The Supreme Court Is As Complicit As the Senate

[babylonsister]

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/02/supreme-court-senate-complicit-trump-unleashed.html

The Supreme Court Is As Complicit As the Senate
Trump’s abuses of office have been blessed by every branch of government.
By Leah Litman
Feb 10, 2020
4:44 PM


Last Tuesday, in explaining her vote to acquit Donald Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, Sen. Susan Collins suggested that the president had learned a “pretty big lesson” simply from being impeached and that he would be “much more cautious” about engaging in similar behavior again. By Friday, Trump had issued a series of firings of public officials who had testified against the president during the impeachment inquiry, demonstrating his takeaway from impeachment: He can use the powers of his office to do whatever he wants. Having gotten away with abuses of power again and again, Trump is now unleashed to continue to corruptly use the powers of his office without consequence. He has already begun to show what that will look like over the remainder of his presidency.

In legal escapades outside of the realm of impeachment, for instance, Trump and his administration have internalized the lesson that if no one will stop you, there’s no reason to stop. Less than two years ago, the Supreme Court upheld the third iteration of the president’s ban on entry by nationals of several Muslim-majority countries (the “travel ban”). By upholding the ban, the court made clear that it would not stop the president from incorporating his bigotry into official immigration policy. Since then, the president has dramatically expanded the scope of the travel ban to other countries with substantial Muslim populations and has enacted several other immigration restrictions that disproportionately disadvantage nonwhite immigrants. After receiving a pass on xenophobia, the president has continued to do it again and again. Last week, he expanded the entry ban to cover five additional countries (Nigeria, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan, Eritrea, and Myanmar) with substantial Muslim populations. In one of those countries (Myanmar), a group of Muslims (the Rohingya) are fleeing religious persecution and genocide. The president had previously said, according to the New York Times, that Nigerians should “go back to their huts.”

snip//

With the Senate’s blessing, the president will continue to corruptly abuse the powers of his office to undermine elections and our rule of law—and, as demonstrated by the Friday Night Massacre, he will do so in even more aggressive and ostentatious ways. With the court’s blessing, the president will expand his racist, xenophobic, and anti-Muslim immigration practices with little limit to what he may try to enact.

Neither the Senate nor the Supreme Court has been willing to stand up to the president for abusing the powers of his office for personal benefit or to stoke bigotry for partisan ends. By failing to do so, they have encouraged Trump to abuse his powers even more. It is unclear what, if anything, can stop him now.

[democratisphere]

1. Totally agree. Republican members of Congress, the Judiciary and

the Executive Branch are severely corrupted.

[maxsolomon]

2. They don't see a limit to Executive Authority.

At least not GOP Executive Authority.

[leftieNanner]

3. If SCOTUS allows him to hide his taxes

Then we will know that this is another completely corrupted branch of the government.

This pushes everything on to the election in November. If we do not take both the WH, The Senate, and retain the House, then we are pretty much screwed.

[blm]

4. ✔️

[jr1118x]

5. It will take decades to fix

Even if we win all 3 in Nov the next appointment is likely to be RBG, unless Thomas kicks off early.

[BigDemVoter]

6. Oh, no, this is burned into my mind. I will NEVER forget

this travesty. Not only did we get royally FUCKED with Bush II, we've been assaulted yet again by the same goddamned people plus a couple of new goons. We cannot afford to lose in 2020 under ANY circumstance.

[Evolve Dammit]

7. Me neither. They lied when they took the oath. Only Romney (1) honored it. ONE. ONLY ONE.

The rest are lock-step fascists. That's where we are. My WW II vet Dad would be LIVID.

[BigmanPigman]

8. I have the feeling they will still kill the ACA.