Missed Opposable?

Come (usually) for the photos, stay (occasionally) for the rant

I’ve been slack in posting Opposables—busy with travel, work, and photographing community events, including a bouquet of rallies and protests. If those are of interest, I’ve posted some on Flickr. Click here.

They include images from yesterday, when I covered the rally outside the Burlington, VT courthouse holding a hearing for Tufts University PhD student Rümeysa Öztürk. She was snatched off a public street and strong-armed into a van—apparently for the crime of co-writing a pro-Palestinian op-ed—and placed into deportation proceedings. You can read about it here.

The issues are complex, but at their core is the question of whether the government violated the student’s First and Fifth Amendment rights—and what the courts can do to remedy that violation.

This statement by the judge, William Sessions, stood out for clearly pinpointing the crux of the dispute between those defending Öztürk and the Department of Justice—and, on a more fundamental level, the authoritarian overreach across the Trump administration. Sessions asked the DOJ lawyer:

“What if she is right? What if there was a constitutional violation in her arrest? The only remedy she is seeking is release, and you are suggesting that the court has no power to release her?”

If the court ordered Öztürk’s release and the government refused, “then we’re in a constitutional crisis,” said Sessions.

I faced Judge Sessions decades ago when I was arrested protesting the University of Vermont’s ties to the apartheid government of South Africa. Sessions dismissed the case against us and, as I recall, was less than impressed with the cops or the college.

Hoping to be more traditionally Opposable soon. Thanks for hanging in there.