History knows many periods of dark times, [when] the world becomes so dubious that people have ceased to ask any more of politics than it show due consideration for their vital interests and personal liberty.
— Hannah Arendt
The hottest subject in American politics at the moment is the battle between the president and the courts. As this article was being prepared for publication, the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration, at least for now, may not deport Venezuelans now in detention without due process. But there is an obvious and dangerous contradiction: The highest court in the republic has no effective means of enforcing its rulings, although the constitutional power of judicial review was presumably settled in 1803 with the landmark decision in Marbury v. Madison.
