Robert Reich: The Supreme Court Decides, In Effect, There Will Be No Trump Trial Before The Election – OpEd
The Supreme Court decided, along party lines, that Trump will enjoy immunity in the federal election case in Washington from any allegation in the indictment concerning his “official acts” while president.
The court has remanded the case to the trial judge, Tanya Chutkan, to determine which of the allegations should be thrown out because they involve official acts.
The practical consequences of this ruling:
- The case Donald Trump v. United States will almost certainly not be concluded before the election, meaning that a verdict against Trump could be rendered meaningless if Trump is elected and he orders the Justice Department to, in essence, throw the case out.
- Allegations in the indictment concerning Trump’s dealings with the Justice Department, in which he sought to install a loyalist, Jeff Clark, as acting attorney general in order to claim there was fraud in the election, will probably be thrown out by Judge Chutkan.
- Allegations that Trump tried to strong-arm his vice president, Mike Pence, into using his role overseeing the election certification proceeding on January 6, 2021, to throw him the election, will in all likelihood be thrown out as well.
- The Supreme Court has ordered up a similar fact-finding process on most of the remaining allegations in the indictment — those concerning Trump’s attempts to pressure state officials into helping him win the election as well as his plot to gin up false slates of electors declaring that he won in states he actually lost. It’s doubtful that these will be found to be within his official duties.
- Finally, the Republican-appointed justices have given a dangerous amount of discretion to presidents — broad enough, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted in her dissent, to protect presidents from prosecution for bribes and assassinations. A president already has the authority under the Insurrection Act to order troops into American streets. After the ruling, those troops would be under the command of a person who would almost certainly enjoy absolute immunity for the orders he gives them.
In other words, the ruling makes it even more important that Trump is trounced in November. Please watch our video, above.
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From Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent:
“When [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….
The court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding.
Our country was founded on the powerful principles that our nation would have no king and no person would be above the law.
The Republican appointed-majority in this opinion has wreaked havoc with those foundational principles. They have opened the door to a President exercising wide dictatorial powers without any ultimate legal accountability for his actions.
The Supreme Court majority’s decision today is shameful and destructive of the rule of law. Our democracy has been dangerously harmed by its misguided decision.”
- This article was published at Robert Reich's Substack