A court makes judicial decisions. This Supreme Court makes political decisions.
The Supreme Court is supposed to be one of the Constitution’s checks and balances. It no longer is. This court has grabbed power for itself and eliminated checks on presidential power.
Let’s look, for a minute, at its presidential immunity decision. The author of this article in Vox is a lawyer who’s worked in the court system. He understands what courts are supposed to do in our system of government, and knows what he’s talking about when describing what this court has done. He wrote,
” … the Trump immunity decision is one of the most reckless decisions ever handed down by a court of the United States. It strongly suggests that a president can have their rivals killed, and it explicitly permits a president to round up their enemies and prosecute them on fabricated charges.”
Do you believe the Republican justices who signed off on this ruling would allow a Democratic president to do this? I don’t. It’s far more plausible they’re conferring this power only on Republican presidents, and possibly only on Trump, and would interfere with any attempt by a Democrat to exercise it.
What kind of a court is that? Imagine a classroom with black and white students, where only the white kids get recess, because the teacher says so. There are no rules, just the teacher’s arbitrary exercise of power. A court that acts like this, instead of even-handedly, isn’t a court anymore. Like the teacher, it’s a tyrant.
The Vox article discusses three other decisions that demonstrate the Republican justices’ “incompetence and arrogance,” their flouting of the Constitution and rule of law, and how they’re weakening checks and balances. I urge you to read the article.
The author asks an obvious question: What can Democrats do about this? A cynic might say use their own ruling against them, by arresting them and confining them incommunicado. With the court reduced to a three-judge liberal majority, the latter can then reinstate the precedents and legal interpretations the rogue justices overthrew. But that’s no way to run a railroad.
He fears packing the court would inflame the red states, so he suggests a patient approach of working within the system to undo what this court has done, even if it takes decades. I’m not sure we can wait that long. If Roberts et al. are going to pull the plug on the Constitution and rule of law, and all bets are off and anything goes, it may be better to figure out a way to hijack the train.
After all, that’s what the Republicans did and how we ended up with this court.