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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Supreme Court's Landmark Decision
Last edited Wed May 13, 2020, 07:20 AM - Edit history (1)
Or will they pass the hot potato?
The cases about Donald Trump's taxes and finances have finally made it to their door. Will they make a decision to protect our laws and our Constitution? Or will they fold to the partisan flames? The partisan divisions are deep and wide.
Will they be able to put aside their own partisan divisions and protect our People and our Constitution?
What will they choose?
(On edit) The Supreme Court will likely not rule on this case until this summer, if at all?
no_hypocrisy
(48,492 posts)Am I remembering wrong?
Lochloosa
(16,390 posts)katmondoo
(6,490 posts)The fix is in. Honestly, America's government, all three branches, are now openly hostile to the People and our Constitution.
lostnfound
(16,536 posts)malaise
(277,353 posts)rein in this monster
SunSeeker
(53,456 posts)kentuck
(112,539 posts)Let us hope these Justices are strong enough to stand up for our country and our Constitution, over the whims of any one person.
SunSeeker
(53,456 posts)SCOTUS should not have even taken up the cases. The law is clear and well-settled. There are no conflicting decisions among the Circuits that need to be resolved. SCOTUS should have denied review and let the appellate decisions against Trump stand and become final.
But no, they reached down and pulled these cases up for review. Worse, the conservatives appear to have conjured a ground for letting Trump avoid subpoenas: that it's a political question that can't be resolved by the judiciary.
The Supreme Court asked all parties to address whether the disputes were a political question beyond reach of the judiciary. All said last week that the court should reach the merits of the cases. https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-trump-tax-returns-finances/2020/05/11/dd9bd598-92df-11ea-91d7-cf4423d47683_story.html
I predict SCOTUS will rule 5-4 that it's a political question, they will overrule the lower court rulings against Trump, and cynically say it is up to Congress, not courts, to enforce these subpoenas (through the Sargent-At-Arms, Impeachment, etc.), when they know damn well these enforcement mechanisms are ineffective against Trump.
kentuck
(112,539 posts)Trump wants "his" Court to make a decision.
SunSeeker
(53,456 posts)2naSalit
(91,935 posts)One is to send it back to lower courts asking for a new approach to the claims as the argument is weak is one of them.
Glenn Kirschner explains it in this video:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1017581677
Mike Niendorff
(3,529 posts)Followed by 4 additional Justices being appointed to the Court in 2021.
see: 28 USC 1.
MDN
CousinIT
(9,909 posts)maxrandb
(15,810 posts)Retrumplicans have been working ruthlessly to this point for 80 years, while Democrats kevetched about not getting a pony.
Today's the payoff for their hard work, and Democrats "thoughtful reflection"..."yes, Donnie Shit for Brains is an unqualified, inhuman racist assclown supported by Nazis, but Hillary Clinton one time said something nice about Reagan, and I'd rather have a beer with Bernie
I hope I'm wrong, but I suspect that our country will be dealt a death blow today.
Retrumplicans have spent decades constructing their deathstar, there's no Luke Skywalker coming to the rescue.
kentuck
(112,539 posts)In my opinion.
DFW
(56,326 posts)It's pretty much a given how the other 8 will decide. Thomas, Alito, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch will give Trump anything he wants. RBG, Breyer, Sotomayor and Kagan will say the opposite, that no one is above the law.
Roberts owes Bush, Cheney and Rove. He does not owe Trump.
Some Chief Justices don't care a bit about how history judges them. I think Roberts wavers about this, and cares more than Rehnquist ever did about his judicial legacy. Roberts knows how history will judge him if he votes with Trump on this one, and is probably weighing the impact of his two options on his record. His natural tendency is to give Republicans anything they want. The part of him that took an oath to uphold the law and interpret it to the best of his ability will side with the "no one is above the law" justices. The big question is which Roberts will win out--the Republican Justice, or merely typical Republican justice.
kentuck
(112,539 posts)...the Court will probably kick the can on down the road and not open up any investigations before the election?
Amishman
(5,754 posts)I see him authoring the majority on a 5-4, strongly limited in scope and so specific as to be impossible to apply to other situations.
DFW
(56,326 posts)Girard442
(6,382 posts)...if they rule against, he'll tell them to go pound sand and the illusion of the Court's power will be shattered. Got to get that can down the road, no matter how lame the argument.
