep in mind this isn’t a leftist commentator saying all of this, but a lifelong conservative judge.
Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts has a private island off the coast of Maine where he spends his time in between terms. It’s probably about as far from the public eye as a sitting Supreme Court justice can get. But more than 40 committed protesters were determined to make sure Roberts didn’t get to hide from Americans forever.
Nearly two dozen protesters in kayaks, canoes and rowboats recently paddled out to Roberts’ and held a floating demonstration for an hour in the water in front of his house. Another 20 protested on land. Signs accused the Roberts Court of being a rubber stamp for fascism and accused him of sidelining the Constitution.
A local Maine organization called The Audacity organized the demonstration. They told reporters the point of the protest was to remind Americans how Roberts has abused his position to enable Trump at every turn. They pointed to the 2022 Dobbs v. Jackson ruling that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, the 2024 Trump v. United States ruling that gave sitting presidents broad criminal immunity for anything deemed an official act, and the 2026 Louisiana v. Callais ruling that significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act.
Protesters also highlighted the Roberts Court’s pattern of relying on the so-called “shadow docket” to issue quick rulings issued with little to no explanation that have let Trump push through his policies despite lower courts ruling against him.
Roberts and his wife have around $25 million to their names. And after he retires, the chief justice will continue collecting his full Supreme Court salary for life. The fact that protesters found his private island home anyway and made an effort to call him out shows the American people are running out of patience.
Major Jason Watson has spent 17 years in the Air Force. He has two kids and is just three years shy of retiring. He’s now become the face of a growing military justice battle after publicly and repeatedly calling for Trump to be impeached.
Watson is now facing ten charges under the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) for his comments. The charges include dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer. He’s even facing three counts under Article 88, which is the provision that punishes officers for contemptuous words toward the president of the United States. His attorney says he’s the first major in military history to be charged under that specific article of the UCMJ.
Back in July, Capitol Police arrested Watson for standing on the Capitol steps in uniform while holding a sign that read “Impeach. Convict. Remove.” He was arrested again this month after a CNN interview in which he continued to criticize Trump. Watson is now sitting in pretrial confinement while the Air Force decides whether to officially court-martial him.
His attorney is calling it a matter of conscience, saying Watson wanted to act so other enlisted men and women in uniform wouldn’t have to. The Air Force notes that there are specific speech rules officers know about when they signs up. But it’s hard to ignore the timing, specificity and rarity of Watson’s charges. It’s hard not to notice that a contemptuous words charge has been brought against an officer upholding his duty to defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.
Last month, ICE agents in Houston, Texas shot and killed 52 year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo while he was driving three of his coworkers to a construction job site. ICE first claimed Salgado Araujo “weaponized his vehicle” and that agents had no choice but fire their weapons in self-defense. The survivors said ICE was the aggressor, striking Salgado Araujo’s van first, before an agent opened fire from the side.
Immigration officials ended up detaining the three surviving passengers and putting them in deportation proceedings. One survivor, Daniel Tirado Pantoja, just got a court order for his release.
A federal judge in Texas granted Tirado Pantoja’s habeas petition, saying he has no criminal record, isn’t a flight risk and poses no danger to anyone. The judge wrote that continuing to hold him in federal custody was a violation of his due process rights. Immigration officials now have 48 hours to set him free, and they can’t detain him again unless they can prove to a judge that he’s a danger to himself or others or poses a flight risk.
A separate federal judge previously ordered the release of passenger José Trinidad Rojas Pliego in July. Salgado Araujo’s brother Víctor is still being held in a detention center in Conroe, which is north of Houston. The Department of Homeland Security has yet to named the officer who killed Salgado Araujo, and maintains the shooting is still under investigation.
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Thanks for reading. I’m British Chris, with Raw America. We’ll see you tomorrow.
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