Normally, I'd be the first to say better late than never. These are not normal times and Trump v. United States is not a normal case. Delaying such an important case to the last day of the term is reprehensible and should be unacceptable but SCOTUS is a law unto themselves.
The Court's opinion is worse than expected. My heart sank when I saw that Justices Thomas and Alito had joined the majority opinion and the three liberals had dissented. In my cursory reading of the majority opinion: SCOTUS has crowned a king. They've given president's "presumptive immunity" for official acts. Instead of focusing on the facts of the case, the court has issued a broad and sweeping opinion when the case called out for a narrow, I daresay, conservative holding.
Repeat after me: The Supreme Court majority is NOT conservative.
Roberts' opinion concludes on a confusing note:
The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official. The President is not above the law. But Congress may not criminalize the President's conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the Executive Branch under the Constitution. And the system of separated powers designed by the Framers has always demanded an energetic, independent Executive. The President therefore may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled, at a minimum, to a presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. That immunity applies equally to all occupants of the Oval Office, regardless of politics, policy, or party.
What the hell does that mean? It means that Trump wins and that he *is* above the law. And that the Supreme Court is a partisan institution.
The Court has kicked the case back to Judge Chutkan for fact finding, which means that a trial before the election is impossible. The Roberts opinion has eviscerated Jack Smith's case. In a word: Disgraceful.
I wasn't feeling well when I woke up and this made me feel even worse. I haven't had time to read the entire opinion, but I have read Justice Sotomayor's dissent. She gets the last word:
Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law. Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop.
With fear for our democracy, I dissent.
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