If it had been ANYONE other than Trump, even another Republican President SCOTUS would never, ever have issued that breathtakingly dangerous Presidential Immunity Ruling. Alas, was Trump and while Alito and Thomas would fight to get to wipe Trump’s fat ass the other four Federalist Society GROOMED Fascist were just afraid of him. He got his immunity and with it a second term. You just KNOW as soon as he’s gone SCOTUS will want to dial back the immunity thing. Trump might have inadvertently given them an excuse to do so sooner rather than later.
That immunity ruling was truly staggering. Possibly a mortal blow to Democracy here and around the world. And let’s face it, around the world countries who depended on the United States to oversee stability were as horrified as most of us were. As much, if not more than what we saw unfold on Jan. 6, 2021. It’s not a stretch that fears of a governmental/diplomatic version would unfold if Trump got back into the White House and couldn’t be held accountable for anything he did. Oh, in theory he could be removed via impeachment but every village idiot here and abroad knew (and still does) a snowball would have a better chance in hell than enough Republican Senators voting to convict in yet another impeachment.
All our fears about an unfettered, unhinged and vindictive Trump, all butt-hurt with a ‘I’m not getting the worship I deserved so I’m gonna f**k over everybody and everything’ attitude are coming true. As I said a couple of Justices never once considered the consequences but I truly believe the other four had some worries Trump might get a ‘little bit’ out of hand. They deluded themselves into thinking he’d exercise some self control most of the time. Whatever drugs they were on I think we could all use these days!
Like I’m sure many others I’ve assumed that once Trump is gone SCOTUS would take a case (which their Masters, The Federalist Society would have teed up) to dial WAY the hell back on the Presidential Immunity thing. I’m also thinking they are already regretting what they did. I’m still filled with a strange mixture of disbelief, worry and anger along with a huge dose of what the hell were they thinking!
Since their appointments are lifetime it’s not like it mattered if Trump tweeted mean things about them so they’d lose a primary vote. Well, for whatever reason they chose to let Trump off the legal hook, assuming or at least hoping he’d behave himself and he hasn’t. In fact it seems with each passing week as he’s gotten away with more and more, causing more destruction and even death he’s increasingly emboldened. Everyone including SCOTUS knew damn well that if re-elected that unlike his first term there wouldn’t be any ‘adults in the room’ to rein Trumpty in. That what we had at the end, just enablers and sycophants of the type that helped give us Jan. 6 would be in place on Day One.
Alas, SCOTUS can’t just go back and retroactively revoke, or at least severely limit the sweeping immunity they gave to Trump. They will need to have a case presented that allows them to undo what they have done. Trump himself might have started the ball rolling as this article from Raw Story tells us. Oh how delightful it would be if Trumpty screwed, hell I’ll go ahead and say it fucked up his own immunity? It looks like he might have done just that. What I find wild is that what Roberts wrote in his ruling lays the foundation for revoking that immunity he championed, From Raw Story:
In a landmark immunity case last year, Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts argued that sweeping presidential immunity was necessary to prevent an executive branch that “cannibalizes” itself. Roberts claimed that without such protection, a president would be “free to prosecute his predecessors, yet unable to boldly and fearlessly carry out his duties for fear that he may be next.”
Irony can be enjoyable to behold sometimes, and sometimes it just sucks. This time it’s the latter. And again I have to as what in the hell Roberts and his cronies were thinking? Knowing all they knew about Trump, and also suspecting there was a sh*tload more they did NOT know (and as the saying goes didn’t even want to think about, much less know) how in the hell could they delude themselves into thinking Trump wouldn’t go on a vindictive tear? He’d already demonstrated in his first term that he thought the DOJ should be his personal law firm, both to defend him and punish his enemies. Anyone who thought he would pick an Attorney General that could slither through confirmation in a GOP Congress and turn the DOJ into Trump’s personal attack dog is living in some alternate reality.
A couple of respected legal minds, Mary McCord (former acting Assistant AG for National Security) and Andrew Weissman (former General Counsel for the FBI) have weighed in. I should add that each has worked under Presidents of both Parties, including Trump. In arguing Trump himself might have thrown away the immunity shield he currently enjoys they suggest he’s instead proving SCOTUS’ logic(?) that their ruling would prevent weaponization via prosecutions, and instead unleased a new form of power in the form of executive power manipulation was literally MAGA stupid:
The court’s ruling dramatically expanded presidential immunity, concluding that “the executive branch has ‘exclusive authority and absolute discretion’ to decide which crimes to investigate and prosecute.” This interpretation allows a president to request investigations even when those investigations are “shams” or “proposed for an improper purpose,” the lawyers wrote.
