QOTD: The Roberts Court And Trump's Wrecking Ball

 

Sabrina Haake, writing in Salon.com on the right-wing SCOTUS' total complicity in the Malignant Fascist's political and legal comeback:

"Trump’s wrecking ball is a constitutional unravelling of the Roberts’ Court’s own making. In June the Court threw out the Justice Department's prosecution of J 6 defendants by ruling that they couldn't be charged with obstruction for rioting at the Capitol, reasoning creatively that beating police officers, trashing capitol property and threatening death to elected officials to stop the certification of the 2020 vote wasn’t 'obstruction' because it didn’t involve “documents.”

The 'no obstruction' travesty followed several other decisions in the same partisan direction. Last March, the Roberts Court blocked Colorado’s efforts to keep Trump off the ballot based on the Constitution’s plain language barring insurrectionists from public office. Section 3 of the 14th Amendment does not lack clarity. It bars anyone from federal office who 'engaged in insurrection” after they swore an oath to support the Constitution. The opening words — 'No person shall…' — make the ban mandatory, not optional.

Despite the 14th A’s clear text, the Court ruled that states could not enforce the insurrectionist ban, even though states have primary Constitutional authority over elections, lest 'chaos' ensue. Apparently Trump’s brand of chaos in blowing up the entire federal system suits them better.

The Court then salted the Constitutional wound in July when, in a 6-3 partisan ruling, Roberts wrote an immunity opinion tailor-made for Trump, freeing him to violate criminal laws with impunity if his conduct relates to a 'core function'of the presidency. Dissenting justices noted that Trump was now free to assassinate political rivals, an extension of the ruling Chief Justice Roberts has never effectively countered."  (our emphasis)

Elections matter (as do the personal decisions of Justices). The Malignant Fascist has the potential to add another right-wing cultist to the Supreme Court in the next 4 years. All we have is to hope for the good health of the 3 progressive Justices.