"[SCOTUS] will prematurely hear a completely frivolous claim that if sustained, would allow any POTUS to commit crimes with almost unbridled immunity. This will delay his federal 1/6 trial indefinitely. A political and traitorous decision from a totally discredited SCOTUS."
"Speaking with MSNBC's Ari Melber, The Nation's Elie Mystal condemned the high court as 'Republican theocrats in robes,' suggesting the justices' goal is to put Trump back in office. …
"They're trying to make Trump win. The whole point of this ruling is for Trump to win."
"The three Trump Justices along with 'Justice for rent' Clarence Thomas and the reactionary Samuel Alito have deprived voters of seeing Trump tried before the 2024 election for his attempted coup. And by doing so, they have brought our democratic Republic closer to ending by enabling a fascist, wanna be dictator to win in 2024."
"The Court has lost its way. It has breached its trust with the American people. It won’t recover from this wound, regardless of how it rules on Trump's claim of immunity. …
It was corrupt because Clarence Thomas did not recuse himself. It was reprehensible because it credits an absurd legal theory. It undermines the rule of law and expresses contempt for the American people."
"It exalts procedure over substance at a time of constitutional crisis.
The current Court is broken beyond repair. It must be enlarged so that a new majority of justices willing to uphold the Constitution can reform an institution that has been captured by the Federalist Society and MAGA extremists."
"I don’t care how you cut it, this is the terrifying result you get when you elect a raving fascist lunatic like Donald Trump and he gets the opportunity – aided and abetted by right wing puppets in the Senate and their right-wing corporate puppeteers – to appoint a gaggle of stary-eyed authoritarian moonies to the highest court in the land."
"DONALD TRUMP HAS JUST SCORED ANOTHER BIG WIN in his legal strategy of delaying any accountability for his alleged crimes until after the 2024 election—which he gambles will return him to the White House and safely beyond the reach of justice. …
It didn’t have to put its thumb on the scales of justice this way."
"Before any of us get complacent by thinking, 'Oh, well, that’s Alabama. Predictable craziness,' there are similar laws ready to be passed in other states that want to advance Christianity as the unofficial religion of their state and the country. …
"This single court decision is the throwing down of the gauntlet challenging America to choose sides: Either American ideals as defined by the Constitution or membership in a Costco version of Christianity, packaged in bargain bulk and cheap homilies.
I choose to support the quality of life for all Americans without preference given to any religious dogma."
"Donald Trump makes a mockery of the Constitution. His determination to put the 14th Amendment in the trashcan of history should draw the most concern."
So says Clarence Lusane. And he's right.
But it should not escape notice that millions of Americans — Republicans — stand right with Trump as he trashes the Constitution.
And they're aided and abetted by "liberal" pundits.
Trump has proven eye-opening — or should have — for many of us, as we learn that a not insignificant proportion of Americans think the Constitution is optional and not the foundation on which our democratic republic is built.
And it should be eye-opening that a whole slew of "liberal" media types are right on board with this trashing of the Constitution — including 99% of straight white men on social media, who are suddenly Constitutional experts.
"It was evident to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that none of the founders contemplated a man like Donald Trump or a political party comprised of his imitators. It’s right there in the Preamble they wrote to the Constitution:"
"they set forth to 'form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity.' What happened across the street from the Supreme Court at the Capitol on Jan. 6 was the opposite of the stated purpose of the Constitution."
"The question for the justices is, do they have the honesty and integrity and courage to ensure that their court and the Capitol across the street remain in the neighborhood of democracy, or will they allow their neighborhood to be swallowed up by the moral vacuum of Donald Trump’s ambition to become not a president but a dictator? The Supreme Court can stop him, but will they?"
"The man behind the conservative effort to move the judiciary to the right has ties to many of the groups and people arguing that Donald Trump should stay on the ballot in a case heard before the US supreme court this week."
Leonard Leo’s advocacy and financial network played a major role in Trump’s judicial nominations and confirmation hearings as part of his years-long push to make the courts more friendly to conservatives and their causes. Justice Clarence Thomas once joked that Leo was the 'No 3 most powerful person in the world'."
"Democracy means more than the simple ability to vote; it requires a commitment to constitutional principles – to the limits of an office, to the rights of the minority, to the separation of private and public interests among those in power and to the willingness to place the dignity of the country before the petty preferences of the man who leads it.
Trump has no intention of upholding these principles."
"To disqualify him would not be to undermine democracy but to protect it, by averting the seizure of the republic by the man who has been quite frank about his intention to destroy it.
Meanwhile, section three of the 14th amendment now seems set to be orphaned – denied its status as self-effecting, curtailed in its enforcement by the states."
"It seems evident that to reach its desired outcome, the Court must insert words, phrases, and limitations into the Constitution that do not appear in its text. In short, they will engage in judicial self-help by amending the Constitution."
"The 'on-the-fly' revisions and additions to the Constitution will come from the same Court that overruled Roe v. Wade because the words 'privacy' and 'abortion' do not appear in the text of the Constitution.
In so ruling, the justices will reveal the hypocrisy of their prior decisions."
"The Supreme Court put on an institutional display that showed how little the justices actually know about elections and indeed federalism, which is shocking to have to say, but there you have it."
"The justices will probably wave their hands toward Congress to 'do something' to make the Disqualification Clause enforceable, but in reality they are setting up a potentially cataclysmic and unworkable test for the constitutional framework in the calm (lol) period between Election Day 2024 and Inauguration Day 2025."
My footnote: anyone who expected more has not been paying attention to who the Supremes are now.
"The gory details of Jan. 6 — the mobs armed with bear mace and flagpoles-turned-spears, the narrow escape by lawmakers and Vice President Mike Pence, the blood, the injuries, the deaths — got short shrift at Thursday’s oral arguments before the Supreme Court."
Jamison Foser points to the "elephant in the room nobody wants to talk about" as the Supremes hear the Trump disqualification case:
"The justices themselves cannot possibly be unaware of the threats and actual violence other public officials, including judges, have faced for implementing the 14th Amendment’s disqualification of Trump."
"The news media has long compartmentalized Trump’s violence, and that of his supporters: They may report it, but they silo that coverage off away from the rest of their coverage of him. …
The rise of right-wing violence3 is not incidental to contemporary American politics; it is a defining characteristic. It should be treated as such."