Just had time to catch up with the news. Before it gets lost in hue and cry about shots fired at the Trump golf course, I urge you to attend to the news of Chief Justice John Roberts’ unusual and aggressive efforts to protect Donald Trump from criminal prosecution. The New York Times broke the store, here https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/us/justice-roberts-trump-supreme-court.html?unlocked_article_code=1.K04.kXFD.AVR1c4n1tAcb&smid=url-share (gift link) and the Daily Beast recaps it here https://flip.it/Wp7VPv .
The reporting doesn’t quite capture the significance of what Roberts did. 1/
Justice Roberts is fully onboard with favoring Trump and a vision of the President as a quasi-monarch, above the law. He refuses to acknowledge that Trump is a clear and present danger to rule of law and pluralistic constitutional democracy. Moreover, Roberts is using his own power as Chief Justice to enable Trump. 2/
The Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court has one clear tool with which to affect the outcome of Supreme Court cases: the CJ assigns opinions, meaning that he always selects the justice who will write for the majority. This much more than
a mere administrative role. The content of an opinion, its precise wording, the overall arguments it makes - these all shape the law as much as the narrow result affirming or rejecting a lower court judgment. 3/
In all the major presidential power and immunity cases, Roberts made sure he himself wrote for the majority and every time he expanded the power of the President and shielded even ex-Presidents from the reach of the law. 4/
Chief Justice Roberts repeatedly used the distinctive tool a CJ in order to make it easier for Trump to seek the Presidency and avoid criminal prosecution. He did so on broad grounds that will vastly expand the President’s raw power, whoever holds the office. This deliberate, carefully deployed strategy from Roberts is both shocking and deeply concerning re the 2024 Presidential election. 5/
As I and others have been saying, it may well not be enough for Harris to simply end up with the most electoral college votes, via each state’s popular vote. This is because it seems quite possible that in some states there will be county and even state level efforts to use post-election chicanery to interfere with a transfer of power to Harris. 6/
We know the Republican Party, especially in swing states, has explicitly been laying the groundwork to disrupt what should be a Harris win. The Democratic Party and the Harris campaign have already litigated some cases to prevent this and they are preparing for post-Election-Day litigation. The details of Roberts’ aggressive pro-Trump intervention last term makes all of this more fraught. 7/
Roberts has demonstrated he is willing to take extraordinary behind-the-scenes steps to protect and enable Trump. He has been secretly scathing about lower appellate court decisions that diverge from this goal. He has gone out of his way to make sure the Supreme Court takes cases it doesn’t have to and then assign himself opinion-writing duties that enable him to move the law in Trump’s favor as fully as possible. 8/
If the margins of a Harris victory on Election Day are tight and therefore vulnerable to disruption by Republicans, it seems likely Roberts will rush to involve the Supreme Court in the post-Election-Day litigation and that he will use that litigation to favor Trump, to the point of installing him in the White House contrary to all fact and legal precedent. This is no longer as speculative as it was before today’s reporting about Roberts’ role in last terms Trump-related cases. 9/
Wondering why Harris has adopted such a “big tent” strategy, has reached out to Republican voters, is repeatedly barnstorming the swing states, and doing all she can to put additional states in play? She and her advisers know she not only has to get more electoral votes than Trump on Election Day; she has to get them in the largest numbers possible in as many tight races as possible. And then she has to be prepared to fight for a win in the courts. /10
In sum, Harris knows she must win in a way that makes it hard for John Roberts to take control of the election outcome. 11/
I can’t resist concluding with what is rather obvious but is extra-clear today. We have to fund the Harris campaign to the hilt. The need to win comparatively big in closely divided states and in as many of them as possible takes vast sums of money. The need to prepare legal strategies to protect a victory is expensive as is actually litigating. So please consider contributing whatever you can at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/mastodon-for-harris 12/12
@heidilifeldman Yup, I'll be donating again tomorrow, as soon as our banking system is operating again on Monday.
One reason is that Harris is only using what she needs and is passing the rest on down the hierarchy to important lower-level races for legislative seats. So by donating to Harris you're donating to the whole party.
