In a stunning display of partisan hackery, the Republican-controlled Supreme Court has announced that it will be formally reviewing Donald Trump’s patently absurd, possibly democracy-destroying claim that he has immunity from prosecution for any and all crimes committed while he was president. By granting review of the case — which the justices could and should have declined to do — the court has delayed Trump’s criminal election interference trial, all but ensuring that he will not be convicted before the election.
Before the Supreme Court decided to weigh in, Judge Tanya Chutkan had set a March 4th date for the trial to begin. Now, we’ll be lucky if the trial starts by August. That might give the jury enough time to render a verdict by September or October. But a conviction isn’t considered final until sentencing is handed down and that could take as many as ninety days, pushing us well past the November election.
This Supreme Court ruling is a godsend to Trump because his nightmare scenario was that he would have to go into Election Day as a convicted criminal. Now, he sees a possible path to freedom. If he wins the election, he’s virtually assured to issue himself a pardon, triggering a constitutional crisis that will inevitably end up before the MAGA-tainted Supreme Court, possibly undoing this nation for good.
And let’s be clear about what Donald Trump is claiming here. He’s claiming that a president can do literally anything he wants while in office without legal repercussions. The obvious insanity of such an idea was perfectly distilled by a hypothetical situation proposed during a hearing in front of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The panel of judges asked Trump’s lawyers if, using this immunity rationale, a president could order SEAL Team Six to assassinate a political rival without consequence. Trump’s team said yes, but added that a president who is impeached and removed by the Senate would lose such immunity (a made up standard).
Of course, in our contemporary hyper-partisan political landscape it’s virtually impossible to garner the two-thirds vote needed to convict a president in a Senate trial. Does anyone honestly believe that cowards like Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio would risk angering the MAGA base by holding Trump accountable in such a situation?
But as dire as all of this seems, it needn’t be cause for despair. The Supreme Court was never going to save us from Donald Trump. At best, a conviction would have helped tilt even more votes to Biden. In the end, victory was always going to come down to Election Day.
The Supreme Court has refused to protect American democracy, so the responsibility falls to all of us. If we show up to vote for Joe Biden and convince everyone we know to do the same, we will defeat Donald Trump. If we can manage that, this thing we call the American experiment might just have a few more years left in her.
The "Don't Be A Mitch" campaign is back after a hugely successful 2022 cycle, having raised $1.2 million for voter registration groups ahead of the midterm elections. This year, with a tough Senate map, we have no room for error. I put together a list of organizations from 5 key states (Montana, Ohio, Arizona, Wisconsin, and Missouri) that I think are best situated to ensure that the Senate stays in Democrats' hands. Any amount helps!
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