The USA is continuing its descent into fascism.
The US Supreme Court has ceased to function as an agency tasked with upholding the rule of law. It does, instead, regularly divide on party political lines, with the majority favouring the Republican Trump line, as they did yesterday when declaring that a US President cannot be held criminally liable for their actions when in office, even if they would otherwise have contravened the law.
What the Supreme Court has, of course, done is confirm that the fascist ideal of the strong man, acting above and beyond the law, does now exist within the US Constitution. No one, excepting Donald Trump, might have thought that until this moment. Now those on the Supreme Court, too many of them his political appointees, have declared this to be the case.
As a consequence some of the criminal actions being brought against Trump might now have to be dropped.
Even more worryingly, if Trump now returns to office he does so knowing that he has immunity for his actions when in office. Giving someone as recklessly irresponsible as Donald Trump such a guarantee can only be described as an act of criminal folly.
Worse, though, what this makes clear is that the USA is already far advanced down the path to fascism, with that route being facilitated by those who serve on its Supreme Court.
The US has always had a very tortured relationship with democracy, both at state and federal levels. It runs a two-party political system that denies far too many choice. It is also riddled by gerrymandering and by corruption, whether legally sanctioned or not. Now the situation has got worse. Taking the actions of the president outside the law can only have that consequence.
The US is living in very dangerous times. Its influence on the rest of the world means that we are too. And if, as is quite possible, what happens in the US sets the de facto normal standard for democracy, then this Supreme Court decision will have repercussions around the world.
I won't pretend that I am not worried. I am.
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On this topic it’s well worth watching a variety of clips from the various MSNBC current affairs programmes from last night, Richard, starting with this from Lawrence O’Donnell and the other two clips from his show (from legal experts Laurence Tribe and Andrew Weissmann).
https://www.msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/lawrence-supreme-court-sent-trump-case-back-to-trial-court-for-a-full-hearing-on-evidence-214053445923
Thanks Ivan
I think my fears appropriate and I see they are shared
I do not claim authoritative interpretation of the US Constitution, but the Supreme Court appears to have moved from interpreting the Constitution, to writing it. Who will provide Madison’s checks and balances to the Supreme Court? Quis custodiet ipsos custodiet? What the Supreme Court has undoubtedly done is formally established is the source of Carl Schmitt’s “State of Exception” in the US: in the Oval Office.
Agreed
The US will now have a monarch
Yeah, but that cuts both ways. Supreme Court has now given carte blanche to Biden.
Depends if he/the democrats want to cut out the cancer that is eating the USA… or not. All shades of 49 – 44BC that worked out well.
Democrats tend to use democratic means to oppose, by contrast the Repubes/Trump exploit various democratic “angles” to get what they want.
This is not about “playing fair”, it’s about winning.
Lord North had a lot to answer for!
“ipsos custodes”. Hasten slowly.
I can’t see that inciting a crowd to march on the Capitol and try to change an election result is acting in an official capacity. The issue won’t be settled before the November election.
Three members of the Supreme Court were nominated by Trump as the situations because available by chance.
A vacancy occurred in the last year of Obama’s presidency but the Republicans refused to consider his appointment as it ‘was too close to the election’ although Reagan had done the same even closer to an election.
Trump was elected by a minority of the popular vote, gaining office because of the anachronistic Electoral College.
His nominees were confirmed by the Senate but the Republican Senators represented some 40 million fewer people as they came from smaller states (two Senators per state 700,000 in Republican North Dakota and two for the 40 million of Democrat California)
Democracy is under threat in the US. The Constitution IMHO needs reform but it is would be blocked by a quarter of the states which represent less than 20% of the population. They can’t just pass laws to change things.
We are right to be concerned, very concerned.
If the remedy in law is there; it is there. Expect it to be used. After all, the claim by the defendant would presumably be that the election was rigged.
@John S Warren – I do not agree with the SCOTUS decision. However, after talking to two lawyers with expertise in this field, all I can say is that it is a VERY complicated issue.
Most of the charges against Trump are for “personal” actions not “Presidential Executive” actions.
But will the SCOTUS agree? That seems to be the key question.
@Richard – I have no idea. Which is why I sated it is a VERY complicated issue.
Constitutional Law or any US Law is not my area of “amateur” expertise.
The US Supreme Court (SCOTUS) has wheedled itself into a position of ultimate authority, giving it complete power over the other branches of government. This was never envisaged, or coded in the constitution. The branches were meant to all operate checks and balances on each other.
