Tag: The Supreme Court

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Capitol Insurrection Donald Trump Supreme Court

Former Prosecutor: The Supreme Court Isn’t Going To Shield Trump From The Jan. 6 Committee

Even though he’s already lost in two other federal courts, failed, one-term former President Donald Trump is hoping the U.S. Supreme Court (which has three justices appointed by the ex-president) will rule that he doesn’t have to turn over documents subpoenaed by the House Select Committee on the January 6 Capitol insurrection.

Will the high court shield Trump from the Jan. 6 committee? Former Watergate prosecutor Nick Akerman doesn’t think so.

Appearing on CNN, Akerman was asked by host Paula Reid:

“With Nixon with Watergate, [the court] ordered him to hand over materials and other subpoena materials. We learned that Trump has lost twice now in federal court. There’s been a big debate will the Supreme Court even take up this case and, if they do, what will they rule? How do you see this playing out over the next couple weeks and months?”

Akerman responded:

“You’re right. There are two courts, lower courts, District Court, and Circuit Court of Appeals in New York, basically issued very extensive opinions turning Trump down on the issues that he’s raised. But ultimately, there are really two issues at play here: one is executive privilege. Trump is claiming that he has the right to assert executive privilege over the documents on January 6th. The problem with that argument is that the Supreme Court has already spoken to executive privilege back in 1974, when they ordered Nixon to produce his tapes.”

The former prosecutor then added:

“Privilege belongs to the government, to the republic. It doesn’t belong to the individual. It’s not like the privilege to not incriminate yourself under the Fifth Amendment, which is an individual privilege, and Joe Biden, the present president, already determined in a very extensive writing that these documents do not come with an executive privilege.

“The Supreme Court has basically been limited to diplomatic, military, and national security matters. It certainly doesn’t cover a plot against the government to overthrow its normal processes. So it’s very unlikely that Trump is going to succeed on that.”

Though he made it clear he wasn’t guaranteeing the Supreme Court will reject Trump’s appeal, Akerman noted:

“Both opinions, the lower court opinions basically pointed out that in the face of Joe Biden’s very detailed analysis as to why executive privilege does not apply and Trump has provided absolutely zero facts to explain why it does apply. So it’s very unlikely that that issue is really going to go anywhere.

“So when you take those two issues together, the executive privilege and the legislative purpose, and the fact that both courts have really extensively ruled on that, by all rights the Supreme Court should just deny the appeal and leave it at that.”

Those documents Trump is trying to keep hidden must be very incriminating. Otherwise, why would he be fighting so hard to make sure the committee doesn’t get them?

Categories
Elections GOP Politics WTF?!

McCarthy And Scalise Directly Implicated In The Plot To Overturn 2020 Election

The more we learn about the elaborate plan to make sure Donald Trump remained as president, the clearer it becomes that numerous individuals at various levels of the federal government were involved in an attempt to overturn the will of the voters and carry out a coup.

According to attorney Sidney Powell, both House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) were part of the plot, which also involved a court challenge that would be heard by one of the most conservative justices on the Supreme Court, Samuel Alito.

Powell was a guest on “The Stew Peters Show,” and she revealed that McCarthy and Scalise had been tasked with denying Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi from filing an amicus brief in the case which would have argued that the election was valid and should be certified by Congress:

“There had been inside goings-on in Congress whereby I believe it was Steve Scalise and McCarthy kept her from being an actual party. She wanted to work her way into the case, but somehow that didn’t happen. She got notice when we made our filing. She wanted to file an amicus brief, and then everything broke loose, and she had to speed up reconvening Congress to get the vote going before Justice Alito might issue an injunction.”

Powell even explained why Alito would be the judge in the case, which would eventually have been heard by the full Supreme Court if those loyal to Trump had been successful:

“Justice Alito was our circuit justice for that. And we were suing the vice president to follow the 12th Amendment as opposed to the Electoral College Act.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBCAwS9HaLs&feature=emb_logo

Granted, Powell is not exactly the most reliable of sources considering the lies she’s already told about her role in the conspiracy to deny Joe Biden the presidency. But her accusations can easily be confirmed by a close look at both McCarthy and Scalise’s phone and email records. Those have been subpoenaed by the House Select Committee on the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection.

Records from the Trump administration will also soon be in the hands of the House committee because President Joe Biden has made it clear he will not cite executive privilege to keep them hidden. Those, combined with the records from members of Congress who coordinated with Trump and his associates, will provide concrete proof of who was involved in the conspiracy.

Powell’s remarks are also more evidence that can be used by the Justice Department to charge those involved with federal crimes, including election interference and sedition.

Every single person who tried to keep Trump in office is part of a criminal conspiracy. They need to be charged, prosecuted, and given long sentences if they’re found guilty. That’s how we protect our republic and send a message to anyone who might think of trying something like this in the future.

 

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Abortion Donald Trump Supreme Court

Trump Takes Credit For Texas Anti-Abortion Law And Sounds Like He Believes He’s Still POTUS

Now that the Supreme Court is finally ruling the way he wants them to, failed, one-term, twice-impeached former President Donald Trump is patting himself on the back so hard it’s a wonder he hasn’t dislocated his shoulder.

Speaking with Sharyl Attkisson of right-wing Sinclair Broadcasting, Trump beamed with pride as he took credit for the Supreme Court refusing to strike down the restrictive anti-abortion law that went into effect in Texas this week, remarking:

“We do have a Supreme Court that’s a lot different than it was. Before it was acting very strangely and I think probably not in the interest of our country.”

Keep in mind this is the very same Supreme Court that Trump chided with derision when they refused to take up any of the bogus election lawsuits filed by him and his allies when it became clear he had been badly beaten by President Joe Biden, tweeting in December of last year:

“This is a great and disgraceful miscarriage of justice. The people of the United States were cheated, and our Country disgraced. Never even given our day in Court!”

