Don’t Kid Yourself. Before Today’s Blah Blah Blah SCOTUS Already Ruled

It was a rough afternoon and evening, in part due to my mind being in a WFT? induced state of carelessness from a mishap after listening to today’s oral arguments.  As we got into evening and a pain med helped some I watched commentary on MSNBC and still haven’t unpacked it all. However before the case was called, in fact months ago I believed that SCOTUS, or the six Federalist Society F**kwads had already decided things. They were going to protect Trump. Period.

SCOTUS could have addressed the whole Presidential Immunity (?) thing back in December 2023. Although the appeal of judge Chutkan’s District Court ruling was already at the DC Court of Appeals as was his right Special Counsel Jack Smith asked SCOTUS to step in because one way or the other they were going to wind up having to deal with the whole thing. They refused, and the appellate court didn’t exactly move with dispatch before issuing a seemingly bulletproof ruling.  Trump of course appealed and while SCOTUS could have simply quickly denied Cert and let the appellate ruling stand they dithered for a while then agreed to hear the case.

And put off oral arguments until the last f**king day of this term on the calendar they could do so!  That was the real ruling that matters. Right then and there. Practically speaking, even if they don’t wait until the end of June to issue a decision they pretty much killed the chance of the Jan. 6 case in DC coming to trial before the election. Because in addition to granting cert they kept in place the stay of any pre-trial work being done on the case.

Judge Chutkan, when granting the stay had eighty-something days before the scheduled trial date so whenever a final ruling come from SCOTUS only then will that clock restart. And let’s face it, additional delays are inevitable. Maybe, probably only weeks but it could easily turn out to be over three months between a ruling and jury selection. Looking at the calendar that means even a ruling in the latter half of May means no trial could start until after the conventions. Now, once that happens it’s out of DOJ’s and their famous 60-day window of “going dark” but let’s be real. Starting a trial anytime past say early July would be explosive.

That’s why I say SCOTUS already decided the case, or at least the most important part in Trump’s favor. He wanted no trial and the damaging information that would come out before the election. Make no mistake, with tools available to him that the J6 Committee didn’t have Jack Smith has a lot more on Trump (and his minions) than we know. Trump’s one hope is that he somehow wins and can have his new AG kill the whole thing. Delay was what he wanted and by slow-walking things so that oral argument only took place today conservatives on SCOTUS effectively ruled for Trump.

Now, there’s plenty more to come and too much is spinning around in my head to try and come up with a coherent article on it all. Especially with some meds in my system. It’s all I can do to avoid a jarhead level profanity out of control rant. Just two things, even all but one, perhaps two of the Justices agreed that complete Presidential Immunity is a non-starter. But it’s clear conservatives are desperate to find a way to extend just enough and somehow limit it to Trump’s situation only that they will furiously work to invent something to gut Jack Smith’s case.

The other is that as Joy Reid put it they aren’t even pretending any more. They intend to do all in their (considerable) power to protect Trump.  I put a question mark after Presidential Immunity earlier because no such thing exists in the Constitution. Nor is is implied. On the contrary, and case law including some in my lifetime bears that out. As does DOJ’s OLC opinions, and even two impeachment trials of Trump. Yet the same asshats in judicial robes who wax about the word abortion, or even privacy not appearing anywhere in the Constitution intend to ignore the fact the words “Presidential Immunity” don’t either.

So they are going to INVENT such a thing. To protect Trump. You know what? I’ll bet they’d change their tune in a heartbeat is as Commander in Chief President Biden were to issue a national security ruling that between federal judicial protection of Trump BY Trump appointed judges and Justices the same, by shielding him from legal consequences for his breaking the law AND endangering national security should be assassinated. According to Trump’s lawyer President Biden has such power and even as the Justices find themselves being knocked off one-by-one because they didn’t deny cert in the first place there’s not a goddamned thing they can do about it!