A federal court in Australia on Monday quashed the government’s decision to cancel the visa of Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic, who had been held in detention at Melbourne Airport since Jan. 6, and ordered his immediate release so he could begin preparing in earnest to defend his Australian Open title.
The government’s lawyer, Christopher Tran, informed the court immediately after that the immigration minister reserves the right to exercise his personal power to cancel the visa again and deport Djokovic from Australia. This would bar him from entering Australia for three years and he would also have to declare this henceforth on many countries’ visa application forms.
In some ways the breathtaking arrogance of this is more frightening than the original blunder. It would be a deliberate two-finger gesture to the rule of law backed by an independent judiciary to arbitrate the exercise of state power over individuals. What it shows is that governments, bureaucrats and technocrats have become habituated to ruling by decrees without challenge and accountability, no matter how arbitrary, autocratic, capricious and cruel.
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