Adam Serwer: Alito asking what happens if outgoing presidents believe “the loser gets thrown in jail” which seems less direct of a threat to the transfer of power than “the president can order a coup if he wants” but I didn’t go to yale law school

Alito asking what happens if outgoing presidents believe “the loser gets thrown in jail” which seems less direct of a threat to the transfer of power than “the president can order a coup if he wants” but I didn’t go to yale law school

Seems like Alito is willing to make up some laws just for some feeling.

"The founders were worried about a scoundrel without allegiance to the country being elect president, which means that they intended for him to be able to commit crimes without consequences"

I just wish someone would point out that the system has worked very well for 200+ years, it's only now with one rogue POTUS that this is a problem.

Exactly, this has never been an issue for 45 prior Presidents, would anyone say Nixon had immunity? Were only here because of Trump No other President has been “paralyzed with fear” in office over official acts and if they were, as Justice KBJ said - theres an army of lawyers at your disposal

I impeached somebody who went to Yale Law yesterday in trial, so I'm not so certain regarding the quality of the education there.

Alito has a point. Our judicial system is so corrupt that we can’t trust it to protect innocent presidents from being thrown in prison.

Yeah I mean how many have been locked up already

"This is a serious problem" "this is literally the first time it has ever happened"

Their defense that 'this has never been to me done before' is yet another post hoc fallacy that they try to get away with.

I thought he got dragged on the answer, this was a strategic mistake - Dreeben turned it around on him so bad Alito ended up cutting him off.

He did that twice.

"We're liberal scholars at Yale and Harvard law school here's why Justice Alito is right that Presidents can assassinate opponents" by Akhil Amar, Samuel Moyn and Noah Feldman

That hypothetical completely just discounts the fact you can’t just “throw people in jail”. They have to be indicted and convicted by juries. There is a reason Trump’s DOJ never prosecuted Hillary. Because they had nothing on her to take to court.

Well, since Repubs only pose dire consequences because they'd do it if given the chance, it's likely that a GOP president & Congress will make changes to bypass all that nonsense.

Who oversees the Supreme Cult? What if some of them are getting money from billionaires to do their bidding?

People overrate money in how the supreme court works and underrate the pure, uncut fanaticism of the people sitting on it

As @jbouie.bsky.social once pointed out, the Thomas' billionaire patrons aren't bribing him. They're celebrating him for having the courage of his convictions, so he keeps doing it.

They're not paying for the decisions. They're paying for the longevity. I'd still call it a bribe, though

Yeah but you can’t underrate the role of money in subsidizing and disseminating uncut fanaticism.

^ … yep, exactly. (Also in insulating it from public disfavor or critique.)

I think this true but sometimes they come together and create an deadly bouquet of decay and corruption.

Like toxic waste that’s ALSO radioactive yeah

I think a lot of people forget that you don’t need to be paid to be evil

yesterday I learned that Alito was a member of an alumni (not even student!) group that opposed Princeton's acceptance of women and minorities, which in any sane world would blacklist him from holding the highest legal office in the country

I’ll keep it a buck — I used to hear the words “Federalist Society” and think it was a normal, sane interest group. Maybe they wanted lower taxes or some shit. Learning they’d successfully seeded the court system with the wildest partisan freaks they could gather was eye-opening to put it mildly.

Leonard Leo is a twisted, power-mad freak: www.propublica.org/article/we-d...

We Don’t Talk About Leonard: The Man Behind the Right’s Supreme Court Supermajoritywww.propublica.org The inside story of how Leonard Leo built a machine that remade the American legal system — and what he plans to do next.

i know the supreme court is going to fuck the country over but at least i can take a tiny bit of solace knowing that alito shambles around clutching a festering grievance over the critiques you've levied against him

this strikes me as a distinction without a difference, if the money that was to be used on bribes is instead used to cultivate a Federalist Society that handpicks fanatics who agree with them and installs them in the courts.

All the money was spent getting them there. Don't need to bribe people if they're already crazy enough to agree with you.

True of money in politics in general, it's easier to get people in office who already are true believers than to have to keep paying them to be on your side

Yup. The difference between perks and bribes

And Historian DCG in CNN speaking so naively of a Supreme Court who will do whatever they want (majority Conservatives) that is. Jeez we are effed.

This was the problem with the Clinton critics, they get the money b/c of alignment and not b/c of anything as explicit as a quid pro quo arrangement. But it's still corrupting. It's just more convoluted and difficult to discern or disentangle.

Alito is the fanatic, Thomas wants the money (and is also a fanatic)

Not to mention Ginni is the leader of the Christo-facist folk.

The money was for creating the pipeline to get the fanatics on the court. No need to bribe them once they’re there.

Every conservative pick from Thomas on has been a pod person. Roberts and Kavanaugh may be the exceptions but they cosplay as pod people and attend pod people reenactments

Yeah, the billionaire swag just kept Clarence Thomas from quitting. He was already all-in on fascism.

you see this in Law Schools.

Exactly. They're true believers, which is far, far worse than greed. Alito and Thomas would do anything they can to bring about the "Apocalypse" so they can get raptured and Jesus will come back or some bullshit

It's just a hunch but if he didn't come back in 2400 years I don't think he's coming. Would you?

Lol it's open ended ya know, the not funny part is there are some dipshits in high places in this country who think it might be their job to get the ball rolling

Religion has been response for more deaths than 2 world wars .

as a child of the War on Terror, I recognize it. But the state security apparatus appears not to

Yes Media won't touch this so Too few Americans understand that every single member of the Republican supreme court majority is a Catholic ideologue ...as are the two latest departures Kennedy and Scalia Too few Americans understand why: www.ncronline.org/news/leonard...

Leonard Leo has reshaped the Supreme Court. Is he reshaping Catholic University too?www.ncronline.org Analysis: Leonard Leo, the chief adviser to Donald Trump on Supreme Court nominations, has emerged in recent years as a major player at the Catholic University of America, the nation's only Vatican-ch...

You know who else? > Bill Barr You know who else? > Don McGahn You know who else? > John Eastman You know who else? > John Durham You know what's not a coincidence? ☝️ All of the above

This is known as getting to the bottom index cards of your pile of increasingly disingenuous debate scenarios, and he's not even being paid extra on the side (so far as we know) to spout this whimpering garbage.

This was the thing I couldn't fathom earlier: the suggestion that presidents not being immune from prosecution would be an incentive to use the pardon more often rather than to not do crime. It's like they're taking the criming for granted!!

How did the republic survive for 250 years without absolute immunity for presidents?

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