The linked article touches on history and how it wasn’t that long ago that even the appearance of impropriety raised loud alarms. It cited that infamous short meeting when Bill Clinton’s and then AG Loretta Lynch were side-by-side on the tarmac and the two chatted for a few minutes during Hillary’s campaign. (Ten bucks said she took his dumb ass to the woodshed over that one!) It goes on to contrast that with the here and now: an administration openly calling for prosecutions of perceived enemies. Even forcing out professional prosecutors who stand in the way, In effect SCOTUS’ immunity decision has given legitimacy to the idea a President can do “Pretty much anything he wants.”
The court’s rationale was to avoid “enfeebling” presidents in an endless “cycle of factional strife.” However, the article argues that this approach has instead created a dangerous precedent that could allow future presidents to weaponize the justice system for political purposes.
And watching that happen under Trump — who is now prosecuting his former head of the FBI James Comey and New York’s Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully had him convicted of fraud — may persuade the Supreme Court to back off its ruling, Weissmann and McCord wrote.
The article concludes with McCord and Weissman saying if the Comey or James cases reach SCOTUS the Justices could find a way to admit the ‘hollowness of their reasoning’ (from where I sit they just made sh*t) up to give Trump a chance to win back the WH) and that while they might have recognized a problem they came up with the wrong solution. Again, I think it’s more simple and blunt than that.
Lawyers talk and can in their own way convey astonishing information to each other that people who can hear an exchange would never recognize as quite specific information about a case/evidence. Basically, while they figured Canon was effectively tanking the Florida case and might even set aside a guilty verdict if she had to in DC things would go according to form. Trump would be convicted after huge amounts of appalling evidence of sedition were in the public record and even if he appealed there’d be no grounds to overturn it. Especially as a private citizen since the GOP would have found a way to keep him off the ticket.
So six Justices wove a MAGA red carpet out of toxic waste to give Trump a shot, again figuring he’d more or less behave himself. Now, like damned near every GOPer they are scared to death of him! That’s happens when mad-scientists (and that ruling was a mad scientist experiment creation) have a creature they created grow beyond their control. Trump turned out to be far worse than even they thought might happen but the other thing is that there was never any way in hell they’d allow the kind of immunity they extended to Trump to continue. Like I said, within months of him being gone another case would be presented to them that would allow them to dial it back. Rescind most of it. In fact, although she signed on to the immunity ruling Justice Barret only partially did so. She penned her own caveat that lays the groundwork for a rollback:
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, while partially supporting the majority opinion, offered a critical caveat. She wrote that the president’s constitutional protection from prosecution should be “narrow” and that the Constitution “does not vest every exercise of executive power in the president’s sole discretion.”
Given what’s already been going on I can see SCOTUS wanting to, if given a chance to clip Trump’s ‘Immunity Wings.’ One last time I’ll say it’s a ruling that won’t last beyond Trump, or Vance if Trump finally succumbs to mother nature. (His body, like his mind is breaking down before our very eyes) If a Democrat is elected in 2028 don’t be surprised if during the transition a case they accepted ‘just in case’ will be heard that will allow a quick opinion rolling back immunity before that new Democratic President is sworn in. Roberts already knows the legacy he’d dreamed of is gone, that the Roberts Court will be known by history as the one that blew up anything left of the notion of the Court being apolitical.
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Denis, I believe in the 8th paragraph you said the opposite of what you meant.
Is this what you are referring to?
Anyone who thought he would pick an Attorney General that could slither through confirmation in a GOP Congress and turn the DOJ into Trump’s personal attack dog is living in some alternate reality.
If it is, you are right. Denis said the opposite of what he meant.
The problems of unintended consequences are always far worse when you never considered any consequences in the first place.
How could they be so stupid ?
They’re right wing republicans. What else would we expect from people not bright enough to have a coherent moral philosophy ?
The 6 radicals on the Court are fully on board with the creation of a right-wing dictatorship in this country. They knew what they were doing. There were no unintended consequences.
Which imminent case to be heard will allow the ruling that applies the brake?