Ok, everybody had their fun saying Biden should just disappear his political enemies because it’s allowed now. It’s a new day, and those jokes are all old now, and also they’re cynical and stupid and counterproductive.
Democracy is on the ballot. Stop fucking acting like it’s already gone.
Because if you and enough people decide it’s already gone, it is. It’s like watching Peter Pan where you, the audience, have to clap and say you believe in fairies for them to exist, except it’s real.
My concern is this: if Roberts is willing to do this, we have to consider that he's willing to invalidate election results that support Biden.
Maybe he is and maybe he isn't. But the risk is enough that I think we have to find any way to reform the court before the election.
Well, SCOTUS just gave Biden the tools.
EO that says: 4 new seats. Recess appointment 4 justices in. Hope that Congress is too broken to stop when they reconvene.
But of course, that means not clapping for the fairy. At least for a little while.
It’s important to note that this would both backfire electorally and also not work practically. There’s more to seating some more justices than just Biden not getting prosecuted for doing it illegally after he leaves office.
Right! Biden is like “there’s four new justices now” and the court is like “lol no there’s not” and every paper is like “senile Biden believes he’s a king” and the house impeaches him and probably honestly the 25th amendment is invoked.
What Roberts and his court have done is made it very clear that there is no institution we can trust to keep our Democracy for us. All of them can fail if we vote badly. The only thing that will protect us is electing good people to office. All the offices. That's the only actual safeguard.
Right. There’s lots of people like where’s our project 2025? And it’s making sure republicans don’t have power. That’s it. There is not a thing we can do to keep them from using the power they gain once they’ve gained it, no clever lawyering to prevent its exercise.
Well if you control the legislature you can always pass laws that do more to constrain the system and the executive.
So if you want "more" then the next step is still the same. Pass better laws.
That's by definition not a safeguard. Its the process that safeguards are meant to protect. Its also not at all sustainable. Which is why safeguards were thought up. Though they seems to have been poorly structured and very weak.
What definition of safeguards are you using? Be specific.
The safeguards that exist are impeachment, legislative action, guidance by his cabinet, guidance from regulatory agencies and court orders.
Safeguards are not infallible or infinite. Just like seatbelts and airbags.
Also both historically and legislatively the number of Supreme Court justices has been set by Congress and would certainly be outside a president's power. This was last changed in 1869 when the US had nine federal circuit courts (vs 13 district courts today) and a population of 39M (vs 340M today)
I know we’ve been saying that SCOTUS has made presidents kings, and maybe that’s given people the wrong impression, but what SCOTUS did is immunize presidents from criminal prosecution. It hasn’t functionally expanded their powers.
That EO would just be ink on a page. None of the lower courts or states would consider those justices anything other than cosplayers. They wouldn’t get sworn in. A judge without recognized authority is just a person in a robe.
Right. What it’s done is given license to use those powers expansively and corruptly without consequence. Like Trump could direct his DoJ to conduct explicitly political witch hunts of his enemies and give preemptive blanket pardons to the department and he and they are immune for all of it now.
An executive order is direction from the President to employees of the executive branch on how to execute powers granted by Congress. They only have the force of law if an act of Congress has provided that an EO on the sinecure subject makes it so.
