The Supreme Court majority has placed the court onto the Committee to Elect Donald Trump. There’s no other way of seeing it. Not only that, but they’ve done it with the complicity of the liberal minority of (in)Justices. Consider the timeline:
- On December 10, 2023 Special Council Jack Smith requested the Supreme Court fast track the issue of presidential immunity. In other words, bypass the appeals court.
- On December 22, the Supreme Court ruled against fast tracking the issue. They thereby left it in the hands of the appeals court.
- On February 12 Trump filed an appeal with the Supreme Court of the Appeal Court ruling. Many pundits expected the Court to simply dismiss the appeal, letting the Appeals Court Ruling stand.
- It was not until February 28, over two weeks later, that the court ruled that they would consider Trump’s appeal, but it won’t be heard until April 22. According to the Wall St. Journal, “a decision is likely before July”, meaning mid June at the earliest.
- Since the Supreme Court did not rule otherwise, the case will remain on hold until the ruling. In addition, Trump’s legal team will have 88 days to prepare their case after the ruling, assuming that the court rules that Trump does not have complete immunity.
- According to Forbes, if the Court rules expeditiously (which is unexpected), Trump’s trial could start in June. If, as expected, the Court doesn’t rule until late June (as expected), Trump’s DC trial won’t start until late October. In either case, the trial is not expected to be finished by election day.
- This is all a set-up to help Trump get elected. There is no reason whatsoever that the Court could not have taken up the case in December, when Smith first came before them. Even now, they could move quickly. In the infamous 2000 Bush v Gore case, the Supreme Court heard an appeal of whether to stay the recount on Dec. 8 and the very next day confirmed the stay. On December 12 the Republican majority on the court ruled in Bush’s favor, thereby appointing him president. (By doing so, the court opened the way for the US invasion of Iraq.) Today, recent polls show that if Trump were convicted before the election, that would swing enough would-be Trump voters in swing states as to cost him the election. US Supreme Court Chief (in)Justice John Roberts was a lawyer for the Bush team in the Bush v Gore case. He and his fellow Republican (in)Justices are now part of Team Trump.
Democrats
But it’s not only the Republicans. The Democrats are sticking to the Marquis of Queensbury rules while the Republicans are kicking, eye gouging, biting and doing everything else imaginable. It started with Biden, who appointed the weak-kneed Merrick Garland attorney general. Garland then waited until Dec. 18, 2022 – two whole years – to appoint a special prosecutor. House of Representative member Adam Schiff has repeatedly said that Garland only took that step because the House January 6 hearings forced him to.
Then consider the other (in)Justices. The Supreme Court Republican majority can get away with these partisan rulings partly because of the silence of the Democratic minority. Yet yesterday’s ruling was unsigned and none of the other (in)Justices said peep about it. Nor did they say peep when the Court declined to fast track the case. Speaking up in these instances would violate the Marquis of Queenbury rules, you see.
Mar-a-Lago
It’s been similar in the Mar-a-Lago case, which is the simplest and most open and shut. There, the judge in the case – Aileen Cannon – has made the Supreme court Republicans seem impartial by way of comparison. She has issued so many ridiculous rulings that it makes one’s head spin. For example, she had ruled that the names of witnesses must be revealed not only to the defense but to the general public. In some cases, this is a state security issue and in all cases these witnesses will be subject to harassment. That ruling is on appeal. In general, Cannon is slow walking this case. But who has said a thing about it?
The Left
The left is also complicit. Some of them are actually in league with Trump due to their connections with Putin. This includes some of the groups leading the protests about Israel/Palestine like the Party for Socialism and Liberation and Code Pink. Then there is the Green Party, whose 2016 and probable 2024 presidential candidate, Jill Stein, actually in effect supported Trump in 2016. Others are tied in with either the nonprofiteers or the union bureaucracy and are therefore unwilling to break from the Democratic Party and the building of a working class alternative to the Democratic Party.
Israel/Palestine
On Tuesday, over 100,000 voters in Michigan shook up the Democrats by voting “uncommitted” in the Democratic primary in that state. That was in protest against Biden’s support for Israel’s genocidal war and it was roughly five times the uncommitted votes in the previous two presidential primaries in the state. That campaign was led by Representative Rashida Tlaib, her sister Layla Elabed and a host of other local Democrats. “Uncommitted” now appears set to send two delegates to the Democratic convention in August.
This is a real shock to the pro-Israel Democrats, but why didn’t they actually put up an opposition candidate? And why was their only demand that Biden should call for a ceasefire, since Biden’s calling for it will mean nothing to Netanyahu & Co. the only thing that would influence the course of Israel’s war would be if the US were to stop sending them the arms and ammunition they are using to slaughter the Palestinians. Why wasn’t that demand raised?
More important, what is the alternative since clearly the Democrats are not going to stop supporting Israel by sending them arms.
Election perspectives
And so it seems the skids are being greased to slide Trump back into office. From Aileen Cannon to the Supreme Court, the supposedly non-partisan judicial system is playing a major role, with the complicity of the Democrats.
Three and a half years ago, the Supreme Court rejected one fake challenge after another against the 2020 election results by Team Trump. There is no guarantee they will do the same this time if Biden actually wins the majority of electoral votes. After all, in 2020 Trump had not gained complete control over the Republican Party as he has now. Not only that, but the Supreme Court would have had to overturn the results in at least three states in order to change the result and that was a bridge too far. Even if Biden does get back in, and even if he gets a Democratic majority in both houses – in other words, if he draws a royal flush – the Supreme Court will be there to hamstring him for years to come. The way things are going, the only way around that within the system would be for Biden to appoint four more Supreme Court (in)Justices. That is as likely as for Garland to suddenly acquire some backbone.
So, in the absence of that, what will be necessary is the rise of a new mass working class movement – one that heads towards political independence, meaning it is outside the control of both the union bureaucracy and the nonprofiteers.