"The Roberts supermajority has taken a radical course where the judiciary is increasingly the final arbiter not just on the law but on the facts, the interpretation of those facts, the application of those facts in given situations, and the technical, scientific, and professional implications of those facts in the real world.
"While the decisions coming out of this Court are bad enough, the fact that they’re coming from a collection of judges who have responded to serious charges of ethical lapses and outright corruption levied against them with nothing but contempt and condescension.
Make no mistake about it — this is the most radical, destructive, arrogant Supreme Court in the entire history of the United States of America."
"This Supreme Court has created the conditions for a man like Trump to rule like a king—or more to the point, like a dictator. As lawyer and scholar Neal Katyal, who has argued dozens of cases before the Supreme Court, put it this morning on MSNBC, 'This decision today is unfortunately a blueprint for how to end the rule of law.'”
“The Supreme Court just fundamentally altered the structure and nature of democracy in America. It awards the president the measure of power and immunity that is much, much closer to a king or emperor than an elected official.”
“Welp, that’s all folks. The President is immune from prosecution so long as he says he committed crimes as part of his ‘official’ duties, So ends the part of the American experience where our leaders were bound by the rule of law. Thanks for playing.”
“'It’s good to be the king,' to quote Mel Brooks from History of the World: Part 1. He was parodying King Louis XVI, the last king of France. Donald Trump can now repeat the line if he wins another election and begins his reign as the first king of white Christian nationalist America."
"Monarchists around the world celebrated today as the U.S. abandoned its two-century fling with democracy thanks to a Supreme Court decision excusing American chief executives from any accountability.
Noisy festivities broke out in such refuges for royals as London’s Buckingham Palace, where an exuberant King Charles III said, 'I knew they’d come to their senses if we just waited long enough.'”
"And so together we shared the fate of all the failed democracies before us, joining those pitiful beings who had held the light of freedom in one hand, and put it out with the other."
SearingTruth
"In both substance and timing, the MAGA Supreme Court put its thumb on the scale for Donald Trump in a dangerously unprecedented manner.
By waiting until late June to release an opinion in a case heard in April, it’s clear the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John Roberts’ leadership is trying to rig the election for Trump."
"The Republican appointed-majority in this opinion has wreaked havoc with those foundational principles. They have opened the door to a President exercising wide dictatorial powers without any ultimate legal accountability for his actions.
The Supreme Court majority’s decision today is shameful and destructive of the rule of law. Our democracy has been dangerously harmed by its misguided decision."
"Today the United States Supreme Court overthrew the central premise of American democracy: that no one is above the law. …
Today’s decision destroyed the principle on which this nation was founded, that all people in the United States of America should be equal before the law.
The name of the case is 'Donald J. Trump v. United States.'”
"Both the timing and scope of the decision highlight that the conservative majority went to great lengths to build a protective edifice not just around the president as such but also around Trump in particular."
It’s so blatantly obvious that this is all being done for him. There’s not even any talk about future presidents because we know, thanks to the SCOTUS, if Trump’s reelected there will be no future presidents.
"Justice Sotomayor turned directly towards Chief Justice Roberts as she spoke. In normal conversation, when someone turns directly toward you as they speak, it is common to look back at them, perhaps even nod or smile to make them feel included and acknowledged. But Roberts never so much as looked back at her, his fellow Justice. I guess he saw no need."
Monday’s decision … ensures that, should Trump return to power, he will do so with hardly any legal checks. Under the Republican justices’ decision in Trump, a future president can almost certainly order the assassination of his rivals. He can wield the authority of the presidency to commit countless crimes. And he can order a subordinate to do virtually anything."
"The Court has now declared for the first time in history that the most powerful official in the United States can… become a law unto himself. Presidents alone are now free to commit crimes when they are on the job, while all other Americans must follow the law in all aspects of their lives, whether personal or professional."
"Six weeks ago, Sotomayor spoke at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, where she was honored with an award. She was remarkably candid about her experience working with six fascists. 'There are days that I’ve come to my office after an announcement of a case and closed my door and cried,' she said. 'There have been those days. And there are likely to be more.'”
"By issuing this decision regarding presidential immunity, the conservative majority of the Supreme Court virtually guarantees that an unscrupulous politician who ascends to the presidency can take nearly any outlandish and illegal action and not face any consequences."
If the political history of this nation has any lesson to teach us right now it is this: The lack of accountability for high crimes and misdemeanors only compounds the original harm and ensures injustices in the future.
"No one should be above the law, especially the President of the United States."
@TCatInReality I'm afraid those justices wouldn't know justice if it bit them in the rear end. Now if you substitute power for the empty (to them) word "justice"….
