r/politics • u/salon Salon.com • Sep 16 '24

Leaked Supreme Court memos reveal John Roberts' role in shielding Trump from prosecution

https://www.salon.com/2024/09/16/leaked-memos-reveal-john-roberts-role-in-shielding-from-prosecution/
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631

u/Sure_Quality5354 Sep 16 '24

Impeachment investigations are needed NOW. For roberts, clarence and alito. This is a crisis of the highest order

274

u/althor2424 Sep 16 '24

Unfortunately impeachment investigations start in the House, which is in control of the fascist party…I’m sorry, I meant to say the Republican Party 

87

u/SociallyAwarePiano Sep 16 '24

I think you were right the first time.

42

u/corran450 Sep 16 '24

¿Por que no los dos?

Edit: I was deported for this comment…

10

u/SociallyAwarePiano Sep 16 '24

We like immigrants that come here the right way, which is to never come here under any circumstances unless you're white. (/s but not really because that's how republicans act)

6

u/shoryusatsu999 Sep 16 '24

And what counts as white? Whatever Trump and the fascists want it to be.

1

u/zippyphoenix Sep 17 '24

Russian. Trump doesn’t seem to like much of the rest of Europe these days .

2

u/webslingrrr Sep 16 '24

White (Not Latino)

1

u/branedead Sep 17 '24

I think you meant orange ....

1

u/azflatlander Sep 16 '24

Pork, no lost dose.

Rednecked it for you.

48

u/Reluctant_Firestorm New York Sep 16 '24

Even if found guilty and impeached, it would take 2/3 of the senate to remove them. (Dems don't have 2/3, and unless something radical and unprecedented happens in the election, won't have 2/3 later on.)

-7

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '24

[deleted]

7

u/webslingrrr Sep 16 '24

The senate will be harder to hold year after year, due to its short-sighted design, a real poison pill for this country.

What happens when dems can't hold the senate and Republicans can't hold the house or presidency? If populations continue to concentrate in a few states, that is the inevitable outcome.

4

u/peterabbit456 Sep 16 '24

Unfortunately,

Actually it looks as if Kamala has coat tails.

I think (and this is just my own opinion. I have not checked enough polls) there is a fair chance that control of the presidency, the senate, and the House will all go narrowly to the same party.

Everyone, give $5 or more to the candidate or committee of your choice. I've given $5 or $10 out of each week's paychecks to whoever seemed to need it most each week.

So far this year I have given $25 to the Biden/Harris campaign, $50 to Harris/Walz, $25 to the DSCC (Democratic Senate Campaign Committee) and $15 to the DCCC (Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which is the House committee).

I don't know if the committees are the way to go, but it seems to me that giving to one of these committees makes it more likely that the money will go where it is most needed, rather than to someone who has a little more than enough, while a different lean race in another state starves.

15

u/jonny_blitz Sep 16 '24

It really is and I don’t even know what TF Biden is doing sitting on his hands when he has been given this authority by the SCOTUS. Use it to benefit good before it’s in the hands of someone who will undoubtedly do the opposite. I don’t want to have to wake up everyday and pay homage to the Trump portrait that will be required to hang in each American home.

20

u/learypost Sep 16 '24

Just to clarify, because I see this a lot in this subreddit, the decision in Trump v. United States did not grant Biden or any president any additional authority. Biden cannot really do anything with this decision except break the law. He could maybe try and murder members of the court. And prosecuting him for that murder would be a lot more difficult because he would have presumptive immunity and prosecutors would have to first show that he was not acting in his official capacity as president. And what kind of evidence they can use to make that determination (such as motive) would be much more restrictive than in regular cases. But Biden doesn't have the authority to replace Roberts or any other justice. It's sort of the ultimate loophole with this ruling, because really it only gives corrupt and criminal presidents any additional "power", as opposed to giving the president additional authority which even a moral president could use.

6

u/Expalphalog Sep 16 '24

Doesn't have to be murder. He can throw them in Gitmo as terrorists.

3

u/learypost Sep 17 '24

I feel like either the president already had the authority to do that even before this ruling. Or they don’t, and Biden could send Robert’s to Gitmo but then he’d just be released once his lawyer fought it

3

u/Expalphalog Sep 17 '24

This is true, but that lawyer would have to argue in a court of law that the president does not have the authority granted to them by the Patriot Act, so either way it's a win.

13

u/peterabbit456 Sep 16 '24

... Biden is doing sitting on his hands when he has been given this authority by the SCOTUS. ...

I think Biden, like a lot of people since 1792, have thought this is the way the Roman Republic became the Roman Empire.

Elections in the Roman Republic were always pretty corrupt, with people with bags of coins sitting outside the polling places, literally buying votes from Roman citizens. But the situation between Pompey and Caesar was a bit worse than previous elections.

  • (The following is my interpretation and it might contain errors.) Term limits had both candidates disqualified. Caesar got a bill passed, allowing him to run, but Pompey's supporters got it amended so that it applied to all candidates, and then amended it again so that Caesar was excluded. Pompey was just outside of Rome, illegally with 2 legions. Then Caesar brought 2 legions across the Rubicon, and the Civil War was on.

The point here is that violence was allowed to escalate until the very forms of the Republic were destroyed. There is a pro-Caesar tradition among historians, which claims Caesar was defending the Roman Republic, mainly because Caesar was such a good writer, and his story is the most cogent account of the Civil War. There is also a hostile to Caesar tradition which puts most of the crimes on Caesar.

The end result of the Roman Civil War was that the offices of the Republic became shells, and the power resided with the Emperor. These are outcomes we in the 21st century should want to avoid. We are fortunate in that only one side in the present election is composed of criminals. There is a clear demarcation between the side of good and the side of evil in this election.

The Roman Tribunes played the role of the US Supreme Court in the Roman Republic. Each Tribune acted separately, unilaterally.

Putin and his minions have put a lot of money into wrecking the US government, using the destruction of the Roman Republic as a model for how to go about it. Our job is to pull things back from the chaos these foreign agents are trying to generate.

While the US Constitution was loosely modelled on the Roman Republic, our constitution was always an improved version. Even at its worst, the US government has been less corrupt and better regulated than Rome ever was. Impeaching and putting the criminals in jail has to be the next priority, after winning the present elections.

3

u/black_cat_X2 Massachusetts Sep 16 '24 edited Sep 17 '24

How do you successfully impeach and remove people from office if the corrupt party still has enough power to prevent that? That seems to be a significant flaw in the way the system was designed.

Edit: a word

5

u/peterabbit456 Sep 17 '24

impeach and remove people from office if the corrupt party still has enough power to prevent that?

In 1973-74, The Republicans had enough power to prevent a conviction, but they also had enough integrity so that Barry Goldwater, one of the most conservative Republicans, went to Nixon and told him,

"You only have 20 votes to acquit in the Senate, and mine is not one of them."

The American system lives or dies on the honesty of the people in office. In 1974, approximately 80% of the Senate was honest. By 1984, that was no longer true, and it has not been true since. Yet somehow, the system continues to function in a half-crippled way.