SCOTUS just stood in the middle of the street and shot the constitution, and nothing can be done about it.
TAT readers,
In light of today’s SCOTUS decision about Trump and immunity, it is safe to say that we’re off to a really bad start to our week. Our constitution and the framers’ intent for our republic, have once again been bloodied at the hand of our SCOTUS. How many more life-threatening injuries can our constitution take, before it bleeds out. Today’s decision regarding presidential immunity isn’t some minor legal disagreement over zoning laws or petty theft, it is a wound to the very heart of who we are as a nation and just their latest murderous assault on the vital organs of our republic.
Especially during John Roberts’ era, SCOTUS has largely turned a blind eye to citizen’s rights when they are up against corporate rights. Justices Thomas and Alito in particular, routinely violated ethics rules regarding donations by oligarchs, like Harlan Crowe. The three Trump Justices, Gorsuch, Kavanaugh and Coney-Barrett, all mislead senators by saying that Roe v. Wade, was precedent, during their Senate nomination hearings. Gun regulations are now routinely interpreted in a manner, unthinkable by our founders and the last, now deceased, principled conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, even saw limitations on select groups of weapons, such as so-called “assault rifles.” Justice Scalia’s type of principled conservatism existed only prior to the Trump/ McConnell assault on the constitution. Now it is fully extinct and has gone the way of the Dodo bird.
There are but a few, core ideals that frame our American identity. Foundational ideals like equality, freedom, unity and all of those illustrious basic rights enumerated in our constitution and Bill of Rights, are some of the most important. Serious wounds to these ideals, the vital organs of American democracy, can be a threat to the entire body. In just the past couple of years, SCOTUS hasn’t just wounded one or two, but most of these vital organs. Today’s decision, handed down by SCOTUS, is a wound that threatens the very heart of American liberty. This version of SCOTUS must be held accountable, if the patient is to survive and begin rehab. This is not a recommended treatment but the only treatment that can save the patient.
The patient has been ill often in her history and with only one previous, life-threatening illness, the trauma of the Civil War. No matter the how ill or injured she has been in the near two and a half centuries of her life, we’ve always managed to somehow recover, grow and build on our ideals. Like the Civil War though, the Trump era is a self-inflicted wound, where America is both the doctor and the patient. Like the old adage about the lawyer who represents himself, the same holds true for doctors, “the doctor that treats themself, has a fool for a patient.” In this case, American voters are the doctors and roughly half of us, live in an alternative reality, built on conspiracy theories and fake patriotic ideals.
The MAGA/ authoritarian crowd may be happy in their FOX News and Company’s alternative reality, but fake facts, fake ideals and fake concepts sustain nothing but fantasy and are lethally dangerous. How many MAGA followers would wrap themselves in steak and walk among a pride of lions? Of course this is a rhetorical question, but this is the type of deviation from reality that embodies their alleged political beliefs. Like those movie zombies, they move, act and behave, mindlessly and in unison. Those with elite positions like SCOTUS justices telling them that, down is up, white is black, and that today’s decision is in line with our constitutional republic, simply reduces their MAGA connection to reality and reinforces their deviant beliefs regarding patriotism.
In the case in question, the premise is actually quite simple; “that no man is above the law.” Somehow, the John Roberts’ court has twisted the elegant simplicity of this concept into the very weapon that will buy Trump time that sees him through the November election. If he wins in November, this case will simply be shelved or the administrative equivalent of being shelved. The way that the decision is written, their decision will provide ample opportunities to try, retry and then appeal a multitude of legal obstructions, taking years and maybe even a decade to resolve. Intentionally avoided and delayed justice is no justice at all, especially when the client is barely surviving at all. If Trump wins, American democracy as our founders intended it, will be nothing more than a historical relic.
To be clear, I am no lawyer and my thoughts here are the musings of an honest American voter, who both understands and respects our constitutional republic. Even our founder, Thomas Jefferson said that the law must be written so that ordinary men could understand it and that the meaning could not be manipulated into meaning whatever a judge wished to it to mean.
The law is quite clear in the cases against the former president and only the constitutional pretzel twisting of SCOTUS’s written decision, enables him to continue evading and avoiding justice. So, the proverbial question that I hear from principled voters from all different political beliefs is, “if I did what Trump did, wouldn’t I already be in jail?” It’s only partially rhetorical because average Americans know full well, that without privilege, we would not still be free men and women, had we planned, instigated and carried out an armed insurrection against the US government.
We have multiple J6 felons already tried, convicted and sentenced for participating in what Trump and his fellow traitors planned and executed. We may have survived January 6th, but may in the end, we may not survive our own SCOTUS. Essentially, today’s SCOTUS decision says that it was okay for Trump and his co-conspirators to plan and execute an armed insurrection without consequences. Yes, I know, this sounds outrageous.
