if President Biden declared today's Supreme Court ruling to be an assault on democracy and ordered Chief Justice John Roberts imprisoned indefinitely, would that be an "official act?"
And if a court decides that it isn’t an official act, would directing the jail warden to ignore the courts ruling also be an official act? How about pardoning the warden in advance?
Order all 6 arrested, and declare their seats vacant.
In all seriousness, Dems need to articulate a plan to address the problem. "We need to pass ethics reform" clearly has never been sufficient.
yes but though they don't think he can be prosecuted for the order, they would rule that he had no authority to issue that order, as only right wing judges have the authority to issue & interpret orders in our precious system of checks & balances
Consult with the VP and AG first, just to be sure. But a first (admittedly quick) read suggests the answer is yes (or at least that he could not be prosecuted for the act, even if a court ordered them released). Worth a shot!
Does it matter if it's an official act or not if the prosecution can't use testimony from any officials who advised against it while trying to prove intent and knowledge of the law?
Ok, what are they waiting for then? Let’s do some official acts stuff and put some guard rails in place so this shit doesn’t get out of hand if they win.
I'm thinking President Biden should write an executive order that disqualifies anyone seeking the office of president to not be a convicted felon...just sayin'
The court is not giving the president free reign, just free reign to try anything and see if the court allows it. It is one step away from the people's court of 1934. The court is saying " you can try extrajudicial killing with impunity even if we decide after the fact it was wrong."
The problem is the ambiguity. They never bothered to define official. I guess the lowest bar would be acts that are blatantly unconstitutional, like preventing the electoral transfer of power?
They would quickly rule that it wasn't.
He would have to leave the Pro-democracy justices in charge, so he would have to incarcerate at least four Anti-democracy justices.
Which apparently is perfectly legal.
Now.
I say go for it and let Roberts sit in jail while it works its way through the courts for years until SCOTUS finally takes it up and waits until last day of term to issue a ruling that it WAS an official act. Sorry, Johnny-boy!
In order to be fool-proof, arrest 50 MAGA Representatives first, in order to make impeachment impossible, then arrest 5 out of 6 GOP judges, and finally send both groups to Guantanamo because they are obviously enemy (Russian or C.S.A., your choice really) combatants. Then go full Ben Butler.
