GOP Supreme Court’s protection of Trump is both partisan election interference and how democracies die!

It's up to us to save the nation.

The anger filled my body as I read the news on Wednesday that the GOP controlled Supreme Court—of which three justices were personally appointed by Donald Trump—had made it just about impossible for Trump’s criminal trial for his attempted coup to take place before Election Day.  

This is what election interference looks like. Alarmingly, it also potentially helps usher in the end of our democratic Republic.

Assuming we still have elections in the future, Democratic presidential candidates going forward must pledge to expand the Supreme Court to end the GOP’s judicial tyranny that has stripped women of fundamental rights, weakened voting rights, struck down laws to save lives from gun violence and now protected the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner from being held accountable for his crimes before the election.

Delaying Trump’s Jan 6 case to help him win the 2024 election was clearly the plan of the GOP Justices all along. How can I say that? Simple, after the December 1 ruling by federal Judge Tanya Chutkan that Trump did not have immunity to commit crimes to overturn the 2020 election, Trump’s lawyers appealed to the US Court of Appeals which automatically stayed the criminal case.

In response, Special Counsel Jack Smith swiftly filed an application with the US Supreme Court on December 11 asking them to take the case directly since he understood that a case of this magnitude would ultimately be decided by the nation’s top court.  Smith argued in his petition to the Supreme Court that the speedy resolution of Trump’s claim of presidential immunity is of urgent national interest and a decision was needed “promptly” to ensure the Jan 6 trial could occur.

In response, Trump argued for a delay, with his campaign stating, “There is absolutely no reason to rush this sham to trial except to injure President Trump and tens of millions of his supporters.” His lawyers made a similar argument in their opposition to Smith’s application.

What happened? The GOP Supreme Court did exactly what Trump asked and refused to expedite the case. The result was the US Court of Appeals heard the case and rendered a decision on February 6, rejecting Trump’s claim of absolute immunity to commit all the crimes he wanted while in office.

Trump’s team of course appealed seeking to extend the delay of Trump’s Jan 6 case so that the American public would be deprived of hearing the facts in federal court of Trump’s crimes. And most importantly, prevent Trump from being convicted of felonies for his attempted coup before November’s election.

Despite the obvious urgency of this case given the man who attempted a coup was the likely 2024 GOP presidential nominee, the GOP justices delayed for nearly three weeks a decision on whether to grant Trump’s request to hear the case and further delay this case.

That brings us to the Supreme Court’s decision on Wednesday to hear the case. In announcing they would take the appeal, the GOP Supreme Court claimed they are “expediting” the case. They aren’t. Oral argument is scheduled for two months from now during the week of April 22. There is no reason for this delay given the issue of Trump’s immunity has been briefed and argued by his lawyers in both the district court and US Court of Appeals. 

In fact, the court’s claim this is “expedited” is undermined by how they recently handled the appeal of the Colorado Supreme Court decision that disqualified Trump from holding office for engaging in an insurrection in violation of Section 3 of the 14^th Amendment. In that case, the court agreed to take the appeal on January 5. Was that hearing two months later? Nope, it was about 30 days later on February 8.

Based on the oral argument in that case, it’s clear the GOP Court will protect Trump and rule he’s not disqualified from holding office.

If you want an even better example of how quickly GOP Justices will move when they sense a chance to help Republicans gain power, then check out the infamous Bush v. Gore decision. On December 8, 2000, the Florida Supreme Court  ordered the immediate manual recounts of undervotes for the office of president in all counties where such recounts had not already taken place. The Bush campaign then immediately petitioned the GOP controlled U.S. Supreme Court for a stay of the recount order--which was granted the very next day.  

Just two days later on December 11, the US Supreme Court heard oral arguments.  And only one day later on December 12, the five Republican Justices joined forces to effectively award Florida's 25 electoral votes to George W. Bush, thus, naming him the winner. Al Gore officially conceded the following day. That entire appeal process took less than a week!

Interestingly, in Bush v. Gore, three of the current GOP justices worked as lawyers on Team Bush: Chief Justice John Roberts together with Justices Amy Coney Barrett and Brett Kavanaugh. That means these three know first-hand how quickly the Supreme Court can move.

When it comes to Trump’s appeal, don’t rule out that this 6 to 3 GOP court will find Trump is immune from prosecution in this case, although in a narrowly worded decision so that he can’t actually send Seal Team Six over to shoot them or anyone else. But even if they end up affirming the lower court’s ruling that Trump can be prosecuted, he will have at least three months from the decision that will likely be rendered in May or June to prepare his defense in the Jan 6 case--which takes us to the fall. Will a criminal trial of the GOP presidential nominee actually take place in September just two months before the election? Possible, but unlikely.

That’s exactly what the GOP Justices want. They—like Trump—see the recent polls that show Trump will lose badly if he’s convicted of felonies before election day.  For example, a late December NY Times poll of key swing-states showed Trump going from a four-point lead on Biden to a 10-point deficit if he’s convicted. That’s a huge 14-point swing.

That’s why this is partisan election interference. The three Trump Justices along with “Justice for rent” Clarence Thomas and the reactionary Samuel Alito have deprived voters of seeing Trump tried before the 2024 election for his attempted coup.  And by doing so, they have brought our democratic Republic closer to ending by enabling a fascist, wanna be dictator to win in 2024. (In reality, the three Justices Trump appointed and Clarence Thomas—given his ties to the Jan 6 coup via his wife Ginni--should recuse themselves given the obvious conflict of interest!)

You should be angry—very angry. But now we must channel our anger into defeating Trump. As I’ve repeatedly said, we can’t count on the courts, Jack Smith or anyone else to save our nation from Trump. It’s up to us. And come November 5, 2024, we will do just that!

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