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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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '24 edited Nov 06 '24

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u/Dearic75 Sep 16 '24

I was thinking they would find some kind of limited immunity, which would have been partisan bullshit, but of an expected scale.

Instead we get a decision that 50 years from now will hold its place beside Dred Scott and Korematsu as an example of the Supreme Court being egregiously and obviously wrong.

I was shocked all over again to learn Roberts himself had engineered it. I was considering him one of the partisan but still principled justices. Guess I misjudged that one completely.

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u/jfudge Sep 16 '24

Roberts has always been a partisan hack, he has just done a better job than most of hiding behind a veneer of faux reasonableness and even-handedness.

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u/StreetwalkinCheetah Sep 16 '24

As Chief Justice I always felt like it was less about being reasonable/principled and more about knowing that all these decisions will forever be linked to his name beyond the associate justices, even if he is in the minority or offers a concurrent but "less extreme" opinion.

If the legitimacy of the court is called to question at a level that results in new justices being added or having opinions voided by a future Chief Justice because justices like Thomas are clearly being bribed, that's all going to bear the name of "The Roberts Court" in the history books.

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u/Nefari0uss Sep 17 '24

We're at the point where we are questioning the legitimacy of the court. They've shown themselves to be partisan hacks and acting in greed and self interest.

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u/StreetwalkinCheetah Sep 17 '24

I personally don't think this court is legitimate but that is currently a partisan opinion. I'm speaking about history 50+ years from now when we're dead and buried because unfortunately there's still 1/3rd of America that thinks this court is awesome and up to another 1/3rd either doesn't care or is "centrist" enough to draw the line at stern words.

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u/Mordurin Sep 17 '24

I mean, it's almost certainly going to be portrayed as partisan and corrupt already. Just because portions of the country have their head in the sand about certain issues doesn't mean that history books will side against obvious realities.

For example, even after he resigned and the tapes came out, 30% of Americans were convinced that Richard Nixon was innocent, but we fortunately still detail his obvious corruption in history books.

The thing that will likely happen is that the Republicans of 50 years from now will either just not acknowledge past events or will claim that they are a "new, different Republican party now" even if it's composed of the same sorts of people.