“With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”
Those words are from Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her scathing and passionate dissent in Donald J. Trump v. United States.
A quick note today on that decision as I work on a larger piece out later today.
On Friday I thought that the biggest blow to our way of governance had already been delivered when SCOTUS killed the 40-year old Chevron doctrine and seized for the courts a power once held by federal agencies with far more expertise.
I was mistaken. There can be no doubt, after Monday’s presidential immunity ruling, that the SCOTUS majority is hopelessly compromised, so much so that it has blasted a path through our Constitution and toward authoritarian rule.
My write-up will be out this afternoon in The Big Picture, and I hope you are signed up to receive it. I will walk through the new rule announced by the Court and show how it flies in the face of the intent of the Framers and ignores the history of the Imperial Presidency under Nixon. I will also explain how this decision might affect the Trump cases in particular. In the end, I will offer a sliver of a silver lining, one that could at least hurt Trump going into the election.
That election is now more pivotal than ever. Were Trump returned to office while shielded from prosecution by this cloak of absolute immunity, it would spell the end of our Republic. If we did not know this before, we must surely know it now.
Courage and strength, friends. We will win. And now, more than ever, we must win.
Jay
I have never feared for our democracy in my 80 years. However, after yesterday's decision by SCOTUS, I am afraid our country has been compromised and damaged beyond repair unless we can elect a vast Democrat majority in the house and senate AND WHITE HOUSE. The only way out of this mess is for congress to legislate term limits for justices, enforceable ethics rules for SCOTUS and method of member emoval if violated. Also legislation to prevent convicted felons from running for office at any level including POTUS.
The election is not just pivotal; it is now imperative that we win (even more than it was before). I sat last night crying most of the night, crying for my children - one of whom is transgender. Today I watch flashes of peoples lives across Facebook, and I realized I cried for everyone's children.