@wdlindsy or members of the Supreme Court! If the President is now a king (only, of course, a Republican president), the six 'Justices' have appointed themselves kingmakers, and they are and have been highly visible examples of utter lack of accountability
"We can infer this not simply because they invented 'official acts immunity' to protect President Trump from prosecution, but through the wider context. They did it knowing he’s a criminal, after he was convicted of 34 felonies in state court, because he pleaded with them to, and because he has promised to abuse powers in ways that will require him to enjoy immunity from criminal law after a second term."
"They know all this about him and decided to provide him a roadmap to dictatorship anyhow. They want him to be president again, this time fully unconstrained. And the real tell is they did it despite certain obvious ways it conflicts with their other, radical holdings."
"The Court’s opinion presents an absurd paradox that defeats the purpose of a constitutional democracy governed by the rule of law. It has little basis in the Constitution or in the words of the Founders. It is the outcome that most benefits the Court’s preferred presidential candidate, while allowing the justices to live with themselves for defacing beyond recognition the Constitution and the concept of democratic self-determination."
"Tellingly, Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion spends not a moment condemning the violence in the Capitol on Jan. 6 or saying how awful the allegations against Trump are if true, or even celebrating peaceful transitions of power and reaffirming American democracy."
@wdlindsy Thanks for pulling this list of articles together.
When Roberts voted in favor of Obergefell, I thought it was because he wanted to leave a legacy he could be proud of.
Instead, it turns out that it wasn't time to turn the US into an autocracy/dictatorship. And this case, like many others, will be overturned if Biden isn't president next term.
Nick Anderson's commentary on the "Supreme" Court ruling giving Convicted Felon Donald Trump now King Donald I absolute immunity from the law as long as he does his dirt while claiming it's "official."
This is all very worrying, William.
A lot of the things I see are deeply disturbing.
one problem is how the Supreme Court is nominated and how it can become a political instrument. That in itself is fundamentally wrong. In many countries this is the case but the supreme court no matter where is bound by the law and the constitution.
No one, no matter who, is above the law, no citizen, no politician, no monarch, period.
The whole thing makes me very concerned for the future….
@si_irini Fundamentally wrong seems like the right take to me. The problem is, there just are few checks and balances against a court that increasingly acts like a right-wing legislative branch of government, and few avenues of recourse for citizens.
"This decision is consistent with a trend that Donald Trump’s engineered court has consistently followed, which are … wins for corruption, wins for corporations, wins for insurrectionists, and losses for accountability, democracy and the American people. But this decision is by far the worst and most dangerous decision undermining the rule of law in the United States."
"This decision is the most reckless and dangerous decision ever issued by the U.S. Supreme Court, because it utterly transforms our country and the rule of law into one that’s optional for whoever is the president of the United States. This decision is not a legitimate decision, in my view."
"If the president under criminal indictment had not been a criminal, then the Court would not have invented Constitutional law to protect him.
Instead, it is only because Trump is an actual criminal that SCOTUS felt the need to create such an expansive regime of legal immunity for the chief executive."
"Yesterday’s immunity decision by the Supreme Court took a sledgehammer to the constitutional foundation of American democracy and eviscerated the rule of law. It will, in my view, go down in the annals of wretched Supreme Court decisions alongside Dred Scott, Plessy v. Ferguson, and Korematsu. It makes Bush v. Gore look like a piker."
"The door is now wide open to the kinds of fascism and authoritarianism we spent much of the 20th century and hundreds of thousands of American lives combatting overseas. Many of you will be skeptical of this. I will take no joy in being right about this. You can wait and see, but don’t wait too long. It may already be too late."
"I can tell you, I've never seen language like this in a Supreme Court opinion or dissent. There is something really dangerous going on here, and something that is really threatening the entire basis of our constitution and separation of powers."
"Deciding with what new tools of abuse and impunity to arm the presidency just as such a man [as Trump] is on the verge of its accession is a decision, not an ineluctable deduction from history and text and case law.
It is a decision of surpassing recklessness in dangerous times."
"Trump v. US was written by a Republican Chief Justice to protect Trump, the Republican Party’s leader, and by protecting Trump preserving the Republican Party’s electoral prospects. Whatever it might do to American democracy post-Trump is incidental. For the Republican majority on the Court, as for every Republican on their ballot this year, Trump must be above the law."
This part is meaningful; it tells us what is real. We are not crazy.
“Illegal presidential actions do not become lawful because some doctrine of immunity protects a person who violates them from consequences. Crimes are still crimes. And criminals are still criminals, even if they cannot be adjudged as such.”
@meltedcheese I agree — a really good essay. And you're right, at a time when so much conduces to tempt us to think we're crazy, it's a salient reminder that we're not crazy.
