Categories
Capitol Insurrection Donald Trump GOP Supreme Court

Ted Cruz And Jim Jordan Could Be Toast If SCOTUS Rules Trump Is An Insurrectionist

As failed one-term former president Donald Trump waits to see what happens with the U.S. District Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. regarding whether or not he can legally be removed from the ballot in the upcoming election, there are two other key Republicans who are also wondering what could happen to them if the Supreme Court winds up taking the case and rules that Trump is indeed an insurrectionist.

Those two members of the GOP are Rep. Jim Jordan (OH) and Sen. Ted Cruz (TX), according to an illuminating article from MSNBC opinion writer and editor Hayes Brown.

Brown notes that over 200 members of Congress signed on to an amicus brief that supports Trump.

While the GOP lawmakers’ amicus brief is better drafted than most of Trump’s filings, it can’t be ignored that there’s a deeply self-serving element to their arguments. That’s especially true for those members who, under the Colorado Supreme Court’s ruling, could also credibly be described as having ‘engaged in insurrection’ — and thus theoretically be disqualified from holding office.

The deepest fears of federal elected officials such as Cruz and Jordan can be found in one specific section of the brief, which pulls the curtain back on what everyone who played a role in January 6 fears most, Brown adds.

The self-interested lawmakers give up the game with this line from the brief: ‘Although not directly relevant to President Trump, the Colorado Supreme Court would give itself the power to judge the qualifications of those who would be elected to the House or Senate.’ That would be especially troubling for Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio and Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs of Arizona. The three of them were knee-deep in plotting to overturn the election, and, in a more just world, they would have faced expulsion for violating Section 3. It’s their inclusion as signatories on the amicus brief that makes this filing particularly odious.

Cruz was one of the prime figures who urged others in the GOP to join the brief.

The members who directly aided Trump’s efforts are especially interested in this case, but the effort to file the brief was led in the House by Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., and in the Senate by Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas. Cruz’s participation is worth a side-eye given that he led the charge among Senate Republicans in challenging electoral votes in states where Trump called President-elect Joe Biden’s victory fraudulent. He also pitched a 10-day electoral commission to investigate the nonexistent fraud and potentially give state legislatures time to change their electoral slates as Trump would prefer. He never endorsed Trump’s wildest conspiracy theories, but he was caught on audio hoping Biden’s win would be reversed.

So if the Supreme Court decides that Trump can be removed from ballots, Cruz, Jordan, and others who took part in the plot to overturn the 2020 election could soon find they’ve been excluded from running or serving in any federal post, too. And that would be devastating to the GOP, which is quickly becoming known as the party of insurrection.

Categories
Crime Donald Trump Elections Supreme Court

Trump Attorney Appears To Threaten Supreme Court Justices On Appeal Of 2024 Ballot Case

Alina Habba is an attorney for failed one-term, twice-impeached former president Donald Trump, and remarks she made Thursday during an appearance on Fox have many suggesting that she was trying to threaten Supreme Court justices who will eventually have to decide whether or not the ex-president can be kept off primary ballots in states this year.

Speaking with Fox host Sean Hannity, according to HuffPost, Habba said, “I think it should be a slam dunk in the Supreme Court. I have faith in them.”

She added:

“You know people like (Supreme Court Justice Brett) Kavanaugh ― who the president fought for, who the president went through hell to get into place ― he’ll step up. Those people will step up. Not because they’re pro-Trump but because they’re pro-law. Because they’re pro-fairness, and the law on this is very clear.”

Habba’s comments raised eyebrows on Twitter/X, with some noting that she was either suggesting a quid pro quo or using threats to get her way with the high court.

<
Categories
Supreme Court

Kavanaugh’s Fellow Justices Consider Him An ‘Intellectual Lightweight’ And Are ‘Losing Patience’: Report

As the key swing vote on the United States Supreme Court, you’d think Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh would take his job a bit more seriously.

But according to a revealing report from Mark Joseph Stern of Slate, Kavanaugh is actually considered to be an “intellectual lightweight” by his colleagues and they’re rapidly “losing patience” with him.

When he was nominated for the high court by failed former president Donald Trump, Kavanaugh was known very differently.

During his 12 years on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Kavanaugh styled himself as a brainy operator who combined intellectual firepower with affable moderation, in rhetoric if not in substance. He wanted to be the conservative whom liberals could respect—Justice Antonin Scalia without the volcanic temper—and the high-minded jurist who could sell right-wing legal theories to the public as common-sense constitutional principles.

But it turns out that almost no one respects Kavanaugh, no matter their political affiliation, and what he’s become is “a man with seemingly few fixed convictions and even fewer interesting things to say. To the extent that his colleagues think about him at all, they seem to view him as a fixer who can cobble together five votes for a diaphanous majority opinion that decides almost nothing.”

Translation: Brett Kavanaugh is a lightweight. Oh, and he likes beer. A lot. He made that clear during his confirmation hearings.

