How corrupt is the SCOTUS? On Trump's appeal, Trump's attorneys argued that his efforts to overturn the 2020 election were “official acts” and that all presidents have “absolute immunity” while in office and for the rest of their lives thereafter.
Nobody took it seriously. Even the appeals court his bid first went to pointed out how absurd it was.
“Could a president who ordered SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival,” Judge Florence Pan, one of the appeals court judges, asked Trump’s lawyers, “[and not] be subject to criminal prosecution?”
The answer from Trump’s attorney D. John Sauer was that Trump can’t be prosecuted unless he’s first impeached, which, as noted, is absurd on its face. Under this logic, President Biden could today order Trump assassinated and dare Congress to impeach him for it.
Republicans on the Court have, for almost a century, taken the side of autocracy over democracy, billionaires over workers, and corporations over consumers and the environment.
— They tell us that corporations are “persons” with rights under the Bill of Rights.
— They tell us when morbidly rich people or massive corporations bribe politicians that that’s merely their “First Amendment free speech” right.
— They ruled that American women and girls must live under rules established in the 17th century
— They repeatedly knock down the rights of people living in red states to vote.
— They make it harder for unions to function.
— They gutted Obamacare.
— They ruled that it’s okay to discriminate against gay people.
— They flooded our nation with guns.
— They encourage monopoly.
— They put shackles on the EPA, ruling that it can’t regulate carbon dioxide.
And now they’re doing everything they can to get Donald Trump back into office so Clarence Thomas and Sam Alito, both well into their seventies, can retire confident in the knowledge they’ll be replaced by rightwing judges chosen by the Federalist Society.
At least Chief Justice Rehnquist had the good sense in 1074 to recuse himself in the US v Nixon case because of his close ties to the Nixon administration. Today, Clarence Thomas’ wife was deeply involved in J6 and he won’t even consider a recusal.
The Court was given this case weeks ago, with a detailed unanimous decision by the DC appeals court that they could have simply let stand. Alternatively, they could have scheduled a hearing for the day after they got the case. They could have heard arguments and even rendered a decision by now.
The court introduced what will be at least a 130-day delay in Trump’s trial. They won’t even hear arguments until April 22. Democracy be damned.
During Trump's tenure, and with Mitch McConnells help, Trump put three radicals on the Supreme Court and several hundred crackpot, unqualified judges on the federal bench.
Now the six corrupt Republicans on the Supreme Court are going out of their way to give him the delays he wants so he can stay out of jail and continue his campaign to end our American way of life.
