Don Moynihan: SCOTUS simply would grant such broad presidential immunity if a) it was a Democratic President accused of significant wrongdoing, and b) if it was not confident of generational control of the court, which effectively gives it final say on any outcome.

This is the ball game folks, the authoritarian green light laid out in advance. Congress will not impeach Trump. And SCOTUS now blesses him with extraordinary latitude to do whatever he wants in power. A second administration will not be constrained by Congress, the courts, the bureaucracy or law.

Trump, who tried to overthrow an election, campaigned persistently for his fellow party members to grant him absolute immunity for his misdeeds in office. And they did. If you can't distinguish between "energy in the executive" and a constitutional crime spree, you've given up on US democracy.

SCOTUS simply would grant such broad presidential immunity if a) it was a Democratic President accused of significant wrongdoing, and b) if it was not confident of generational control of the court, which effectively gives it final say on any outcome.

If it is willing to read such broad expansive protections for the Presidency, expect it to commit to a maximalist view of unitary executive in a second Trump term, with a broad interpretation of Article II powers (goodbye civil service system, independent agency authority).

DOJ Independence: gone. This has been a radical position that Trump has proposed, and his fellow indictees like Jeffery Clark has pushed. Roberts just said, yeah, why not. Lets make that the law. bsky.app/profile/nycs...

Chief Justice Roberts decrees the end of DOJ independence in an offhanded sentence on page 20.

As noted above, you don't grant the presidency such power without feeling confident that your team will have semi-permanent ability to shape that grant of discretion. bsky.app/profile/gaut...

However, the Court’s GOP majority did not issue a test for “official” v. “Unofficial” acts so that it can remain the ultimate arbiter of what can or cannot be prosecuted

Genuine question, is there anything we can do about this? There has to be something we can do about this.

There are illegal things we can do about this. When the law is "whatever we say goes" anything to change that is illegal.

get people to vote in November the GOP establishment decided to suck it up and support the guy they didn't like, and look what it's getting them

I guarantee you this plan is somewhat more feasible than 'Shinzo Abe-ing' half of a government branch

Somebody could Shinzo Abe trump, the conservative SC justices, Repub party leadership, and a bunch of lower court Judges.

And pardoning is an unquestionably official act, but this decision says courts cannot inquire about the motivations, so pardoning for corrupt purpose is also immune. If he gets in, he's only ever leaving in a body bag.

So, does this mean that Biden just needs an official statement / report that Trump is an immediate threat to the country to have the navy seals merc him? This ruling is insane.

So straight up ordering that all his cases be dropped is now fine.

Find an “official” pretext to remove the six bad ones and leave just the three liberals. Culling the court has the same effect as expanding it. Also, if they’re going to accuse everyone of being a “Soros” puppet no matter what, then let’s give them what they’re begging for

That's key: they create a totally blurry distinction between "official" and "unofficial" acts, to be enforced by them, which allows them to ensure that immunity applies to Republican presidents only. All the jokes about Biden calling on SEAL Team 6 can only reinforce this terrifying point.

would *not* grant (though I expect you'll fix this quickly)

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