“Knowing trees, I understand the meaning of patience. Knowing grass, I can appreciate persistence.”
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Dean Phillips must be have an "I Told You So" moment but he is tactful enough not to rub it in our faces.
#OnThisDay
Some, but not absolute, immunity.
(1) Supreme Court Says Trump Is Partly Shielded From Prosecution: Live Updates – The New York Times (nytimes.com)
So, Judge Chutkan will hold a hearing this summer on the scope of immunity and Trump's activities, he will then appeal any adverse ruling, and sometime this autumn or winter, the Supreme Court will likely decline to hear the appeal until after trial.
And in January 2025, Attorney General Paxton will dismiss the case making this all much ado about nothing.
Hi all – for the last year I have been creating an application to manage volunteer events for Democratic Partities & Candidates. It's now live!!!
If you want to check it out (you do, you do), the website is here and the app is here.
And if you're handling volunteer management for a county party or candidate, please contact Joe Zemek to get added. Or if you're outside of Colorado, contact me.
thanks – dave
Thanks for the announcement. I'll be off to look in a short while.
Indeed!
Perhaps I'm jaded regarding the SCOTUS ruling, but it seems to me if Trump were elected, his Attorney General would simply declare that every action by the President is an official act. Thus, conducting a turkey shoot on 5th Avenue would be well within the President's powers, and not subject to prosecution.
It is a full-on disaster. Official acts are absolutely immune. And the Court takes a very broad view of what is an Official Act. Worse, the court appears to create a presumption that acts are official acts, so the burden is to show that the acts were private not official acts. This is a gift to trump, and allows him to truly weaponize the DOJ for his own personal benefit. This is an absolute catastrophe. The Court needs to be fundamentally altered, adding at least 9 justices and instituting term limits, as well as eliminating certain jurisdiction for the Court.
I’m surprised SCOTUS didn’t also refer to Trump as “His Royal HIghness”
No Harry, "Highness" is the address for a prince. Yammie-pie wants desperately to be a king, and will insist upon being addressed as "Majesty".
Poor Nixon was forced out of office for stuff he could have claimed were "official acts" necessary to save the nation.
How much longer will this court be allowed to be blatantly politcal with impunity? This court could not be MORE corrupt. With this latest decision, all pretense at impartiality is gone forever.
This is politics…not jurisprudence.
Yup, our Democracy is totally SCOTUSed.
On the other hand, Harry, it occurs to me that those "official acts" could be acts by President Biden. He will still be president for 5 more months.
Biden should test it if just to see how fast courts work when it's not Trump
Trump made his Faustian bargain long ago. Joe is far too decent to be lured into that trap. This is just one more of many sad days for this country. The destruction this man-child has wrought upon the country, communities, family relationships. Democracy. Decency. There's a lot on the line Nov 8. I hear we'll be offering free neutering and spaying services for the cult at voting centers across America on Electiom Day.
What is the Magna Carta for $100?
If Biden ordered a staff person to "remove" Trump, that would be an official act and therefore legal. Biden apparently couldn't "remove" Trump personally, as that would be an unofficial act.
Actually, Duke, I've been pretty excited today about the possibilities this ruling presents to the Biden Administration. NO ONE in the media seems to have caught on – but I have to believe that White House attorneys and staffers are exploring ALL the ways this ruling could assist the Biden Administration in achieving its goals, AND help the country as a whole. I hope better legal minds than mine will weigh in here with some of the tantalizing policy possibilities. Also, a small correction: Biden has 4 1/2 years left . . .
How much longer?
At least for the freseeable future. Even if the Dems took the House – which has become a much bigger lift after last Thursday night's TV spectacle – they would be able to impeach Thomas and Alito. (And maybe the other four while they're at it.) But Thomas and Alito are the most egregious of this group.
Jamie Raskin and Jerry Nadler would parade over to the Senate next winter with their articles of impeachment in hand, and Majority Leader Rick Scott would simply move to dismiss (like Schumer did for the Mayorkas impeachment), the clerk would call the roll, and on a 51 to 50 (with Vice President Vance casting the tie-breaking vote), the motion would pass and the impeachment trial ended as soon as it began.
So, how much longer will this SCOTUS standa as it is? At least for the next four years, and probably a lot longer than that.
Remember, Thomas and Alito are old. Next year, both will retire and Trump will get to select their successors from the list Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society sends him. (And they will be 40-ish. Or maybe younger.)
How much longer? As a friend said to me last night, if we lose this fall we will not see a liberal Supreme Court again in our lifetimes.
I think that is true. You could say that with the appointments of Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett, a ship left which will not return in any of our lifetimes.
Recognizing the 3 of the oldest 4 Justices (75, 74, 69, and 69 years old) are part of the conservative block, and in recent history "The current average age a justice leaves the court is about 81 years," there is a distinct chance of change in the next decade.
With the Extreme Court burning its reputation to provide incense for corporations, anti-federalists, and Trump, the chance of fundamental structural shifts increases. Proposals to shift the nomination process so every Presidential term will have a minimum of two seats to fill, to mandate Justices roll off the Supreme Court on a regular basis, and expanding the Court to have one Justice for each Circuit (currently, that would be 13) are all possibilities.