cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/9459554
The Supreme Court has been asked to weigh in on a question that will decide if the former president faces charges for efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to review a fast-tracked petition asking if Donald Trump can use his status as a former president to claim immunity from criminal charges related to his effort to overturn the 2020 election.
The order came only hours after Special Counsel Jack Smith asked the justices to expedite consideration of Trump’s presidential immunity claim in his D.C. prosecution for election interference leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection. The decision is not an agreement to hear Smith’s case, but rather an agreement to review his petition faster than normal.
I sincerely hope you’re right, but it needs to be made clear that it’s by no means a sure thing. Alito and Thomas will undoubtedly vote to give Trump blanket immunity, because that’s how they roll. We’ll see if Kavanaugh, Comey-Barret, Gorsuch, or Roberts support the overtly-political reading (i.e. “the GOP can do what it wants”). I’d bet that Comey-Barret will end up voting with Alito and Thomas, and maybe Kavanaugh… Gorsuch is a bit of a cypher here, so that’s a coin toss, and I don’t think Roberts will sign on, because he’s still paying lip service to caring about his “legacy” (but at the same time, that blade cut two ways, and he might decide to throw in with the GOP because he thinks they’ll eventually come out on top).
Do note that I’m not even bothering to pretend anyone in the Tribunal of Six is impartial, because they’re not. To be fair, the “liberal justices” aren’t either, but they’re mostly just partial to not destroying the bedrock of the US system of government.