It's not "the government" that is failing to uphold the law, it is individual men and women.

Just like soldiers are taught that they should not obey an illegal, individuals working for the civilian government should not obey orders that do not follow the law.

Judges need to start holding people responsible for failing to follow the law, including their legitimate orders from the bench. Government attorneys should be held in contempt for repeatedly putting forward arguments with no basis in law or fact. Individuals in the government need to be held responsible for failing to follow lawful orders from the bench.

In this particular case, the judge in the case needs to dig into why his order regarding stopping the deportation was not followed. Drag the attorneys in and ask them on the record who they informed about his verbal order to return the flights to the US and when they passed that information along. And then follow that thread from there, ordering those individuals into court to ask them the same information. Someone failed to do their job (or several someones) and they need to be held personally responsible, up to and including potentially Senate confirmed appointees. No one gets to get away with anything here.

Then there's the "we can't do anything about it" claim. Once again, the judge should take a firm hand here. Don't accept that at face value. Again, get people on the record and ask them what attempts have been made to return this person (and any others similarly situated) to US soil.

The USSC may have found that the President has considerable criminal immunity, but that doesn't extent to any one else.

--Peter