The US Supreme Court and its decisions

[Rhinox]

Most people have no clue just how bad that Chevron decision is. Things are going to get very bad very quickly regardless of who is in office.
This is, unquestionably, a horrid decision that destroys the status quo of America.

I am not Paladin, I am not one to jump to a worst case scenario, but this is really, truly bad.

 

[Ungnome]

The Supreme Court, I’ve rabidly come to the conclusion is like the worse part of our House of Lords (being a load of unelected-for-life lawmakers) but with its powers greatly magnified to almost dictatorial levels. It seems to be a terrifying system to live under.

In theory they can be checked by Congress, problem is Congress is broken and has been since at least the late 90's. Congress can change the number of seats in the court and has the ability to remove justices via impeachment. If Congress were working properly, Clarence Thomas would have been impeached over ethics concerns awhile ago, for instance. Broken Congress is what lead to the broken Supreme Court. Congress could also mitigate issues caused by the overturning of the Chevron decision. Problem is, they won't. Democrats don't want to be seen as rocking the boat and the Republican in congress keep blasting shotgun holes in the bottom of the boats hull.

 

[Dekafox]

If we HAD a functional Congress, the Chevron decision issue could be mitigated too, but well, here we are. Well, functional for serving the people instead of just for big business anyways.

 

[KidTDragon]

This oughta kill any faith you might have had left in this court:

Supreme Court gives win to Trump, ruling he has immunity for some acts in election interference indictment

The legal question of whether a former president has immunity from prosecution for official acts had never come before the court.

www.nbcnews.com

 

[Rhinox]

Not a total victory for either side. And, frankly, more than I expected from this court.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Well, it lets the documents criminal case proceed: since that's not election interference.

Trump got a narrow win when he wanted blanket immunity: he can still be prosecuted, and we get to keep calling for the impeachment of the supreme court.

 

[Anonymous X]

128 days left until Trump declares himself dictator for life on 6th November.

 

[Pocket]

Y'all are being weirdly optimistic about this. My mother, who has been a Republican her entire life, gave me the news like every single person we know had just died in a bus crash. As she put it, as long as he's "acting in an official capacity", the President can now order the immediate execution of his opponent.

Trump-47 wouldn't have to declare himself dictator. According the Supreme Court, presidents just are dictators the second they're sworn in.

 

[wonko the sane?]

128 days left until Trump declares himself dictator for life on 6th November.

Even fox news polls show trump losing the election.

Let him make all the declarations he wants: we already know it's a baseless ******* lie.

 

[Rhinox]

Y'all are being weirdly optimistic about this. My mother, who has been a Republican her entire life, gave me the news like every single person we know had just died in a bus crash. As she put it, as long as he's "acting in an official capacity", the President can now order the immediate execution of his opponent.

Trump-47 wouldn't have to declare himself dictator. According the Supreme Court, presidents just are dictators the second they're sworn in.

Because that's not how it works. You can't just say "official capacity" and suddenly be immune.

 

[Fullstrength Motleypuss]

Yeah, this strikes me as a very narrow decision and I'm not really sure how consequential it will really be in the big picture.

 

[wonko the sane?]

It delays things... again. That's all. They can't find in favour of trump immunity without biden firing them whole lot of them and appointing an entirely new court to replace them.

Which... frankly: I would be fine with that.

 

[CoffeeHorse]

Here's the TLDR of the decision.

The indictment’s allegations that the requested investigations were shams or proposed for an improper purpose do not divest the President of exclusive authority over the investigative and prosecutorial functions of the Justice Department and its officials. Because the President cannot be prosecuted for conduct within his exclusive constitutional authority, Trump is absolutely immune from prosecution for the alleged conduct involving his discussions with Justice Department officials.

The indictment’s allegations that Trump attempted to pressure the Vice President to take particular acts in connection with his role at the certification proceeding thus involve official conduct, and Trump is at least presumptively immune from prosecution for such conduct.
[...]
The Court therefore remands to the District Court to assess in the first instance whether a prosecution involving Trump’s alleged attempts to influence the Vice President’s oversight of the certification proceeding would pose any dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch.

The indictment’s remaining allegations involve Trump’s interactions with persons outside the Executive Branch: state officials, private parties, and the general public. In particular, the indictment alleges that Trump and his co-conspirators attempted to convince certain state officials that election fraud had tainted the popular vote count in their States, and thus electoral votes for Trump’s opponent needed to be changed to electoral votes for Trump.
[...]
The Court accordingly remands to the District Court to determine in the first instance whether Trump’s conduct in this area qualifies as official or unofficial.

The indictment also contains various allegations regarding Trump’s conduct in connection with the events of January 6 itself.
[...]
The Court therefore remands to the District Court to determine in the first instance whether this alleged conduct is official or unofficial.

On remand, the District Court must carefully analyze the indictment’s remaining allegations to determine whether they too involve conduct for which a President must be immune from prosecution. And the parties and the District Court must ensure that sufficient allegations support the indictment’s charges without such conduct. Testimony or private records of the President or his advisers probing such conduct may not be admitted as evidence at trial.

As for the dissents, they strike a tone of chilling doom

https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

The case isn't dead, but it's pretty gutted. There's a lot of evidence that cannot be used for the remaining charges. There is no way this happens before the election.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Yes, and that was the point. It's trumps entire ******* play book.

 

[KidTDragon]

The President cannot be prosecuted for conduct within his exclusive constitutional authority.

Protecting U.S. democracy is the President's constitutional duty.

Joe Biden is President.

Donald Trump, the GOP, and the conservatives on the Supreme Court are a clear and present danger to U.S. democracy.

*dials phone* Hello, President Biden? Is SEAL Team 6 busy?

 

[Paladin]

this is Donald's playbook because it's a WINNING play.


i'll be 39 before the election. In my lifetime I've only seen a Republican president win the popular vote once yet somehow The Party was able to put enough agents on the Supreme Court to decide the President can have a degree of immunity for crimes committed in office.

And the only thing Democrats are likely to do to counter this ruling is send out a fundraising email.


I don't know what the hug you call this system but it sure doesn't feel like something worth fighting for.

 

[wonko the sane?]

Then don't fight to preserve it, fight to change it.

And it only looks like a winning play: trump is still going to lose in november. All this does is push back his prosecutions a while. He's still being sentenced for 34 counts of fraud in 10 days.

Besides: this still works in favour of biden: where in firing the entire court and replacing them would be an official act.

 

[G.B.Blackrock]

I'm not in favor of the doom and gloom narrative I've already blocked another poster for using, but this incessant "trump is going to lose in november" narrative is no better anchored to reality. We can do better.

 

[Pale Rider]

At this point, wonko's hopium is what gets me through days like today.

 

[Ungnome]

I HOPE Biden(or whoever replaces him on the Democratic ticket) wins, but it's NOT a shoe-in, as much as I'd like to think it is. The economy, while good on paper, is horrible for most working-class families and a LARGE number of them don't seem to realize the blame for that lies at the feet of the corporate boot-lickers who have run this country since at least the 1980's. Many are lapping up the republican talking points looking for a scapegoat instead of an actual solution, all the while the Republicans want to give MORE power and wealth to those who already have it. (think i'll stop now, can feel the urge to go on a long meandering rant and I want to spare that on you guys. If you're an American of voting age, VOTE!)