Chief Justice#JohnRoberts announced that Monday is the final day of the term.
Monday will mark the first time since 2020 that the Supreme Court term runs into July. The court extended the session that year because of delays caused by the coronavirus pandemic. Before that, it had not happened since 1996.
Surprising Robert & scotus didn’t bail on next week … cuz July 4 y’know … so they could postpone announcing trump immunity claim decision all the way to July 8
Dan Rather notes the long, long foot-dragging of the Supreme Court on an immunity case that most legal scholars consider ridiculous — foot-dragging that only serves Trump's interest in delaying trial.
He (and the media in general and public) expected a ruling yesterday, but…. As Rather states,
"With every delay, the court is giving the former president exactly what he wants: a silent pass on prosecution."
@wdlindsy My guess is four conservatives don't have the 5th vote from Gorsuch or Roberts, meaning despite what should be 9-0 against Trump is currently 4-3 vote with 2 leaning with three liberals. Granting Trump immunity gives immunity to all past, current and future presidents, so conservatives want decision granting Trump immunity for his case without opening door for universal presidential immunity. Just thinking out loud. Probably badly and wrongly.
"By shielding Donald Trump from standing trial before a jury in two of his felony cases, Trump’s three appointments to the Supreme Court, along with the even more MAGA Justices Alito and Thomas and Judge Aileen Cannon, have already irreparably interfered in the 2024 election."
It’s been SIX months since Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court for an expedited ruling on immunity so we could get to a trial on the January 6th case. But hey, no rush. The Justices have been busy revising incomplete ethics forms, flying weird flags, and laboring over patent law — Bill Kristol #quotes#quote#immunity#SCOTUS#TrumpCrimes#TrumpProsecution
"We have the rule of law so as not to have a culture of revenge.
For much of human history, it was an eye for an eye, as we read in the Bible. In a revenge culture, a chieftain decides who is to blame, and the shamans explain how the blood and chaos is just and necessary."
"Some of the people in black robes, Supreme Court justices, like being shamans. Our shamans are allowed to take bribes from those who support the chieftain, and also allowed to claim that as magicians, people unlike others, they are unaffected by them. If there is any doubt, our shamans tell us, they can be trusted to be judges in their own case."
"Shamans thus installed will protect their chieftain, and surround him with their magical aura. Unlike other courts, the Supreme Court can make things up as it goes along, and there has been a good deal of that lately, especially on the part of Mr. Alito. Its members can claim fidelity to the words of the Constitution, then cast all that aside when the chieftain is threatened."
Trump fails to understand the difference between decisions presidents make as part of their job and efforts by a candidate to steal an election he lost. It's not that difficult — Joyce White Vance #quotes#quote#Trump#immunity#CoupAttempt#Insurrection
When Justice Sonia Sotomayor asked Donald Trump’s lawyer, “If the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person, and he orders the military or orders someone to #assassinate him, is that within his official acts for which he can get #immunity?”, he replied, “It would depend on the hypothetical, but we can see that would well be an official act.” Based on that one line of questioning, Trump’s argument should be going down in flames 9-0. A democracy cannot survive when its supreme leader can arbitrarily decide that it’s in the nation’s best interest to rub out his opponents, and then leave it to some future court to decide whether it was an official act, because he’ll get away with it as long as there aren’t 67 votes in the Senate to impeach. And given that it will have been established that the president can put out a contract on political foes, how many senators are going to vote to impeach? — Brynn Tannehill #quotes#quote#Trump#OfficialActs
Every day of these proceedings, he should surround the Supreme Court with armed soldiers. Make all those judges walk past rows of soldiers on their way in and out of court. Make them think long and hard about the consequences of declaring presidents above the law.
“'I am in shock that a lawyer stood in the U.S. Supreme Court and said that a president could assassinate his political opponent and it would be immune as ‘an official act,' lawyer Marc Elias, whose firm defends democratic election laws, wrote today on social media. He added: 'I am in despair that several Justices seemed to think this answer made perfect sense.'”
@wdlindsy One of the justices asked, "If a president appoints an ambassador as a favor could that be considered an official act?". It is a lot more serious than you make it seem.
Judge Wendell Griffen on the day fascism appeared in the Supreme Court:
"Yesterday a lawyer stood in the well of the Supreme Court of the United States and boldly declared that a President is absolutely immune from criminal prosecution if he/she commits murder, bribery, sedition, conspiracy to overthrow the government, or any other crimes as an 'official act.'”
If you were listening yesterday, you heard an unbelievably calm discussion by the Supreme Court about whether it might be acceptable or a President to assassinate their opponent and have "immunity" to break any law they please without prosecution.
Of course Trump's PIMP #Justices are going to give him #immunity. That's what the Koch network put them there to do.
And as ever, the TV lawyers who told us for months this hearing should not even be happening now will pivot and change their "opinions".
Corrupt #Koch Kourt should be closed and boarded up: DICTATORS ARE ABOVE THE LAW. Therefore the #Constitution is irrelevant and they have no reason to exist anymore.
By looking to future, #SCOTUS may push #Trump’s DC trial past election
With the #immunity claims before the #SupremeCourt on Thurs, the #judicial branch is being asked to draw a clear line about what a president can or cannot do.
The high court, w/3 Trump nominees, has generally not been receptive to Trump’s assertions of immunity, forcing him to comply w/a #subpoena & rejecting his efforts to block #Congress from accessing his tax records.