Kavanaugh’s written rulings have been threadbare, sometimes composed of a sentence or two, and often drawing scorn from his fellow justices, who have called him out in their own writings. Consider:

  • In U.S. v. Texas, “Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote her own five-page concurrence picking apart Kavanaugh’s majority opinion.”
  • Also in U.S. v. Texas, “(Neil) Gorsuch pointed out that Kavanaugh was ‘simply ignoring’ several important questions that undermined his logic.”

How much do his fellow justices dislike Kavanaugh? According to Stern, they can’t hide their contempt for their colleague.

Thomas, Barrett, and Gorsuch aren’t the only members of the court who are losing patience with Kavanaugh. Justice Elena Kagan memorably castigated him for treating “judging as scorekeeping,” whining about “how unfair it is” when he loses, and repeating the same bad arguments “at a higher volume.” Justice Sonia Sotomayor has repeatedly accused him of outright dishonesty by misrepresenting precedent and dangling false promises. In a fed-up dissent in just her first term, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson compared a Kavanaugh majority opinion to the children’s book If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. Alito’s rebuttal to Kavanaugh’s dissent in Sackett v. EPA consisted of exactly one sentence: Kavanaugh’s argument, Alito wrote, “cannot be taken seriously.”

Where does that leave the highest court in the land? Well, Kavanaugh can only be removed by impeachment, and there’s certainly no political will for that to happen, especially since no Supreme Court justice has ever been impeached and removed from office. Samuel Chase was impeached, but he remained on the court.

For now, Kavanaugh will remain the ultimate judicial lightweight who is seen as a joke by his colleagues on the bench. And in some ways, that’s a fitting punishment for his past sins.

 

Categories
Donald Trump Joe Biden Supreme Court

Dark Brandon Supremely Trolls The Former Guy When Donnie Takes Credit For A Court Ruling

In a desperate attempt to make sure that right-wing evangelical voters don’t abandon him in the 2024 presidential race, failed and indicted former president Donald Trump is trying to let the world know that it was his three appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court that led to the overturning of Roe v. Wade, an issue that is likely to cost Republicans millions of votes in next year’s general election, especially among independent voters.

Trump was goaded into making a statement on the SCOTUS decision after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed a six-week ban on abortion in the Sunshine State telling reporters, “I signed the bill. I was proud to do it. He (Trump) won’t answer whether he would sign it or not.”

That drew a sharp response from Trump on his failing Truth Social site, where he wrote:

“After 50 years of failure, with nobody coming even close, I was able to kill Roe v. Wade, much to the ‘shock’ of everyone, and for the first time put the Pro Life movement in a strong negotiating position over the Radicals that are willing to kill babies even into their 9th month, and beyond. Without me there would be no 6 weeks, 10 weeks, 15 weeks, or whatever is finally agreed to. Without me the pro Life movement would have just kept losing. Thank you President TRUMP!!!”

Of course, two Republicans trying to be more extreme than the other on the issue of a woman’s right to decide what to do with her body is exactly what Democrats are hoping will be foremost in the minds of voters when they go to cast their ballots. If it is, the GOP nominee is likely toast and President Joe Biden will be reelected.

Trump’s post led Biden’s Twitter account to make a reply that was clearly meant to troll Trump and pin the title of abortion extremist on the former guy.

“That’s about as clear as it gets. Donald Trump and MAGA Republicans are responsible for killing Roe v. Wade. And if you vote for them, they’ll go even further.”

Yes, it seems that Dark Brandon is indeed back, and he’s ready for Trump, DeSantis, or whatever clown the GOP winds up nominating.

 

Categories
GOP Supreme Court WTF?!

Ted Cruz: Democrats Only Hate Clarence Thomas Because ‘He’s A Black Man’

If you thought you’d heard all of the absurd defenses that can possibly be offered up in the vain attempt to suggest that Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas didn’t do anything unethical when he accepted free trips worth tens of thousands of dollars from a Republican megadonor, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) suggested today that it’s all due to racism on the part of Democrats.

Appearing on “Sunday Futures” with Fox News host Maria Bartiromo, Cruz had this to say:

“We know what Justice Thomas did wrong. He’s been one of the greatest Supreme Court justices ever to serve on the court. He has been a principal constitutionalist,and the left despises him; Democrats hate Justice Thomas, and they have the special degree of hate for him because he’s a Black man.”

“And their view is that African-American is not allowed to be a conservative is not allowed to disagree with left-wing orthodoxy,” he added.

According to Cruz, some of the liberals on the high court had also accepted trips, but he conveniently neglected to mention any names, probably because he was lying.

“They’re not looking at any of the Democrat justice. They’re not looking at any other judges. This is a political smear job directed at Clarence Thomas because he is an extraordinary constitutionalist.”

Ted Cruz wants us to believe that questioning the ethics of a justice on the Supreme Court is racist. So if the question was about Amy Coney Barrett, would that mean it was sexism? Interesting to see how quickly Republicans play the race card when they have no actual defense for one of their right-wing heroes.