The courts were never going to save America from Donald Trump

[In It to Win It]

Vox

The Supreme Court has ordered the most important of former President Donald Trump’s four criminal trials to be put on hold indefinitely. It’s an extraordinary victory for Trump and a devastating blow to special counsel Jack Smith. The Court’s decision also raises serious doubts about whether these justices will allow a trial to take place before the November election.

Many Court observers, including myself, were shocked by Wednesday’s order because it appeared to rest on the flimsiest of pretexts. The ostensible reason why the Court ordered Trump’s trial paused is so the justices could spend the next few months considering Trump’s argument that he is immune from prosecution for any “official acts” he engaged in while he was still president.

This is an exceptionally weak legal argument, with monstrous implications. Trump’s lawyers told one of the judges who ruled against this immunity claim that a former president could not be prosecuted, even if he ordered “SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival,” unless the president was first successfully impeached and convicted (by lawmakers that, under Trump’s argument, the president could order killed if they attempted to impeach him).

There are, of course, historical examples of the Supreme Court behaving less deferentially toward presidents who thumb their nose at the law. The most well-known is United States v. Nixon (1974), the Court’s decision ordering President Richard Nixon to turn over tape recordings that implicated him in a crime, eventually leading to Nixon’s resignation.

The decision to halt Trump’s trial, however, fits within a different judicial tradition, which is no less robust and no less prominent in the Supreme Court’s history. The judiciary is a weak institution, staffed by political officials who are often reluctant to stand against popular authoritarian policies or movements. Indeed, the justices themselves often belong to those movements.

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[RKP5637]

1. SCOTUS is no friend to fairness, the people or the countries future.

[Ocelot II]

2. The most important thing is to make sure he's not re-elected.

And IMO what's worse than a trial that's postponed until after the election is one that is held before the election but that results in an acquittal. Trials are always a crapshoot, even if the prosecution has a strong case (and these cases wouldn't be prosecuted at all if they weren't), but the government has to prove every element of the charged offense beyond a reasonable doubt. It takes only one juror to cause a mistrial, even if all the others want to convict. The documents trial will be before Judge Cannon, who could make evidentiary rulings intended to hamstring the prosecution, and for which there is no remedy since the prosecution can't appeal from an acquittal. That trial especially scares me. (And even apart from Cannon's evident bias, I have to believe she's also being threatened by TFG's goons to be sure she continues to make rulings in his favor, or at least drag her feet.) There will surely be attempts at witness tampering even if the names of jurors remain confidential (and are not leaked).

We are expecting these trials to result in convictions but that's not a sure thing. The Biden campaign and the party and all of its branches and affiliates and PACs need to go scorched earth, balls to the wall, everything possible to make sure he isn't re-elected.

[patphil]

3. I can see why the SC doesn't want to rule on Presidential immunity before the election.

If they say he is immune from prosecution for crimes he committed during his Presidency, then Biden is also immune. Republicans can't have that now, can they?
If they say there is no immunity from prosecution, Trump's trials would go forward, and greatly increase not only his chances of losing, but would damage the chances of hundreds of Republicans who are running for election this fall as hard core Trump supporters.

For the spineless, Trump loyal, SC, this is a lose/lose proposition.
So they are deciding to punt this toxic mess into the post election future.

[Barry Markson]

5. The GOP will gladly trade President Biden's immunity for TFG's.

Why?
As they see it all of their trumped up "charges" against Joe Biden and family are for "crimes" committed while Joe was either in the Senate or as vice president or private citizen.

I.E. The presidential records act does not apply to a vice president or senator so Biden was not entitled to keep documents and records.

Thus no immunity.

[Baitball Blogger]

6. If something weird happens in November and Biden loses,

he still has November to January to show the world what an immunity judgement would look like. He'll be like Santa Claus making up a list to determine who is bad or good. Seal Team will be shaking in their boots.

[gab13by13]

4. You mean federal courts right?

The lawsuit that Alvin Bragg is bringing on March 25th could have been brought by Garland as soon as he took over. Why are you saying the courts will never save America? Trump loses every trial.

The problem with Holding Trump accountable comes from the will to investigate, prosecute, and indict him.

Time Mattered, don’t blame the courts.

[Lonestarblue]

8. Time indeed matters.

Smith was appointed Special Counsel in November of 2022 and brought charges for J6 against Trump in August of 2023, less than a year later. Imagine if he had been appointed to investigate the J6 crimes at the same time as the House January 6 Commission started its work. The trials would be over and done with and the verdicts known. So now we face an election where Trump can claim the trials to be a political witch hunt because no jury has found him guilty of either stealing classified documents or fomenting an insurrection. Some ill-informed voters may well think that the delays in the courts are because the government does not have strong cases and therefore Trump will not be found guilty, and indeed we do not know what the verdicts will be. In Florida, there’s every chance that he will walk free because the jury pool may be filled with the MAGA cult. Trump has escaped his crimes his whole life. I’m beginning to think that he will do so forever.

[moondust]

7. Oligarchs and wannabe oligarchs

protecting oligarchs?

[Joinfortmill]

9. As Alexander Vidman said, this may be our last vote. So, vote, people.

[flying_wahini]

10. WHEN Joe B gets re-elected I hope he will restock the deck like they have and flush these turds off the SCOTUS.

If it doesn’t work then change the rules like they did. Fuck them all.

[Magoo48]

11. The SC is now a diseased vestigial structure in the American body politic.

[Lucky Luciano]

12. If SCOTUS actually rules in favor of fuckface, what's to stop Biden from simply killing fuckface to save the country?

[yankee87]

17. Only applies to presidents with odd numbers.

I can see the SCOTUS making up some rules that only apply to fuck face, but no other president can have.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

13. SCCOTUS -- Subversive Corrupt Court of the United States.

[WarGamer]

14. Exactly. GOTV.

He who hits 270 (or 269 if GOP) wins...

[orangecrush]

15. Wanna bet

Plans are being put in place in the military, intelligence and counterintelligence communities to stop Trump's rampage if he is somehow installed?

[bucolic_frolic]

18. You must destroy the courts if you want to rule by religious decree

[GiqueCee]

19. Okay...

... so, come November, and we flush the Republicans back into the bottomless cesspool that spawned them, can we PLEASE address the issue of politicians getting their grimy paws into the judicial selection process? Judges and Justices are supposed to be impartial. Kinda hard to be impartial when you owe your position to the ultimate partisan... the President.
This obscene corruption has to be stopped, one way or another. our already flawed judicial system has been poisoned by Republican perfidy, and the nation will not survive if this evil is not addressed.
As soon as I think that I can't possibly despise Republicans any more than I already do... it's another day, and I have to recalibrate. Again.

[dchill]

20. Oh well