Special counsel Jack Smith asked the justices to short-circuit the usual appellate process and quickly settle the question of presidential criminal immunity.

The Supreme Court on Friday said it will not fast-track consideration of Donald Trump’s claim that he has immunity from prosecution for actions he took as president, a question crucial to whether he can be put on trial for plotting to overturn the results of the 2020 election.

The court’s one-sentence order, from which there were no noted dissents, means a federal appeals court in Washington will be the first to review a district judge’s ruling earlier this month rejecting Trump’s claim of immunity. Arguments are scheduled for Jan. 9.

Special counsel Jack Smith had asked the justices to short-circuit the normal appellate process and quickly settle the question of presidential criminal immunity, which the Supreme Court previously has not been called upon to resolve. He said public interest required intervention now, so the federal election-obstruction trial of Trump — the front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination — could proceed as scheduled in March.

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  • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
    891·
    6 months ago

    The GOP establishment, which the Federalist Society that now controls the SCOTUS represents, never liked Trump.

    They spent decades turning their base into conspiratorial, counterfactual nitwits through the media they own because then they could easily tell them “climate change isnt real! Give rich people all the money! Poor people made bad decisions!” etc, and rob everyone blind to thunderous applause and their nitwits defending the owner’s grift from the rest of us.

    Then one day a notorious opportunist got up on stage, said the quiet parts out loud, co-opted that engineered willfull ignorance, and stole their nitwit brigade right out from under them. Remember, the turning point for Trump was the day he told the crowd he’d like to take protesters out back and “beat the shit” out of them. Prior to that he was hiring extras to attend his rallies.

    The Machiavellian Mitch McConnells and John Roberts have been quietly seething ever since. Trump makes them feel dirty because he embodies the crassness of the con they’ve been leading their nitwit voters around by from a sterile distance. Their crass nitwits aren’t supposed to bleed into their halls of power! Their careful, coordinated long game grift compromised by a 2 bit snake oil song and dance grifter.

    • yesman@lemmy.world
      20·
      6 months ago

      I think the people who want Trump removed from the ballot most are establishment Republicans. Not because of the fascism, but because of the populism and repeated lost elections. They won’t challenge him in public because they might get primaried (or assassinated).

      • kent_ehEnglish
        4·
        6 months ago

        They most certainly remember Trump turning his mob against Pence.

    • drislands@lemmy.world
      7·
      6 months ago

      Well said. This is something I was thinking recently when discussing the matter of Trump’s disqualification from being on the ballot with my partner – on the one hand, it’s tempting to think that the Conservative appointees would definitely rule in favor of Trump and that the 14th amendment doesn’t apply to him.

      But on the other hand, at the end of the day isn’t Trump really just a useful idiot for the real power behind the Republican party? He certainly didn’t invent all the “issues” he ran on – he just co-opted them while (as you say) saying the quiet parts out loud. Now he’s getting even more divisive and a lot of people that previously thought he was harmless have seen how insane and dangerous he really is, even before January 6th.

      With all that in mind, I think it’s more likely that SCOTUS will wind up ruling that Trump is indeed disqualified under the 14th amendment so they can finally get him out of the way of the more serious candidates that will do what they want.

      • m0darn
        6·
        6 months ago

        I think it’s more likely that SCOTUS will wind up ruling that Trump is indeed disqualified under the 14th amendment so they can finally get him out of the way of the more serious candidates that will do what they want.

        And also protect their majority in the court by appearing unbiased.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
      4·
      6 months ago

      And we need to remember that if SCOTUS really was all-in for Trump, the majority wouldn’t have rejected his challenges to the 2020 election.

    • Zink@programming.dev
      4·
      6 months ago

      Beautifully said!

      The GOP establishment finally got its own “leopards eating MY face?” moment, which is a reversal they thought would never happen. Even though they caused it.

      • AllonzeeLV@lemmy.world
        6·
        6 months ago

        Thank you!

        I enjoy I eating their faces as much as the next filthy socialist, the sad thing is, in their cold, sociopathic mission to turn our country into a locked down, stable, generational capital farm/labor camp, they unleashed a fascist blaze that very well may burn them, their nitwits, and everyone else alive.

        From the people’s perspective, I’m honestly not sure what’s worse, the ice of perpetual servitude for sociopaths, or the by comparison fast, unsustainable blaze of murderous, scapegoating hatred.