Dear MoveOn member,
On Monday, the MAGA Supreme Court issued a decision paving the way for a
future president to take bribes, engage in a military coup, and
politically prosecute his political rivals with impunity—or even outright
order their assassination.^1
Before this decision had even come down, Trump was ALREADY threatening to
prosecute his political opponents. In fact, he spent this past weekend
threatening his enemies on his social media platform, Truth Social. One of
his posts called for former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who participated in
the January 6 investigations, to be prosecuted by a military court
reserved for enemy combatants and war criminals. "Elizabeth Lynne Cheney
is guilty of treason," the post said. "Retruth if you want televised
military tribunals."^2
Another post included photos of 15 former and current elected
officials—including President Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris,
Senators Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, former Vice President Mike
Pence—and members of the House committee that investigated the January 6,
2021, attack on the Capitol. The post said "they should be going to jail
on Monday not Steve Bannon!"^3
Now, thanks to this horrific decision, Trump is emboldened to make good on
his threats if he ever returns to the White House. Because now, he knows
he will not be prosecuted for doing so.
To show our outrage and build momentum for the fight ahead—keeping Trump
far away from the White House—we've printed a huge batch of "With Fear for
Our Democracy, I Dissent" stickers and are giving them away for free,
while supplies last!
[ [link removed] ]Click here to order your free "With Fear for Our Democracy, I Dissent"
sticker to spread the word about the dangers of American dictatorship—and
then help us fight like hell to defeat Donald Trump.
[ [link removed] ][IMG]
As we warned, in Trump v. United States, the Supreme Court just set the
stage for Donald Trump to be elected president one last time and then
become a dictator. Which includes, in Trump's own words, putting his
enemies—such as members of Congress who participated in the January 6
investigations—on trial.
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, who served in the Department of
Justice soon after Richard Nixon sought to use the department to go after
the people on his "enemies list," has also sounded the alarm about
political prosecutions that we can expect under Trump. He warns that the
language in this decision "would immunize Trump from criminal prosecution,
were he to become president again and seek to use the Justice Department
to prosecute his enemies—exactly what dictators do."^4
Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her blistering dissenting opinion, the
Supreme Court majority just made the president "a king above the law." She
wrote, "[W]hen [the president] uses his official powers in any way, under
the majority's reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal
prosecution. Orders the Navy's Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political
rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes
a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune."^5
"With fear for our democracy, I dissent."^6
[ [link removed] ]Click here to order your free "With Fear for Our Democracy, I Dissent"
sticker to spread the word about the dangers of American dictatorship—and
then help us fight like hell to defeat Donald Trump.
[ [link removed] ][link removed]
Donald Trump has been laying the groundwork for seizing power since he
took office in 2016. He has stacked the federal judiciary with 226 judges
ready to do his bidding, strip away our freedoms and rights, and help the
ultra-wealthy and big corporations get even richer.^7 Now he could even
shoot someone on Fifth Avenue, as he gloated about years ago now, with
total impunity.
Monday's seismic Supreme Court decision is being called "a blueprint for
dictatorship."^8
In fact, less than 24 hours after Justice John Roberts declared the
president to be above the law, Manhattan prosecutors announced they would
be delaying Trump's sentencing for the 34 counts of election interference
fraud a jury convicted him of, because it's quite possible part or all of
the conviction will be thrown out under the Supreme Court ruling.^9
We cannot count on the justice system to hold Trump accountable—we must do
that ourselves, by speaking out against the MAGA Supreme Court, and
dissenting where we can, which is at the ballot box.
[ [link removed] ]Get your "I Dissent" sticker now—and then join us in fighting like hell
to keep Donald Trump FAR away from the White House this fall.
We are just a little more than 100 days out from what could possibly be
the last free and fair election stopping Trump from taking power once
again. We can't leave anything to chance, which is why:
* We're launching a major sustained campaign to combat Trump's lies and
propaganda, and now, responding to them on TikTok, where, according to
the Pew Research Center, one-third of people under 30 are getting
their news.
* We're fighting to expose Project 2025—the right's nearly 1,000-page
blueprint for turning America into a fascist police state, by
executive order and without an act of Congress, if Trump is reelected.
* We're running a massive effort to connect with 1.5 million "surge"
voters—Democratic-leaning voters who don't regularly vote—in
battleground states, who will make the difference between winning and
losing this November. We're contacting these surge voters through
postcards, targeted ads, text messages, phone-banking, and more to
connect with them about the terrible policies that Trump plans to
implement, hear their concerns, and turn them out to vote.
John, the Supreme Court has just put the future of American
democracy in grave danger. It's up to us to fight back.
Thanks for all you do.
–Alexis, Elizabeth, David, Melissa, and the rest of the team
Sources:
1. "TRUMP v. UNITED STATES," U.S. Supreme Court, July 1, 2024
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2. "Trump Amplifies Calls to Jail Top Elected Officials, Invokes Military
Tribunals," The New York Times, July 2, 2024
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3. Ibid.
4. "Fearmongering?" Substack by Robert Reich, July 2, 2024
[link removed]
5. "TRUMP v. UNITED STATES," U.S. Supreme Court, July 1, 2024
[link removed]
6. Ibid.
7. "How Trump compares with other recent presidents in appointing federal
judges," Pew Research Center, January 13, 2021
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8. "The Supreme Court's disastrous Trump immunity decision, explained,"
Vox, July 1, 2024
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9. "Judge Delays Trump's Sentencing Until Sept. 18 After Immunity Claim,"
The New York Times, July 2, 2024
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Want to support MoveOn's work? The MAGA movement's book bans have forced
teachers and librarians across the country to remove books from their
shelves and censor what young people can learn. MoveOn is fighting back,
including by filling a "Banned Bookmobile" with books that the far right
has banned and driving it to key cities and towns to raise the visibility
of book bans, hand out banned books for free, and bring people together to
stop censorship. To keep up the fight against book bans and the MAGA
politicians who support them, we need your help.
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