SCOTUS is now unashamedly and nakedly political. Following last week’s ruling that paying a politician for favours is only corrupt if you pay up front, not if you pay later (you couldn’t make it up), demonstrates their complete lack of any morals.
I, too, am very worried about what will happen, and the global consequences.
In its recent ruling SCOTUS has actually given the Biden administration the power to assassinate Trump with no adverse consequences. I don’t expect anything like that to happen, although Biden, who I don’t believe is actually wielding the power of the presidency, may well be confused enough to order it.
SCOTUS is playing with fire and does not see that, far from entrenching its own power, by giving the president dictatorial powers it has made itself irrelevant.
Throughout history those who would grab power either by force or by subterfuge do not see the danger they put themselves in. I am reminded of the ancient story of the mantis about to strike the cicada that does not see the oriole about to swoop on it and the oriole, in turn, does see the huntsman under the tree. Han Feizi, the author of the story, was executed by the Qin state and within a single generation of its founding the Qin dynasty collapsed into utter chaos. I fully expect the same to happen to the American empire.
Richard, I do know orioles eat fruit not large insects but Han Feizi was a political philosopher not an ornithologist.
🙂
Orioles are still around though…
True, but in the late warring states period it was dangerous to mention the names of prominent nobility or warlords. The emperor traditionally is dressed in yellow in ceremonial occasions, the same colour as the oriole.
I think not, Bernard. SCOTUS has given ITSELF the power to decide which presidential actions are open to criminal penalty, and so a right wing court will not give Biden the same immunity they would to Trump. I stand to be corrected if this is not the case.
Once the immunity genie has been let out of the bottle, he can’t be forced back in. What is to stop a president assassinating the members of the supreme court and packing it with his/her cronies? It couldn’t happen in the US? Why not? There are plenty of historical precedents for this sort of behaviour. This is how great civilisations fall.
The United States in its fear of repeating the tyranny of monarchs has split power. It’s back-fired on them. Only by having a genuinely accountable democratic system and media system can such tyranny be avoided.
If you want another ‘Eh?’ moment, look at the Snyder vs US ruling about when is bribery not bribery.
Spoiler – when it is paid after someone has done something for you!
All that effort in separating powers come to naught.
Give Trump his due, he knew (well his advisers did, as he is a plank) that stacking the Supreme Court with his placemen was the best way of fatally undermining the constitution.
Project 2025 here we come.
I recommend “The Man in the High Castle” as demonstrating the importance of chance in historic alternatives.
This decision sets the precedent for every future president. It is a constitutional change, that nullifies the original basis of the rule of law, which the writers of the constitution were so careful to include. It is more than worrying. It is terrifying.
Agreed
Codifying powers that only a fascist would use to their full extent potentiates fascism. It doesn’t set a precedent for *every* future president. It sets a precedent for a future fascist president.
The USA has been a fascist state since the end of World War II. Although it proclaims support for democracy, freedom and the rule of law, its actions are the opposite, being responsible for the violent overthrow of more governments than any other (many democratically elected), the CIA has set-up centres of torture not only in the countries, but in select areas in the USA, and the rule of law subject to others.
Source: Rogue State: A Guide to the World’s Only Superpower by William Blum (2000)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogue_State:_A_Guide_to_the_World%27s_Only_Superpower
This.
The people of the US briefly prospered together through the exploitation of other peoples. Then the few individuals doing the exploiting realised they could apply the same methods to more thorough exploitation of their own people. So the people of the US stopped prospering together.
Similarly, the few individuals engaged in engineering fascist coups abroad turned their eyes towards home. And they’ve had practice. It doesn’t even need a conspiracy, just transferable attitudes and skills.
The tyrrany that Athens imposed on others it eventually imposed on itself.
— Attributed to Thucydides.
Its been pointed out that the majority of the Supreme Court are “originalists” ie they support judging cases as they would have been back when the US became into being. They have obviously abandoned that position when convenient. Along with the Bible being shoved back into classrooms contrary to the separation of church and state it seems obvious that the Supreme Court has just become a cypher for Trump and his cronies. The unquestioning support for Israel and the threatening of the judges of the ICC is just more proof that the law has become what the US says rather than any concern for fairness /law. That horrible combination of religion and power is very worrying.
It is truly worrying. But freedom and democracy are very fragile, the exception rather than the rule, and can disappear in a puff of smoke if we relax our guard. Historically the norm has been some sort of theocratic dictatorship. Like most of humanity, we have been cursed to live in interesting times.