I often write about our founders and my deep appreciation for their collective genius in researching, debating and writing our constitution, so I won’t rehash all of that now, but include links to the deep background from previous essays. The precepts that would ensure that our democracy did not fall prey to the fatal flaws of all the examples that had come before, dating all the way back to the Greeks, were the brainchild of our 3rd president, James Madison. In his “Notes on Ancient and Modern Confederacies,” Madison laid out in detail the flaws that each prior “confederacy” had succumbed to, and with his colleagues, devised solutions for our own Constitution. The subsequent Bill of Rights largely grew out of this process. Now, SCOTUS, either ignores or distorts all of those analytical efforts by Madison, Hamilton, Adams, Jefferson, Washington and more.
Although I am nearly always reticent to use a Nazi analogy, there is one that applies here. Once Hitler came to power, he gained over a short time, control of the Reichstag, and via that control, changed the laws required to commit the Holocaust. Yes, what Hitler did may have been at the time, “legal,” but legality is not the test, morality and ethics are. To put a finer point on this, SCOTUS may have given Trump and the MAGA brownshirts their “legal blessing” but their 6-3 supermajority, is in direct conflict with our constitution, Bill of Rights and all previous legal precedent, as wrote AJ/ Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in her dissenting opinion.
"Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law. Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop. With fear for our democracy, I dissent." - The last paragraph - Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor's Dissent from the 6-3 Majority opinion - - 1 July 2024
"To the extent that the majority’s new accountability paradigm allows Presidents to evade punishment for their criminal acts while in office, the seeds of absolute power for Presidents have been planted. And, without a doubt, absolute power corrupts absolutely. “If one man can be allowed to determine for himself what is law, every man can. That means first chaos, then tyranny.” Id., at 312. Likewise, “[i]f the Government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy.” Olmstead, 277 U. S., at 485 (Brandeis, J., dissenting). I worry that, after today’s ruling, our Nation will reap what this Court has sown." - Associate Justice Ketanji Jackson's Dissent from the 6-3 Majority opinion - 1 July 2024
Apparently the six, right-wing justices (it would be inaccurate to call them “conservative”) have gone full MAGA. Like Trump, they will say and do anything to justify what they want, not what the constitution requires. Trump’s lies are bold, in-your-face verbal assaults while SCOTUS’ dishonesty, is applied like a slow growing, but dangerous cancer that consumes our constitutional principles and replaces them with a mindless, fatal mass. That mass is best defined as, legally enabled oligarchy, Christian Nationalist and totalitarian in nature. Yes, the precise opposite of what our founders intended.
Our founders included a Christian majority, and were somewhat oligarchical, especially in the South, but our founding principles were overwhelmingly Scottish Enlightenment. In the simplest terms, were based on human nature’s inalienable rights, reason, analytical in nature and grounded in morality, not necessarily the morality of established religious practices and often in contention with them. In other words, our founders were for their time, “woke” and radical progressives. Oligarchy under the banner of Christian Nationalism, is oppressive, class or caste structured dominance, by a few over the many. Oligarchy by definition, is the antithesis of equality. Christianity is not mentioned in our Constitution and in fact, the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment, specifically excludes, any state religion.
In simplest terms, the John Roberts' SCOTUS, has:
Embraced a state religion via their overturning of Roe v. Wade
Embraced oligarchism via the Citizens United decision, among others
And today, has fully abdicated from the long held constitutional belief, that we are all equal before the law.
My question to readers; The three points above are cases decided that severely undermine three of the foundational elements of our national identity, as based on our constitution and Bill of Rights. If these no longer exist, does American democracy exist? The great tragedy and irony is that it is explicitly the job of every SCOTUS member to protect our constitutional principles. It would appear to me, that the six right-wing justices of the Roberts’ court, are SCOTUS dyslexics. Instead of protecting our constitutional principles, they are dismantling them one-by-one.
Finally, I have learned over a long lifetime, not to say, “that things can’t get worse.” It would now appear that whoever occupies the Oval Office, and most powerful job on the planet, no longer has any restraints on criminality. The old adage that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts, absolutely,” should now terrify anyone.
All I can say is that it’s too bad that we don’t still tar and feather corrupt officials. I know six justices that would qualify for the treatment. This is of course, tongue-in-cheek but it does raise the issue, that if we want accountability from elected officials and especially the president, we must vote for candidates that honor their sworn oath, “to protect and defend the constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic.” At the moment, this excludes every single GOP sitting senator and representative. There sure as hell isn’t any accountability at the Supreme Court.
All best,
Paul