A month later, the loser former president was booted off Twitter permanently for his endless lies and conspiracy theories about the election.

While he was at it, Trump also told Attkisson that he was “studying” the high court’s ruling on the Texas abortion law:

“The ruling was very complex and also probably temporary. I think other things will happen and that will be the big deal and the big picture. So we’ll see what will happen. But we’re studying the ruling and we’re studying also what they’ve done in Texas.

“We’ll be announcing something over the next week or two weeks.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5DXMB–vmM0&feature=emb_logo

Yeah, a guy who hates to read so much that his intelligence briefings had to be delivered with little more than charts and photos is going to be “studying” a Supreme Court ruling.

Be sure and catch the crap about “announcing” something over the next few weeks. This fool still thinks he’s president! Did he not get the memo? Does he think the White House has been moved to Florida and he’s still running the country? If so, it’s going to come as one hell of a surprise when he tries to board Air Force One and what’s waiting for him is one of his ancient jets with his name emblazoned on it. Provided, of course, he hasn’t had to sell all his planes to pay the loans that are coming due soon.

As usual, everything is all about Donald. That’s the way the world looks when you’re a delusional, addled old man who could well wind up spending the rest of his life in prison.

 

Categories
Supreme Court

Jen Psaki Schools Male Reporter On ‘Choices’ After He Asks Absurd Question About Abortion

Less than 24 hours after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to strike down a restrictive Texas law which forbids nearly 85% of all abortions in the state, the Biden administration made it clear it will not sit by and allow women across the United States to be denied a right they are guaranteed under Roe v. Wade, the landmark decision handed down in 1973 which established that states may not seek to control a woman’s reproductive freedom.

President Joe Biden had this to say Thursday afternoon in an official statement:

“It unleashes unconstitutional chaos and empowers self-anointed enforcers to have devastating impacts,” Biden, a Democrat, said in a statement directing federal agencies to act to protect the right to abortion enshrined in the high court’s landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. “Complete strangers will now be empowered to inject themselves in the most private and personal health decisions faced by women.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki also commented on the ruling by the high court, noting:

“The effort and the focus of the federal government is to look for every resource, every level at our disposal to ensure that women in Texas have the ability to seek healthcare.”

That led Owen Jensen, the White House correspondent for EWNT — The Eternal Word Television Network — to ask:

“Why does the president support abortion when his own Catholic faith teaches abortion is morally wrong?”

Without a moment of hesitation, Psaki expertly swatted down Wilson by telling him:

“He believes that it is a woman’s right, a woman’s body, her choice. He believes it is up to a woman to make those decisions and make those decisions with her doctor. I know you have never faced those choices nor have you been pregnant. But for women out there who have faced those choices, this is an incredibly difficult thing in the president believes that their rights should be respected.”

Boom! Game, set, and match, Jen Psaki.

It shouldn’t be required to teach Americans that church and state are supposed to be kept separate under our form of government. It’s enshrined in the damn Constitution! As Thomas Jefferson himself once wrote:

“Millions of innocent men, women and children, since the introduction of Christianity, have been burned, tortured, fined and imprisoned. What has been the effect of this coercion? To make one half the world fools and the other half hypocrites; to support roguery and error all over the earth.”

The Texas attack on a woman’s right to choose will backfire on the state and on Republicans nationally. It may well hand the 2022 election to Democrats at the local, state, and national level.

When it comes to the right to choose, we should leave those decisions to the women who have to make them.

 

Categories
Supreme Court The Biden Administration

Justice Stephen Breyer Hints He’ll Retire So His Seat Doesn’t Go To A Right-Wing Judge

Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer turned 83 earlier this month, making him the oldest member of the U.S. Supreme Court, and based on remarks he made in an interview with The New York Times, it sounds like he’s ready to leave the high court so his replacement will be made by a Democratic president.

In the Times piece, which was written by Adam Liptak, Justice Breyer noted:

He recalled approvingly something Justice Antonin Scalia had told him.

He said, ‘I don’t want somebody appointed who will just reverse everything I’ve done for the last 25 years,’” Justice Breyer said during a wide-ranging interview on Thursday. “That will inevitably be in the psychology” of his decision, he said.

His replacement, it should be noted, would likely be an African-American woman, based on remarks President Joe Biden has made in the past, saying during the 2020 campaign for the White House:

“We talked about the Supreme Court — I’m looking forward to making sure there’s a black woman on the Supreme Court to make sure we in fact get everyone represented.”

Breyer also reacted favorably to a comment made by a late chief justice when it comes to whether retirement from the court was a judicial act and should be free of political considerations:

He was asked about a remark from Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, who died in 2005, in response to a question about whether it was “inappropriate for a justice to take into account the party or politics of the sitting president when deciding whether to step down from the court.”

“No, it’s not inappropriate,” the former chief justice responded. “Deciding when to step down from the court is not a judicial act.”

That sounded correct to Justice Breyer. “That’s true,” he said.

All of this, Aaron Blake of the Washington Post suggests, sounds like Breyer is leaning toward announcing his retirement:

“In other words, if Breyer wants to be relatively certain he wouldn’t be replaced by someone ‘who will just reverse everything I’ve done for the last 25 years,’ time is of the essence. Sticking around could mean not just a 6-to-3 conservative court, but potentially a 7-to-2 one. He’s made clear that isn’t the only consideration, but it’s notable he’s talking about it in those terms and agrees it’s fair game for him to keep an eye on who’s going to replace him.”

Imagine how angry Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) will be if Breyer does indeed step down and allow Biden to name his successor. That makes the prospect of Breyer’s retirement even sweeter.