The Fig Economy: What the decision *does* say is that the person who holds the office of the presidency is effectively not subject to the law for the exercise of the powers of office, no matter how or why he chooses to exercise them (and we actually can’t even ask).

Getting a bit frustrating to see people on here say over and over again “why doesn’t Biden just use his new power under Trump v US to appoint 4 new SCOTUS justices and then they can fix everything?” I don’t want to defend Trump v US, but people owe it to themselves to understand why it’s bad.

The decision didn’t say “the president has the power to do whatever the fuck he wants and nobody can do anything about it.”

If the president issued an EO saying there were four new Supreme Court justices, the Supreme Court would be like “lol no there aren’t” and they wouldn’t let them in the door.

What the decision *does* say is that the person who holds the office of the presidency is effectively not subject to the law for the exercise of the powers of office, no matter how or why he chooses to exercise them (and we actually can’t even ask).

This isn’t new powers, it’s a license to use existing powers wantonly and maliciously without consequence.

This is why it’s a gift to Trump specifically. He’s the one being prosecuted for doing bad things with his office! There is little to nothing that Biden wants to do that the fear of prosecution once out of office is holding him back from doing.

That’s why any of the hypotheticals that really get at what he *might* be able to do for good have to funnel it through profoundly bad means: use the army to destroy student loan records, shit like that.

A decision so plainly meant to excuse malicious abuse of power ultimately cannot be turned to good ends. It’s simply not for that.

It could be turned to undoing the decision itself, which hopefully won't be necessary but may be a good end depending on the alternatives.

I mean maybe! But think one step further. 1) kidnap 4-6 members of the court so the others will rule how you want 2) I guess kidnap the rest who are horrified 3) I guess also kidnap house members who are trying to impeach you 4) and senate members who would vote to convict

I can't imagine how it could do that, but maybe I'm missing something?

"In place of a Dark Lord, you would have a queen! Not dark, but beautiful and terrible as the dawn! Treacherous as the sea! Stronger than the foundations of the earth! All shall love me, and despair!"

Another part of not doing bad things despite legal restraints are norms (which are also exercised by staff). This cuts both ways. In some sense the decision didn’t change the norms. Some limits were always there (security info & clearances which POTUS has fairly unrestrained power). The good

Presidents don’t abuse this power (all of them except Trump) because it’s widely accepted and good to self-limit. Bad presidents (Trump) could always have abused them, and still can. It was never the case that Biden should use his full power to do everything he wants.

Whats also disturbing is that the ruling appears to have given some green light to remove norms as well (I think). Crucially DOJ independence. It appears to reinforce the theory and has SCOTUS giving permission to ignore previous norms and I think will influence staff as well.

Have been genuinely wondering if he can deny candidate Trump the Intel briefings on Nat Sec grounds? He can just have conversations with the relevant agency heads, tell them not to give him anything. What recourse is there when Trump doesn't get them? Biden's acting as President, no one can ask!

Trump already hasn’t been getting briefings that most ex presidents get as a matter of courtesy. I genuinely don’t know what the ins and outs are of what happens post convention once Trump is the candidate and if Biden continues that. He should!

I had forgotten he stopped the courtesy ones. I genuinely hope he keeps them stopped after the convention.

And makes a big public deal about why he’s doing it!

He already did that in 2021. www.cnn.com/2021/02/05/p...

Biden says Trump should no longer receive classified intelligence briefings | CNN Politicswww.cnn.com President Joe Biden doesn’t believe former President Donald Trump should receive classified intelligence briefings, as is tradition for past presidents, citing Trump’s “erratic behavior unrelated to t...

Post