Donald Trump has, in the course of his presidential campaign, threatened many diverse people and groups: Jews, immigrants, Democrats, Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, General Mark Milley (Ret.), CBS, Hollywood, blue states, judges, Alvin Bragg, Letitia James, Jack Smith, Fani Willis, Merrick Garland, Barack Obama, Mark Zuckerberg, poll workers, Adam Schiff, nonprofits, Liz Cheney, Hillary Clinton, Democratic donors, and anyone he deems “the enemy within.”
He has said that if he wins and returns to power, he will unleash the Justice Department (DOJ) against his perceived enemies. Unbelievably, his second attempt at weaponizing the Justice Department (he did this in 2020 in furtherance of the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him) may be perfectly legal.
So said Trump apologist Chief Justice John Roberts in the last decision announced by the Supreme Court at the end of its 2023-24 term in early July. His majority opinion in Trump v. United States is arguably the most outrageous, appalling and baseless Supreme Court decision in its long history, at least on a par with Dred Scott v. Sandford (upholding slavery), Plessy v. Ferguson (endorsing Jim Crow laws), Hammer v. Dagenhart (encouraging child labor), and Koresmatsu v. United States (approving the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans), not to mention the many dreadful decisions of the Roberts Court preceding Trump.
There are countless reasons why Donald Trump should never be allowed within a parsec of the Oval Office again. This one, however, is among the most important. His fever dream of investigating, locking up and perhaps even executing (viz. Mark Milley) his perceived adversaries is straight out of the fascist playbook employed so effectively in Italy and Germany in the inter-war years of the twentieth century.
Should he win, he will now have virtually unlimited license to commit whatever crimes he desires, backed up by a servile Supreme Court that has already laid the groundwork for his future wrongdoings. The danger his return to power represents is apparent in the decision of Special Counsel Jack Smith to modify his indictment of Trump in the January 6 case to comply with the Supreme Court’s perverse ruling.
Smith’s revised indictment excises mention of Trump’s efforts to browbeat DOJ to help him overturn the 2020 election via patently illegal actions, e.g., seizing voting machines, falsely claiming there were problems with swing state vote counts, installing a co-conspirator as Attorney General, urging states to replace legitimate electors with fake ones, and much more.
The Court ruled that former presidents can never be prosecuted for actions relating to the core powers of their office, and that there is at least a presumption of immunity for their official acts more broadly. Smith interpreted that to mean that communicating with the Justice Department, regardless of the content of those communications, was a core power of the office of the President, thus off limits to any prosecution. So, the fact that Trump tried to get DOJ to commit illegal and unconstitutional acts is irrelevant.
You may feel gobsmacked by Roberts’ mind-boggling illogic, but alas, this is the world in which we currently live. And while you may not have to worry about a normal, honorable President exploiting that ruling, Trump is anything but. If he orders DOJ or the FBI to round up and even kill his enemies, under the Court’s reasoning, that’s just fine.
There is an alternative to this potential horror show. It is up to the people of this country who still value the rule of law and common decency to get out and vote. Let us pray that there are enough of us left.
Dick Hermann
October 19, 2024
He has said that if he wins and returns to power, he will unleash the Justice Department (DOJ) against his perceived enemies. Unbelievably, his second attempt at weaponizing the Justice Department (he did this in 2020 in furtherance of the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him) may be perfectly legal.
So said Trump apologist Chief Justice John Roberts in the last decision announced by the Supreme Court at the end of its 2023-24 term in early July. His majority opinion in Trump v. United States is arguably the most outrageous, appalling and baseless Supreme Court decision in its long history, at least on a par with Dred Scott v. Sandford (upholding slavery), Plessy v. Ferguson (endorsing Jim Crow laws), Hammer v. Dagenhart (encouraging child labor), and Koresmatsu v. United States (approving the mass incarceration of Japanese-Americans), not to mention the many dreadful decisions of the Roberts Court preceding Trump.
There are countless reasons why Donald Trump should never be allowed within a parsec of the Oval Office again. This one, however, is among the most important. His fever dream of investigating, locking up and perhaps even executing (viz. Mark Milley) his perceived adversaries is straight out of the fascist playbook employed so effectively in Italy and Germany in the inter-war years of the twentieth century.
Should he win, he will now have virtually unlimited license to commit whatever crimes he desires, backed up by a servile Supreme Court that has already laid the groundwork for his future wrongdoings. The danger his return to power represents is apparent in the decision of Special Counsel Jack Smith to modify his indictment of Trump in the January 6 case to comply with the Supreme Court’s perverse ruling.
Smith’s revised indictment excises mention of Trump’s efforts to browbeat DOJ to help him overturn the 2020 election via patently illegal actions, e.g., seizing voting machines, falsely claiming there were problems with swing state vote counts, installing a co-conspirator as Attorney General, urging states to replace legitimate electors with fake ones, and much more.
The Court ruled that former presidents can never be prosecuted for actions relating to the core powers of their office, and that there is at least a presumption of immunity for their official acts more broadly. Smith interpreted that to mean that communicating with the Justice Department, regardless of the content of those communications, was a core power of the office of the President, thus off limits to any prosecution. So, the fact that Trump tried to get DOJ to commit illegal and unconstitutional acts is irrelevant.
You may feel gobsmacked by Roberts’ mind-boggling illogic, but alas, this is the world in which we currently live. And while you may not have to worry about a normal, honorable President exploiting that ruling, Trump is anything but. If he orders DOJ or the FBI to round up and even kill his enemies, under the Court’s reasoning, that’s just fine.
There is an alternative to this potential horror show. It is up to the people of this country who still value the rule of law and common decency to get out and vote. Let us pray that there are enough of us left.
Dick Hermann
October 19, 2024
RSS Feed