Every Thursday, the Spy hosts a conversation with Al From and Craig Fuller on the most topical political news of the moment.
This week, From and Fuller assess whether or not the judicial branch of the Federal government is strong enough to repel a Trump DOGE takeover. Al and Craig also discuss the future of JFK conspiracy theories in the aftermath of President Trump’s decision to release once-secret files on the assassination.
This video podcast is approximately sixteen minutes in length.
To listen to the audio podcast version, please use this link:
Background
While the Spy’s public affairs mission has always been hyper-local, it has never limited us from covering national, or even international issues, that impact the communities we serve. With that in mind, we were delighted that Al From and Craig Fuller, both highly respected Washington insiders, have agreed to a new Spy video project called “The Analysis of From and Fuller” over the next year.
The Spy and our region are very lucky to have such an accomplished duo volunteer for this experiment. While one is a devoted Democrat and the other a lifetime Republican, both had long careers that sought out the middle ground of the American political spectrum.
Al From, the genius behind the Democratic Leadership Council’s moderate agenda which would eventually lead to the election of Bill Clinton, has never compromised from this middle-of-the-road philosophy. This did not go unnoticed in a party that was moving quickly to the left in the 1980s. Including progressive Howard Dean saying that From’s DLC was the Republican wing of the Democratic Party.
From’s boss, Bill Clinton, had a different perspective. He said it would be hard to think of a single American citizen who, as a private citizen, has had a more positive impact on the progress of American life in the last 25 years than Al From.”
Al now lives in Annapolis and spends his semi-retirement as a board member of the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University (his alma mater) and authoring New Democrats and the Return to Power. He also is an adjunct faculty member at Johns Hopkins’ Krieger School and recently agreed to serve on the Annapolis Spy’s Board of Visitors. He is the author of “New Democrats and the Return to Power.”
For Craig Fuller, his moderation in the Republican party was a rare phenomenon. With deep roots in California’s GOP culture of centralism, Fuller, starting with a long history with Ronald Reagan, leading to his appointment as Reagan’s cabinet secretary at the White House, and later as George Bush’s chief-of-staff and presidential campaign manager was known for his instincts to find the middle ground. Even more noted was his reputation of being a nice guy in Washington, a rare characteristic for a successful tenure in the White House.
Craig has called Easton his permanent home for the last eight years, where he now chairs the board of the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum and is a former board member of the Academy Art Museum and Benedictine. He also serves on the Spy’s Board of Visitors and writes an e-newsletter available by clicking on DECADE SEVEN.
With their rich experience and long history of friendship, now joined by their love of the Chesapeake Bay, they have agreed, through the magic of Zoom, to talk inside politics and policy with the Spy every Thursday.
Reed Fawell 3 says
This below can be found at The Daily Wire:
“U.S. District Judge James Boasberg initially called for the return of more than 250 illegal aliens deported to El Salvador last weekend, ordering the planes to be turned around. The Trump administration immediately appealed the ruling; on Tuesday, the administration said its actions were not subject to Boasberg’s order “because the presidential actions they challenge are not subject to judicial review,” adding that their actions were not violative because “the relevant flights left U.S. airspace” before the order and the planes were over international waters when it was issued.
On Monday, Boasberg ordered the administration to provide additional information on the first two flights to El Salvador, such as the time the planes left U.S. airspace and when they landed. He ordered the government to respond by Tuesday at noon ET. He later extended that deadline by 24 hours.
On Wednesday morning, the DOJ responded, contending, “Continuing to beat a dead horse solely for the sake of prying from the Government legally immaterial facts and wholly within a sphere of core functions of the Executive Branch is both purposeless and frustrating to the consideration of the actual legal issues at stake in this case.” The DOJ also argued that complying with Boasberg’s order exposed negotiations with other nations “to serious risk of micromanaged and unnecessary judicial fishing expeditions and potential public disclosure.”
In its appeal of Boasberg’s ruling, the Trump administration noted:
“The district court’s hasty order enjoining — on a nationwide basis — the President’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act (“AEA”) against a designated foreign terrorist organization linked to the Venezuelan government represents an extraordinary intrusion upon the president’s constitutional and statutory authority to protect the Nation from alien enemies. … This Court has long held that the president’s AEA authority is not subject to judicial review. The only exception is that individuals who are detained under the AEA may challenge the legality of custody in habeas — yet Plaintiffs here intentionally waived their habeas clams, and there is no such thing as a habeas “class action” that would support universal nationwide relief. Even if a court could review the Proclamation, it expressly makes the two findings the AEA require: (1) Tren de Agua is both linked to the Venezuelan government and operates as a government unto itself in parts of Venezuelan territory, and that (2) it has engaged in an “invasion” or “predatory inclusion” into our country.
Later on Wednesday, Boasberg then gave the government one more day to respond while threatening “consequences,” writing:
“To begin, the Court seeks this information, not as a “micromanaged and unnecessary judicial fishing expedition,” but to determine if the Government deliberately flouted its Orders issued on March 15, 2025, and, if so, what the consequences should be …
The Government’s Motion is the first time it has suggested that disclosing the information requested by the Court could amount to the release of state secrets. To date, in fact, the Government has made no claim that the information at issue is even classified…
For example, the Secretary of State has revealed many operational details of the flights, including the number of people involved in the flights, many of their identities, the facility to which they were brought, their manner of treatment, and the time window during which these events occurred. The Court is therefore unsure at this time how compliance with its Minute Order would jeopardize state secrets.”
The appeals court has scheduled oral arguments for Monday afternoon. END QUOTE
This is the opening salvo of a battle that both sides for years have been preparing for and engaged in, including Democratic Lawfare since 2015 against Trump. For example, the Biden Administration in its last year rushed through the appointment of 237 leftist judges to form a bulwark against Trump administrative orders should he be elected. In my view, the Republicans under Trump are likely to win this battle on constitutional grounds, if only by the power the majority vote in Congress to expressly limit the jurisdiction of the federal judiciary, including its District Courts. As to existing law, the raging dissent of the four justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh in most recent such case portents the litigious future, given the fierce focus and talent of the legal team in Trump Administration and the miserable history trail of documents of the Biden / Garland FBI/ DOJ that are now in the hands of the Trump team, as well as both houses of Congress. In any case, this latest battleground will be an important and perhaps definitive conclusion to the Battle Royale that to date has taken down much of what’s left of the Democratic Party, and has the power to severely curtail a now out of control judiciary, and the way courts operate in modern America which too often serves the judiciary and lawyers at the expense of the people, and fair, transparent and expeditious justice. Such reform is long overdue.