That renders the plain disclaimer on which the opinion rests—the president is not above the #law—a lie. More significant,the opinion depends on an implicit belief that the only person who would act so brazenly is #Trump, & that bc the majority of the justices…support Trump & want him to be president, he must be shielded from prosecution. In this backhanded manner, Trump’s justices acknowledge that he poses a unique threat to constitutional govt, one they just happen to support bc he’s their guy.
These are not justices; these are #Trump cronies. This is not #legal reasoning; this is vandalism.
…this [opinion] covers its #radicalism w/a pretense of moderation…that would nonetheless allow a president to escape prosecution for the most heinous abuses of power imaginable. #SCOTUS rejects…that a fmr president must be impeached & convicted before being prosecuted, while laying down a standard that makes it impossible for a president who attempts to seize #power to be prosecuted for doing so.
“Distinguishing the President’s official actions from his unofficial ones can be difficult,” #JohnRoberts writes. Then he makes it more difficult, writing that “in dividing official from unofficial conduct, courts may not inquire into the President’s motives.”
#law #SCOTUS #PartisanCourt #ExtremistCourt #CorruptCourt #DarkMoney #immunity #Trump #MAGA #Republicans #Jan6
That’s the idea: By balancing the possibility of any prosecution on this distinction, & by then making that distinction virtually impossible to discern, Roberts eliminates any chance of resolving the underlying #legal issues of #Trump’s current federal prosecution before Trump has a chance to take #power again. If Trump wins, he can then—wielding the sword of “absolute immunity” that #SCOTUS has provided—dismiss the #criminal investigations against him.
A lifetime appointment means that #SupremeCourt justices can do whatever they wish when they are in the majority. When the justices wanted to force #Colorado to return #Trump to its presidential #ballot after the state concluded that his attempted seizure of #power on #Jan6 barred him from holding office under the #FourteenthAmendment, they moved as rapidly as possible. When they wanted to assist Trump’s strategy of delaying any possible federal trial, they took their time.
…The current composition of #SCOTUS is the result of decades of work by #RightWing activists seeking a permanent #conservative #political ascendancy, & the behavior of the majority consistently reflects that objective. Like other right-wing institutions, it has become thoroughly #corrupted by its obeisance to the #Republican Party leader, the principle to which all others are now subordinate. This is not the Republican Party Court; it is the #Trump Court.
#Trump’s claim was absurd on its face: namely, that former presidents are immune to prosecution for any #crime committed under color of #law unless impeached & convicted. The kernel of logic in that argument, that the powers of the president confer some level of #immunity for certain acts, has been expanded beyond recognition to immunize Trump from prosecution.
#law #SCOTUS #PartisanCourt #ExtremistCourt #CorruptCourt #DarkMoney #CourtReform #RightWing #MAGA #Republicans #Jan6
…this would mean that a president could assassinate a rival in the name of #NationalSecurity, then avoid impeachment by intimidating members of Congress w/the threat of murdering them as well, & thus be immune from prosecution forever. …& if by some miracle a president who murdered his political enemies were removed, prosecutors would not only be barred from trying him but would also not be allowed to use his conversations w/executive-branch ofcls as #evidence against him.