Sen. Padilla, Hollywood stuntman

It should seem obvious, but in America, no one is above the law because of their special position or level of wealth. Rules are rules, they apply to everybody, and the promise of “equal justice under law” is more than just words carved in marble above the entrance to the U.S. Supreme Court. So, as we’ve seen in recent weeks, if a state court judge allegedly tries to help an illegal immigrant escape an arrest warrant, she can be arrested and prosecuted. If a member of Congress allegedly physically jostles with a federal law enforcement agent, or if a major union boss allegedly physically blocks law enforcement vehicles from going about their important business, they too can be arrested. And, as we saw earlier this month, if a U.S. senator shows up uninvited and unexpected at a cabinet official’s event and starts screaming confrontationally, he can be physically removed by her security detail. This is not monarchy or tyranny or pick-your-pejorative. This is a basic requirement of acting civil in a civil society.

If U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, D- Calif., wished to ask Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem a question, he could have inquired via the Department’s eight-person legislative affairs team. He could have asked her at the next hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee or its Subcommittee on Immigration, Citizenship, and Border Safety, on which he serves and which has jurisdiction over her department. He could have sought a meeting at one of their offices in Washington. Instead, he chose to show up at an event to which he was not invited or expected and start yelling at the secretary while rushing the podium, then complains that he was physically blocked by security staff. (The incident re-entered the news cycle last week when Vice President J.D. Vance incorrectly called the senator “Jose Padilla.”)

U.S. Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D- Calif., said at a press conference following Padilla’s ejection, “This administration—Donald Trump—is outside the bounds of the law, outside the bounds of the courts, outside the bounds of custom and practice.” Really? It seems to me that Padilla was the one operating outside the bounds of custom and practice in this instance.

It is customary when seeking to speak to a cabinet official to make an appointment, not to show up uninvited and unexpected and try to hijack someone else’s event. And no doubt Padilla knows this—but asking a genuine question in a private meeting is not a news event. Showing up at a press conference and taking it over in front of the dozens of cameras assembled is a news event. So decorum is expected to give way to a stunt, and then outrage follows when the stunt is not tolerated.

Then again, this is part of a pattern of similar stunts in recent months. Congressional Democrats showed up at four government agencies early on in the Trump Administration, media cameras in tow and X.com live-streams running, to be turned away by the on-duty front-desk staff. Axios headlined its story: “A fourth federal agency locks its doors to Democratic lawmakers.” Of course, saying the doors were locked and the lawmakers blocked is a far punchier story line than “congressional Democrats demand immediate meeting despite having no appointment with senior government official.” One wonders how they would respond if constituents showed up at their office demanding a meeting without making an appointment.

Now, without control of any branch of government, all congressional Democrats can do at the moment is scream at the top of their lungs. I understand their frustration—they believe the country is in deep trouble (as do I, though for very different reasons), and they feel impotent to do much to change the course of events. The most they can do is use the high profile of their public offices to draw attention to their objections. I get it. But claims of congressional oversight are not a literal get-out-of-jail-free card. And that principle certainly doesn’t help the union boss or state judge who think they can frustrate policies they disagree with by acting unlawfully.

We hear a lot about how Donald Trump and his administration have supposedly obliterated long-standing democratic norms fundamental to a free society. When will anyone recognize the democratic norms the Democrats are destroying?