That this absurd argument is even being made before the Supreme Court is an embarrassment to the Constitution and to our country.
Former Federal Judge Mihael Luttig
Yeah, Judge, unfortunately that happens a lot when Donald Trump is involved. Last Thursday Trump's lawyer, John Sauer stood in front of the highest court in the land and essentially told them Trump, or any other President, could have political opponents killed and if they decided to do so, even overthrow the government itself without the fear of prosecution. In other words, once you get elected President you are a Dictator for however long you want, ala Saddam Hussein.
Previous Supreme Courts would have never considered autocratic lunacy such as this. Indeed, for nearly 250 years the idea an American attorney would even suggest a President is above the law has been unthinkable.
However, as Hesse once wrote in a different context, this Magic Theater isn't for everybody. Instead of throwing Sauer out of the building and to the horror of nearly every constitutional scholar out there, at least four of the justices appeared to take this madness seriously. Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh0, and Gorsuch all sort of shrugged and began asking questions which led many analysts to believe they were at least thinking about the prospect of an Imperial presidency.
The four all seemed to be trying to divide the question in to two parts, "official acts," and, "private acts." They appeared to be hinting a President was immune if the crime is an official act, but not so if it is a private one. Sauer picked up on the thought immediately. When asked about Nixon's pardon, in the blink of an eye, he claimed Mr. Nixon had to be pardoned for private acts. And that's the problem. The difference between private and official acts tend to depend on one's point of view.
Samuel Alito took it a step further when he wondered aloud if a democratic society would be, "destabilized," if an incumbent President had to worry about being prosecuted after leaving office by a, "bitter political rival." None of us really know the answer to that, but we do know organizing fake electors. attempting to strongarm your own Vice President, and urging a mob of supporters to march on the capitol en masse sure feels like someone is destabilizing it.
What wasn't mentioned is other than Donald J. Trump and perhaps Dick Nixon no other President's in the history of the republic have worried about being prosecuted after leaving office. That might be because no one else pulled the criminal bullshit Trump and Nixon did. Or it could be because, unlike Trump, all the other Presidents actually read the Constitution before they took an oath to preserve, protect, and defend it.
Which ever the case most of the media, "experts," think Alito, Gorsuch, Thomas, and Kavanaugh are in Trump's pocket. Sotomayor, Kagan, Jackson, and Barrett are opposed to them. That leaves Chief Justice John Roberts as the deciding vote and no one, on any of the cable news networks would hazard a guess as to which way he is leaning.
The only thing we are sure of at this point is that the Supreme Court of the United States handed Donald Trump a victory, just by listening to his attorney. The Washington and Mar A Lago federal trials are on hold until there is a decision and no one believes either \will start before the November elections. That's exactly what Trump wanted.
In the mean time we are left to think about what happened last Thursday. How did we arrive at this moment in history when democracy as we know it may hang on a single vote? Because that is what this is ultimately about--the survival of democracy as we know it. Don't ever try to fool yourself into believing it isn't.
sic vita est
4-29-24
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