TRUMP V. UNITED STATES

 

Yesterday, the Supreme Court of the United States made law by debasing and destroying it. 

The 6-3 majority decision erased with the stroke of a pen a couple of provisions of the U.S. Constitution and scribbled over several federal laws as they apply to the President, making it perfectly peachy for him or her, while in the White House, to:

Hold office after engaging in or aiding an insurrection, which declares Section 3 of the 14th Amendment officially dead. 

Accept gifts from a foreign leader, which hollows out Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution, the emoluments clause, because if it's good enough for Thomas and Alito, it should be good enough for a President.

Sell classified information to the highest bidder, which steamrolls right over 18 US Code, §798 (a), paving the way for grifts “the likes of which we’ve never seen before.”

Accept election campaign contributions from foreign leaders like Victor Orban, which until yesterday was prohibited by 52 US Code, §30121, because, well, why not?

Direct the Attorney General to throw political opponents or media critical of a President's performance into jail without due process of law, because a President who is above the law controls the law.

And finally, Justice Kagan’s and Vladimir Putin’s personal favorites, assassinate a political rival, because murder convictions are really for the little people.

And these are just the things that occurred to me in the past 24 hours!  There are likely more contortions of common sense, flights of illogic, and debasements of decency lurking in this decision.  Any President is now free to find and exploit them all.  (Joe, if you're listening, you still have time to contact a Navy Seal.)

What the f*ck is going on here?  What is the end game of the six conservative Justices and those who put them on the Court?  (I’m looking at you, Leonard Leo and you, Mitch McConnell.)  Is the goal of Citizen’s United to enshrine the Golden Rule—namely, those with the gold rule?  Is the goal of Dobbs to make sure American business has a steady supply of “essential workers,” not immigrants, but Americans born of citizens who cannot afford to cross state lines for an abortion?  Is the goal of Loper, which killed the Chevron doctrine, to deregulate capitalism regardless of the impact on our health and welfare? 

Yesterday’s decision is surely about more than making sure Mr. Trump does not see the inside of a courtroom before November 5, 2024.  And this line of recent cases mentioned above is surely about more than partisan politics.  There is a larger mission afoot here whose origins lie outside the Court and whose ideas go well beyond a traditional conservative agenda.  As I see it, the mission is twofold, both political and cultural.

The political prong of the mission is Project 2025 and its implementation scheme found in Schedule F.  The goal is to be realized through the unitary executive and the substitution of the old-fashioned civil service test with a loyalty test.  The aim is to dramatically reduce the role of the federal government, make the legislative branch subservient to the President, and give the chief executive the power to hire and fire at will. The Court’s decision yesterday created a glide path for success of this prong.

The cultural prong of the mission is Christian nationalism, founded on the idea that, since white Christians colonized this country in the 1600s, things ought to stay that way.  Christian nationalism is designed to keep indoctrinated, frightened white people busy-busy hating stigmatized, frightened non-white people, while the indoctrinators and stigmatizers get rich.  The Court’s decision in 303 Creative (remember the web designer who refused to create a wedding website for a same-sex couple?), although decided on free speech grounds, makes it clear that this Court can hardly wait to sacrifice the separation of church and state on the altar of religious freedom next term.

If this Court and its enablers have their way, the U.S. government will be reduced to a standing army, and perhaps a national weather service, and Americans will be left with a smoking corpse ready to be reborn as a Christian nation run behind the scenes—no, run openly—by cynical kleptocrats.   

Thank you, Trump vs United States. The case could not have been more aptly named.

Keep it real!

Marilyn