Last week I asked my #Trump flag-flying neighbor to spell "#constitution" for me (we aren't friendly). I stopped him when he got to the "y" in k o n s t y. The problem we have - and I fear it is an insolvable one - is, as Bertrand Russell said, "the intelligent are filled with doubt, while the ignorant are cocksure." Not only does the #minorityrule, but they be droolin' while rulin'.
@GeralltGymro You are so absolutely right. There's a reason the Republican party has for years now attacked public education, wanted educational institutions underfunded, wanted access to good educations denied to citizens who cannot spend lavishly to obtain good educations.
@wdlindsy I take some small amount of joy knowing that the people who are ok with all of this because they do not think the bad things will happen to them will be greatly surprised.
@MasterMischief Couldn't agree more. I just posted something in another forum focusing in the chilling final words of the statement attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller about how, when we stood aside and watched them come for this stigmatized group and that one, "Then they came for me."
While MAGA are celebrating like this is some kind of exoneration, they're really celebrating that (at this point, it appears) he got away with committing treason.
True patriots those MAGAts.
@CindyS We've seen over and over, haven't we, how little the Constitution actually means to these folks who have long told us that they're the most American of us all, the real patriots and defenders of the nation's traditions.
@wdlindsy they show utter contempt for America and Americans. It cannot go unanswered.....Biden must do as his oath demands...."I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." How to deal with terrorists in leadership positions? Maybe time to investigate these jurists...seriously investigate& interrogate
@CatHerder@Roadwarrior29 I love Scottish understatement, too. Am wondering if my Edinburgh friends would put up too refugee aging Americans, a gay couple about to be stripped of hard-earned rights, if we just chucked it all and left the country before the doors slam shut.
And many thanks for the video clip. I like Tribe's commentary.
@wdlindsy@Roadwarrior29
My Scottish Grandmother from Ontario gives me a way into Canada. I spent the day (after the decision) looking for houses there. The US dollar, thanks to Biden, is very strong and it's really affordable. You and your partner would be welcomed to my escape hatch. The only thing I ask is that you clean up yourselves. Tired of doing it for my adult children.😂
@CatHerder@Roadwarrior29 You're kind, indeed. Thank you. We're actually pretty good at cleaning up — have trained each other over many years. And your interesting comment about your Scottish grandmother makes me wonder all of a sudden if I could claim immigration status in Canada, since I have an Ulster Scots immigrant ancestor to South Carolina who took the British side in the Revolution and got exiled to Nova Scotia? I ask that only half tongue in cheek….
@wdlindsy@Roadwarrior29
Boo on that relative!
Maybe you could claim asylum and tell them you have a place to stay. It would be a legit claim if the fascists take over.
@CatHerder@Roadwarrior29 I think immigrants like my ancestor David Dinsmore who had only recently arrived when the American revolution took place have to have found it very difficult to know what to do. They had only recently gotten land from the crown and stood to lose it if they took up arms against the crown. It's a sad story in that David found himself exiled to Nova Scotia and left his wife and children behind in South Carolina, never being reunited with them as far as I can find.
@CatHerder@Roadwarrior29 It is. Wars always produce those sad stories, don't they? Not just the tragic loss of so many lives, but the sundering of families. That happened quite a bit with the American Revolution, when spouses had differing views and a husband exiled due to his loyalist sympathies never reunited with his wife and children in the U.S.
@wdlindsy neither do I but on. Siding with Thomas and his goons to dissect the meaning of right and wrong on presidential immunity. Otherwise she's great
@wdlindsy The fact that everyone--including the criminal 6 SCROTUS shits--seems to think Drumpf-nazi is a shoe-in...they may be in for a bit of a surprise. Especially if Biden withdraws and a fresh and competent candidate who can beat the old, demented foul felon Trump is given a chance.
@wdlindsy I wonder if that's because a criminal appointed three justices?
Electing a criminal to the country's highest office results in more crimes. Huh. Who could have foretold?
@SueDiOh And as we think about that, we have to think about the vitally important segment of the voting public who placed the criminal in office by finding Hillary a bridge too far and either sitting out the election or voting third-party. Some of us just don't and won't learn.
@SueDiOh I agree. As a retired educator, this has always been on my radar screen, of course. But I think we all need to be brainstorming about ways to get valuable information across to people who aren't listening — or the future will be grim, indeed.
Roberts is some really fucked up and sick sociopath. Someone who really hates this country with a smile. Talk about looks are deceiving. He is not a good man.
@Blinxeto I couldn't agree more. He has had voting rights for minorities — especially people of color — in his sights from the outset of his "reign" and has done much to dismantle protections for minority voters. He is decidedly not a good man.
@sufferforme That's the point of the sleight of hand the Republican party and their anointed justices have performed for years now, isn't it? That the law applies only to some people and not others.