Freddie
(9,587 posts)Will be elderly people with canes, wearing masks, standing in line for hours to vote in a pandemic.
I have absolutely no faith in him doing the right thing.
rampartc
(5,835 posts)trump will win this case
DFW
(56,326 posts)At the trial, the outcome was never in doubt. Here, it rests on his shoulders.
NNadir
(34,447 posts)Roberts can either be Justice Taney or Justice Warren in history.
Vinca
(50,867 posts)the Paula Jones case during Clinton. It's been long established that presidents are not above the law.
kentuck
(112,539 posts)If they follow precedent.
Of course, the Trump lawyers could argue that the cases are not similar. I think that would be a stretch to persuade a majority?
DFW
(56,326 posts)Reagan and Bush II never even got a slap on the wrist.
I have no doubt that Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch and Kavanaugh would have sided with Nixon on the tapes issue.
Mike Niendorff
(3,529 posts)Honestly, that's really the only case that needs to be looked at here.
Judicial integrity died on 12/12/2000.
The lifeless corpse has been been rotting on the bench ever since.
MDN
SmartVoter22
(639 posts)Found a very detailed article in this case. It's worth a read for those really into this SCOTUS case. It's not all about Trump, it's about international money loans applied to the Patriot Act in 2011 that changed oversight . Congress is investigating Trump's overseas loans to update the laws It gets bizarre but shows clearly three areas that are of concern to everyone.
https://forensicnews.net/2020/05/08/what-congress-might-find-in-trumps-deutsche-bank-records/
You can listen to SCOtUS verbal arguments live 10am Eastern Time
https://www.scotusblog.com/
Duppers
(28,223 posts)Buckeyeblue
(5,659 posts)In other words, if the court cannot come together 9-0 (maybe even 8-1), they will kick it back to the lower court to reconsider based on some anomaly. In other words they will ensure no ruling until well after the elections.
It's a cowardly move but Roberts doesn't seem to be a model of courage.
druidity33
(6,548 posts)for voting to keep Obamacare...
edited to add i think Roberts will be the deciding vote
doc03
(36,508 posts)of appeals or what. I don't get it you have judges that rule against the president it goes all the way
to the SCOTUS. I thought that is why we have the SCOTUS they have the last word. If that is what will happen
it goes back to lower courts and is held up for more months or years I have no doubt the SCOTUS will refuse to make a decision.
kentuck
(112,539 posts)bluestarone
(18,014 posts)NOT DECIDE! they will; send it back for further review!!!!!
Maeve
(42,871 posts)Sorry, but I can see no other conclusion. Only by declaring that no one is above the law can they save the American experiment.
The Wizard
(12,815 posts)but rather mediocre. They will convolute the language and stretch definitions to fit the contorted and corrupt positions of "Dear Leader."
bucolic_frolic
(46,512 posts)IRS records are private papers between an individual and the government, and while releasing them is tradition, norm, and beneficial to society for elected politicians, they release them at their own discretion.
Did you really expect to see Roberts' tax returns? Or did we already? I have no idea.
Ford_Prefect
(8,193 posts)years ago. While they may not have been of public record they would have been seen by those involved in vetting him. I doubt he would have been nominated or approved without them, then.
Today? Who knows?
lark
(24,009 posts)They do not deviate from that and will ensure that nothing of drumpfs' comes out until after the election, if ever. They have already basically shredded the constitution and will continue that in their decision, basically coronating him dictator.
zentrum
(9,866 posts)That's what they were nominated to do. The hell with corruption.
kskiska
(27,100 posts)by saying that it shouldn't be taken as a "precedent"?
Ford_Prefect
(8,193 posts)Sneederbunk
(14,990 posts)CaptainTruth
(7,160 posts)Clinton claimed immunity while in office from prosecution for things he did as a private citizen. SCOTUS said no, he didn't have that immunity.
I'm no expert, but that seems like the same kind of immunity Trump is claiming.
NoMoreRepugs
(10,431 posts)road of bending the Constitution in favor of a more ReichWing approach to governance. Money, corporate influence and homage to mega wealthy old white men at the center of everything.
kairos12
(13,211 posts)Hermit-The-Prog
(36,378 posts)budkin
(6,849 posts)I lost faith in the SCOTUS in December of 2000.