Politics Supreme Court - Trump has immunity

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PtldPlatypus said:
It was suggested a couple years ago that Biden might expand the Supreme Court so he could load it with liberals balance the ideologies. If he wins in November, what are the chances of him trying that?
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Where does that end?
 
American democracy is over. Welcome to fascism. The goddamned Nazis are winning.
 
Phatguysrule said:
Where does that end?
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Excellent question that was posed when it was discussed previously. Definitely sounds like a dangerous precedent to set. Guess they would just have to balance that precedent against the potential damage to be done to society by the current court's makeup absent any other corrective action (of which there seems to be none available).
 
Is it now legal for King Joe I to declare martial law and cancel the 2024 election?

barfo
 
The only thing keeping a president from acting like an absolute monarch is their own honor.

Had this court been seated in 1973, Nixon would not have resigned because everything he did would be legal.
 
PtldPlatypus said:
It was suggested a couple years ago that Biden might expand the Supreme Court so he could load it with liberals balance the ideologies. If he wins in November, what are the chances of him trying that?
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There's actually some reason behind that. The number of SCOTUS justices used to match the number of district courts, but now there are four more of the latter than the former.
 
PCmor7 said:
There's actually some reason behind that. The number of SCOTUS justices used to match the number of district courts, but now there are four more of the latter than the former.
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Any way to make the adjustment and lock it in? Or would Congress have to do that?
 
crandc said:
The only thing keeping a president from acting like an absolute monarch is their own honor.

Had this court been seated in 1973, Nixon would not have resigned because everything he did would be legal.
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The biggest difference between then and now is that Republicans have discovered they don't need to have any shame anymore, and thus can just do whatever they want. I don't know if Democrats will ever figure out this one weird trick.
 
A difference between science and pseudoscience like creationism is that science finds data and forms conclusions while pseudoscience starts with conclusion and tries to find, twist or invent data to fit.
Which is what this court did. All lower courts ruled quickly and unanimously there was no immunity. The extreme court decided they wanted Trump, not presidents generally but Trump to have immunity because they are Trump supporters. They tried to cobble a legal doctrine to fit.
 
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crandc said:
Franklin Roosevelt tried adding justices after a conservative court struck down some of his policies. He got blocked. Senate can vote to add seats but Republicans will not allow that.
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Today's court decision, though, seems to have given the executive branch added latitude. It'd be wise for the Democrats to at least explore it. At the very least, the way it's set up now, it will take months or years for a challenge to work through the courts.
 
Gee, I wonder how many more Supreme Court justices Trump will be able to appoint when he wins in November? Maybe the republicans should pack the courts like the Democrats threatened to do.
 
Everything Beagle said:
The biggest difference between then and now is that Republicans have discovered they don't need to have any shame anymore, and thus can just do whatever they want. I don't know if Democrats will ever figure out this one weird trick.
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As someone else mentioned above, the Republicans have manufactured a constitutional crisis. To me, that would indicate Biden could cite that in attempt after attempt to take a lot of other previously unthinkable steps, and he might be covered because SCOTUS said POTUS is immune from prosecution on official presidential business. Even what that means is extremely vague.

IMO, Biden could do anything and just stay in office saying it's for the good of the constitution and the country until it reaches a court that might, by then, be comprised very differently.
 
beast crnjo said:
Gee, I wonder how many more Supreme Court justices Trump will be able to appoint when he wins in November? Maybe the republicans should pack the courts like the Democrats threatened to do.
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Wins what in November?

You understand that an interpretation of today's ruling could mean the postponement of the election, right?
 
Some people like winning so much they don't think about the full ramifications of winning.
 
Trump has asked New York state conviction be thrown out because he has immunity even though most acts took place before he was president.
 
I'm going to remind everything that part of the argument that won the case today for "presidential immunity" was that a president only could be prosecuted for arranging the murder of a political opponent is if that president was first impeached and removed by Congress. That is exactly what Trump's lawyer said, that that would be OK in their interpretation of the law.

SCOTUS has left that now open for debate or interpretation by lower courts.

Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War with the expectation that he had far fewer powers than SCOTUS today seemed to bestow upon the president. As long as he can make a reasonable case that he's doing it as an official duty of his office, he's practically untouchable.
 
crandc said:
Trump has asked New York state conviction be thrown out because he has immunity even though most acts took place before he was president.
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This will hang over him for a while, though, because it's a state crime and it will have to run its way through the courts. He's already been found guilty. That's not going to change until some court throws it out, and it remains in question.

However, again, Joe Biden now has been endowed with vague but potentially limitless powers if he has a skilled legal team helping wield them. He could leave Trump in felony limbo potentially for years.
 
Please stop thinking Biden can do anything he wants. Aside from being an institutionalist, you can bet your life savings and your firstborn the Extreme Court would find a way to say he can't. They aren't interested in consistency, logic or law. This court majority has the function of ensuring Republican rule, specifically Trump rule.
 
Awesome sauce. Country's over. I'm going to have some green tea and watch it burn.
 
crandc said:
Please stop thinking Biden can do anything he wants. Aside from being an institutionalist, you can bet your life savings and your firstborn the Extreme Court would find a way to say he can't. They aren't interested in consistency, logic or law. This court majority has the function of ensuring Republican rule, specifically Trump rule.
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It's a catch-22.
 
Phatguysrule said:
Any way to make the adjustment and lock it in? Or would Congress have to do that?
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I don't know that it could be locked in. The Republicans and Democrats would just go back and forth continuing to add more and more justices to the SC.
 
Oh no, our democracy is over. =(

Now we're going to have presidents applying for loans using the market value of their property, without being fined billions of dollars...
GRcT0smWYAArpIW
 
Chris Craig said:
I don't know that it could be locked in. The Republicans and Democrats would just go back and forth continuing to add more and more justices to the SC.
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Honestly... would that be a bad thing? There probably should be a lot more... Right?
 
Phatguysrule said:
Honestly... would that be a bad thing? There probably should be a lot more... Right?
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Probably. It could get as big as Congress or the Senate eventually though.
 
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