@wdlindsy I'm curious who the conservatives have waiting in the wings, who this is all really for: Trump is old, erratic, not in great health, at best not very bright, possibly demented: in short an useful idiot. I would be shocked if there were not somebody being groomed to replace him.
@tersenurse I think Republicans count on an endless succession of Trump clones to come along and replace him. They're good at cloning, since their party is not about promoting education, thought, dialogue, but conformity and obedience in service to ruthless authority.
@wdlindsy just spitballing here: presidential immunity. Cite Mississippi vs Johnson . The president is largely beyond the judiciary’s reach in that it could not direct the president in how he exercises his purely executive and political powers.
@wdlindsy it is the other side that are the problem. I don’t understand how Leo Leonard was allowed to pack the court. It was before my time, but is it true Nixon and Reagan stole the farmers vote which we still have not gotten back. Or did the repubs just have enough people to get their way all the time?
@wdlindsy Supreme Court has been wrong before, and has been overturned many times, especially by this specific court whose rulings all deserve to be overturned as soon as possible. No tear shed.
@susiemagoo Yes, there have been corrupt configurations of the Supreme Court in the past, and history has proven some of those corrupt courts' decisions to be flatly wrong and unjust. Perhaps one difference is that what the current court and the part it serves are doing is locking in authoritarian rule for the foreseeable future. As that happens, there will be no mechanisms in place to change things for the better.
@wdlindsy Would the abduction and incarceration of Supreme Court justices be an official presidential act? Just curious. I mean. No one has call me to contract the job yet. Just checking. Really.
It's odd the way that societies change. Time and time again historians and sociologists are taken aback in wonder and confusion at the sudden, dramatic, and often dangerous transformations of a people’s basic nature and identity.
When this occurs in individuals we call it insanity, and often look for psychological or biological illness to explain the anomaly. When it occurs in societies we call it inhumanity, and have yet to address its root cause.
There are of course the classic and well known transformations of good societies into those who embrace darkness, such as the Germans adopting the ideals of the madman Hitler, or the Italians adopting his lesser counterpart Mussolini. But there are unfortunately many lesser discussed and equally tragic examples of a societies transgressions against its own mores. From the ancient Greeks and Romans, to modern day Americans and Europeans, societies have shown a great propensity for suddenly abandoning their most cherished beliefs and morals, and in their stead, learning to kill.
To be sure, these transformations do not occur overnight, but are instead attended by a slow, steady, but ever increasing drumbeat of misinformation, dehumanization, beratement, and ultimate hysteria directed towards any perceived enemy. The voices of reason and dissent are routinely suppressed and discredited, the rule of law abandoned, and any possible sense of guilt muted by vague and overt appeals to absolute nationalism.
And so we find humanity today.
In the midst of elections where the abandonment of our most basic precepts of humanity are trialed, humanity hangs bare.
Learning to kill.
It's not as difficult as we thought."
SearingTruth
I don't for one second believe this was done for anyone but drump and his billionaire backers (aka they guys who own the fascist-5). I also have no doubt that if Biden wins in NOV, they will overturn the results, prompting a civil war.
Biden needs to take action, NOW, to put down the rabid dogs on the court.
I don't know how this decision doesn't meet the definition of treason.
@wdlindsy it's not a blueprint, it's the actual end of law in the US, and the Chevron ruling is the end of government! The US was a nice experiment, that's failed!
Thus fell Rome!
@AWolfInCheapClothing Yes, a blueprint for the end of law in the US for Republicans, but not for anyone else. The blueprint has built into it the assumption that wealthy white heterosexual Republican men live at an ontological level above the common lot, a level at which the law doesn't apply.
@tweetsjen@noyes Wouldn't it, though? Just this morning, I talked to a neighbor who's a lawyer who previously served in my state's Attorney General's office and who was ranting about yesterday's Supreme Court decision, and he said he's imagining all kinds of malevolent actions for Biden to take now that we learn official acts of presidents are immune from prosecution.
@TCatInReality Yes, we're seeing play out in real time something we had imagined was a part of our sordid past. It has reared its ugly head again, big-time.
@wdlindsy They're not a real Supreme Court. They're fascist lackeys put into place there for the explicit purpose of destroying the country from the inside, and they're succeeding. They're arrogant and condescending because they know this and they're mocking you for treating them as if they're legitimate when they're really not.
@MBtrueb Yes, and the segment of the American voting public who chose to sit out the 2016 election because they just couldn't pull the lever for Hillary, or who voted third-party….
@susiemagoo Yes, it has. And that radical-reactionary thrust has been all the stronger as white Southerners furious at the Democratic party for enacting civil rights legislation began trekking to the Republican party after the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was signed on 2 July that year.
@wdlindsy This is a great thread with hugely important critiques of the SCOTUS decision to grant broad immunity to Trump. Thanks for creating it and updating it.