The Democracy Index

April 18, 2025

Remember in “Mary Poppins” when Julie Andrews sings, “A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down…In a most delightful way?” How she made us feel like we could get through an unpleasant task with a positive attitude?

This week, the news is pretty awful, and we at the Democracy Index won’t sugarcoat it for you. But we are here, alongside all of you, as together we run a no-holds-barred temperature check on our country’s democratic institutions.

Trump is openly defying the courts, and we believe we are firmly in a constitutional crisis. If you were waiting for someone to ring a bell and announce it had begun, there’s not going to be one. It has arrived, and it looks strangely ordinary, at least if you focus on people around you going about their business as if nothing is happening.

As we discussed the week’s events among ourselves, we were compelled by this example: Imagine yourself at the movie cinema, waiting to see “Mary Poppins.” You have made an unwritten understanding with everyone else there. “We all agree to wait in line to pick up our tickets, we wait in line to purchase snacks, we stream in behind each other to find seats, and then we enjoy the movie in relative silence. We agree to this process because if we don’t, there will be too much chaos to enjoy the movie.”

Now imagine a group of people jumping the line, shoving people out of the way, hopping the counter to grab snacks, selling them at a markup, dumping candy and buttery popcorn all over the theater seats and floor, pushing people out of their seats, and turning down the speaker volume so no one can hear the movie.

This may seem a glib analogy for democracy gone wrong, but the same concept applies. Our three branches of government, executive, legislative, and judicial, act as checks and balances on each other. Our free press acts as a fourth branch, shining a light on government activity and building an informed electorate. When there is conflict, we submit our dispute to the judiciary, and they decide what the law requires. Democracy prevails.

Events this week called all of that into question.

By ignoring the Supreme Court and refusing to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from El Salvador, the Trump administration confirmed its intention to disregard the rule of law and assume total power in the United States.

That’s the crux of the crisis. The President, his Attorney General, his Secretary of State, and his advisor Stephen Miller have uttered a resounding “no.” They will not follow the decision of the highest court of the land.

The reason this may not feel like an “aha” moment is because there is a lot of confusion around the case itself. That’s not an accident. We need to cut through all the noise and punditry.

“He’s a criminal! He’s illegal,” claims your Trump-loving, Fox News watching aunt.

In fact, there is no record showing Abrego Garcia has ever been convicted of a criminal offense, despite what Attorney General Pam Bondi has suggested. Beyond that, Abrego Garcia’s immigration status and criminal history are completely irrelevant to the question of whether he is entitled to due process and whether the President must obey the Supreme Court. Regardless of any of that, he has rights and the president has obligations. That’s what this is about.

President Trump, with the help of his Cabinet and a complicit GOP Congress, is in the process of trying to unravel our democracy. That poses a danger to every single one of us—Trump suggested in an Oval Office moment with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele that “Homegrowns” were next, a reference to housing American prisoners in El Salvador’s facilities.

Congress has remained steadfastly supine, but Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski has shown courage, admitting, “I’m oftentimes very anxious myself about using my voice because retaliation is real.” Murkowski continued, “But that’s what you’ve asked me to do, and so I’m going to use my voice to the best of my ability.”

Others in the GOP must follow her lead now that we are at this point. If not, American voters must hold them to account.

All eyes are on the judiciary, as we wait to see how all of this will turn out.

As we have seen this week, the Supreme Court’s order that the government facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. contained enough wiggle room for the Trump administration to take advantage of. And they did, using a nonsensical interpretation of the word “facilitate” that would have required them to admit Abrego Garcia to the U.S. if he knocked on the door, but to do nothing to seek his release from prison.

But things took an interesting turn on Thursday when a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit warned the president against trying to assume too much power. The government had asked the Fourth Circuit to stop District Judge Paula Xinis (the judge from the Abrego Garcia case) from requiring them to comply with expedited discovery requests. In an order, a conservative Reagan appointee wrote for a unanimous panel that the court would “not micromanage the efforts of a fine district judge attempting to implement the Supreme Court’s recent decision.”

And in a separate case, federal Judge James Boasberg in the District of Columbia this week found probable cause to believe the Trump administration was in contempt of his order last month to pause planes carrying immigrants to El Salvador. He has given the government the opportunity to cure its contempt before he proceeds, but has floated the possibility of appointing a private prosecutor if the Justice Department declines to pursue the case.

We continue to rely on the media to keep us informed as the Trump administration steamrolls American norms. Their job is not an easy one, but it is imperative that they do it in accord with the tradition of journalistic integrity and in the time of Trump, that is not easy. The press continues to walk a fine line, trying to maintain access while doing their duty to bring sunlight to the administration’s efforts. But this week, the White House press corps failed to push back when Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt continued to call Abrego Garcia a “foreign terrorist and an MS-13 gang member.” We rely on them to get to the truth, even as the administration tries to bring them to heel.

During his historic filibuster, Cory Booker reiterated a powerful sentiment. “If America has not broken your heart, then you don’t love her enough.” Now that we’re waking up to the broken heart of a constitutional crisis, we have a duty to stay steady and keep our eyes wide open. There is no spoonful of sugar that can make this medicine go down easily. But if we commit to democracy and demand that our elected officials do the same, perhaps, in the words of the Fourth Circuit in the Abrego Garcia case, we can “summon the best that is within us while there is still time.”

Until next week,

The Democracy Index team