I was going to write the kind of light holiday post I normally do on days like today, but the Supreme Court declaring the president is above the law shook me some.
It’s not a new idea for Republicans. Nixon insisted anything he did as president was de facto leader. Former SCOTUS Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote in one paper that monarchy was superior to democracy because the leaders didn’t have to put up with that “consent of the governed” or “government by the people” crap. W attorney John Yoo arguing that the president’s power entitled him to waive all laws and the Constitution and nobody could challenge him.
Now the Roberts court has made it US law. They assure us this isn’t partisan — it is — as it applies to all presidents. As Scott Lemieux says, it’s a given Democratic presidents will be reined in, and even if not, giving all presidents absolute power is still bad.
Justice Sotomayor’s dissent says, trutfully, there’s no basis for this whatsoever. Not in the Constitution, not in the original ideas of the founders, it’s purely the SCOTUS Republicans gambling they can give us a dictatorship. And building on equally bullshit ideas of government officials having immunity from us lower orders challenging them. They could have crafted a much more restrained ruling; they didn’t want to.
Where do we go from here? The Biden campaign is pushing back, reminding everyone Trump wants to be a power-mad despot. Will that help move the needle? If the Republicans throw the case into the courts, will SCOTUS deliver the election to Trump anyway?
I would agree with those who list this as the worst SCOTUS decision since Dred Scott, and there’ve been plenty of lulus since then. Although as Alexandra Petri satirically notes, it’s great for Trump: “Currently, he’s always looking over his shoulder, worrying that if he breaks the law, he might face consequences. We can’t imagine how stressful that would be! Consequences for your actions? No, thank you!”
November is more important and ominous than ever now. At least today, we’re still a (somewhat) free country. If you’re off, enjoy the holiday. If you’re not, I hope it’s a good day anyway. Vote and do whatever else you can to ensure justice triumphs. I wish I had a clear idea what to recommend.
Enough. Holiday now. Obviously I don’t have any photos of what TYG and I will do later today. Here’s a photo from a couple of weeks back at my writer friend Ada Milenkovic Brown’s birthday party with members of our writing group.
I love my shirt but dang, I seem to have lost the ability to smile naturally in photos.
#SFWApro.
