This article was originally posted on Edwin’s Substack newsletter on Feb. 28.
The U.S. Supreme Court will take up Donald Trump’s appeal of the D.C. Circuit Court decision that he, like every other American, is subject to the rule of law. It is a disgraceful decision.
The Circuit Court’s ruling is neither controversial nor unclear. It took 57 pages to address each of Mr. Trump’s claims, and to shatter all of them.
“At bottom, former President Trump’s stance would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the president beyond the reach of all three branches,” the opinion states. “Presidential immunity against federal indictment would mean that, as to the president, the Congress could not legislate, the executive could not prosecute and the judiciary could not review.
And, they wrote this:
“We cannot accept that the office of the presidency places its former occupants above the law for all time thereafter.”
This particular case alleges Mr. Trump tried to overturn a presidential election. Is the Supreme Court seriously saying that he might be allowed to do that?
The John Roberts Court is already the most politically tainted in memory, and the most damaging to democracy. No effort has been made by the Court to rein in conflicts of interest. We know from very solid reporting that some of those conflicts look indistinguishable from bribery. This is the Court that claimed to know better than Congress as to whether money in politics was damaging to the workings of the legislature (in Citizens United, they thought it would not be a problem). This is the court that said times have changed and gutted the voting rights act only to learn that times have not changed, and racially discriminatory map making is still very much a thing.
The Roberts Court is also the most self-aggrandizing court in American history. It claims for itself vast powers to limit the other branches of government. It is currently considering a case that will make the judiciary responsible for federal rule making, taking from Congress the power to ask the executive branch to do the technical work on complex regulatory work. It has previously extended its power over money in politics, and over political gerrymandering — in that latter case by closing the door to the federal judiciary to any who want to challenge unfair maps. And it said its power cannot be checked by precedent or by the normal jurisprudence — when politics called for stripping women of their privacy rights they acted with alacrity with the Dobbs decision.
Now, it has taken a case that at a minimum likely pushes until after the next election efforts to hold Mr. Trump accountable in court for attempting to overturn the last election or for stealing national security documents and hiding them from the government. At worst, the court is considering licensing tyranny in America. That’s a strong charge, but Trump’s own lawyer admitted during the Circuit Court case that immunity would mean a president could order one of the SEAL Teams to assassinate a political opponent.
Only Americans can save our democracy. We must turn out in abundance to vote the MAGA movement out of existence. That means winning at every level this year. It means defeating Mr. Trump by margins so big he won’t be able to whip up support for another attempted coup. And when we win, we must restore our judiciary by putting an end to the Roberts court.
Edwin Eisendrath hosts “The Big Picture” on WCPT 820 AM every Saturday at 1 p.m. CST. You can follow him on X @eisendrath.