Friday reflections: "Beware of the Leopard"
What "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy" tells us about Trump and due process.
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With apologies to the late “60 Minutes” broadcaster Andy Rooney, I wanted to use this Friday morning newsletter to tie together two seemingly disconnected topics: the Trump administration’s farcical understanding of due process and one of my favorite childhood books.
In my teens, I devoured the Douglas Adams sci-fi series “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” in one gulp, reading the six-part trilogy in one summer. I loved the humor, satire, creativity, sweeping philosophical scope, and imaginative universe created from the first page.
Little did I know, while lugging around the more than 800-page “Ultimate Hitchhiker’s Guide” to my job as a wading pool lifeguard, that I would someday cite the book to illustrate the Trump administration’s assault on due process in the United States.
The passage in question takes place right toward the beginning of the series, when the hapless protagonist Arthur Dent tries to object to the demolition of his house to make way for a bypass. A bureaucrat responds:
“But Mr. Dent, the plans have been available in the local planning office for the last nine month.”
“Oh yes, well as soon as I heard I went straight round to see them, yesterday afternoon. You hadn’t exactly gone out of your way to call attention to them had you? I mean like actually telling anybody or anything.”
“But the plans were on display…”
“On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.”
“That’s the display department.”
“With a torch.”
“Ah, well the lights had probably gone.”
“So had the stairs.”
“But look, you found the notice didn’t you?”
“Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying Beware of the Leopard.”
The scene became an instant classic because every reader can recognize government officials trying to hide their actions while pantomiming the minimum legal requirements, like holding a hearing at 1 a.m. to ram through an unpopular and destructive budget bill.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy made clear that he understood the concept too when he found the Trump administration violated his order by sending immigrants on a flight to war-torn South Sudan.
Murphy’s original injunction ordered the government to provide “a ‘meaningful opportunity’ to assert claims for protection under the Convention Against Torture before initiating removal to a third country,” and what was fundamentally at issue in that order was notice.
In this case, Trump’s Department of Homeland Security handed a “notice of removal” to one of the men in English, a language that he did not understand. The Burmese national, “N.M.,” refused to sign the document, but he was put on a plane bound for South Sudan anyway.
As a result of Judge Murphy’s ruling, N.M. and five other men will have access to attorneys to argue that they have a reasonable fear of being sent to a notoriously human rights abusing country whose fragile peace accord recently collapsed.
If you’re looking for a podcast to listen to over the long Memorial Day weekend, I spoke about the case and the book in greater depth with
on The Daily Beans.I also recommend “The Hitchhiker’s Guide” for an early summer read, even if you think sci-fi isn’t your thing. It’s full of intergalactic wisdom.
With you all the way, Adam! The best advice I got as a newly-minted teacher was to read "The Hitchhiker's Guide" if I wanted to understand my students and their world! That, and take a towel!