7/1/24 The Day the Supreme Court Killed American Democracy

July 1, 2024.

That’s the day the Supreme Court killed American democracy and replaced it with an absolute dictatorship. 

Nothing changed for us on that day. People who understand the ruling are rocking and rolling. Some of them are probably dusting off their passports and wondering if there’s a corner of the globe to which they can escape if the worst happens and Trump wins next November. But most people didn’t even look around and go “what was the that?” when America was shot through the heart. 

Nothing happened. The Supreme Court issued a series of execrable rulings in a few days, any one of which would normally cause great public debate and outrage among genuine, Jesus-following Christians.

They legalized bribery for elected officials, in particular and specifically the kind of bribes that Clarence Thomas and other Supreme Court justices have been caught taking themselves. They allowed the government to put homeless people in prison for sleeping outdoors in public places. They overturned the convictions of a large number of 1/6 coup attempt participants who stormed the United States Capitol in an effort to overturn the 2020 election. They overturned the power of federal agencies to set rules and regulations to keep the government running. They crippled the clean air and water act. 

All those things, in fact any of those things, would, in the America we’ve lived in all our lives, have set off vigorous public debate and a good bit of outrage.

There was a time when Christians actually thought that taking bribes was a sin, even for Republicans. In fact, there was a time when Christians — and by that I mean everyone who called themselves a Christian — would have said without reservation or hesitation that the 10 Commandments and the Sermon on the Mount were binding commandments of God and everybody — even Republican officeholders, Republican candidates for office and billionaires — sinned when they broke them. 

I remember a time when Christians believed and all Christian religious leaders taught that taking bribes was a sin, lying was a sin, rape was a sin, corruption was a sin. Now, the Supreme Court gives the president the power to order anyone he chooses to be executed without charges or a trial, just on his say-so — just, in fact, on his whim — and “christians” support it. The new-old satanic teaching of America’s phony, anti-Christ clergy is that if a Republican does it, no matter what it is, it’s not a sin. 

Now, the new-old satanic teaching of America’s anti-Christ clergy is that Donald Trump, not Jesus, is the savior and whatever Trump wants is holy. 

That’s why the next new thing the Supreme Court spat on, the coup de grace to American democracy and the end of the good times for all of us, was received not with outrage by America’s right wing clergy and their followers, but with hosannas. 

On the last day of the session, early in the morning, the Supreme Court handed down what people have begun to refer to in verbal shorthand as “the immunity decision.” 

The six right wing “justices” who brought this monstrosity all testified at their confirmation hearings that they were what is called “Constitutional originalists.” What that supposedly meant is that they believe in issuing rulings based on the plain text of the Constitution with no embellishment; that they were opposed to “interpreting” the meaning of the words in the document. They were, they said, going to rule according to the plain text without any interpretation. 

They lied. 

Just like everyone who refers to them as “conservatives” lies. 

These justices are not “conservatives” by any definition of the word that exists in the English language. They are extreme, fascist, Neo Nazi radicals. I know that many of my pro life brothers and sisters revere them because they overturned Roe v Wade. If they had stopped there, that would be a legitimate way for pro life people to feel. They would also have ruled in a manner that generally fit with their claims to be “Constitutional originalists” and “conservatives” going forward.

But they didn’t do that. What they have been doing is acting on behalf of a group of Neo Nazi billionaires who got most of their billions from government largesse of one sort or another. Not only are these judges not Constitutional Originalists, they have torched the Constitution. They ripped the Constitution to shreds and flushed it.

Not only are they not pro life, they are six people who have given the president the authority to murder at will. They made presidential corruption and murder, including — get ready for this now — mass murder — legal. 

They added some stupid blather about the vague possibility of judicial review and, of course, impeachment, as limiting factors on the absolute dictatorship they were creating, but that was patent nonsense, a dodge and a set up to give them some sort of deniability.

The bald truth is, no Supreme Court justice is going to rule against a president they believe will have them killed and no Congress is going to impeach a president who can either have them shot or removed from office at will. 

The Supreme Court gave the president unlimited power. 

We the People didn’t feel the earth shifting beneath our feet because the idealistic old man holding the presidency today is probably the last person who will ever hold that office who will not use those powers. 

But that other old man, the one on whose behalf the Supreme Court wrote this ruling, most certainly will. I do not doubt that if Trump wins the election in November, he is going to kill people. He’s going to kill a lot of people. It probably won’t start all at once. But absolute power of this sort corrupts even good men. And Donald Trump is not a good man. He’s a cruel, sexual predator, liar, grifter, walking barrel of criminality and corruption. He is an absolute moral degenerate who gives every appearance of being a psychopath. 

If we elect him president again, he will take this ruling and run with it. And even the people who’ve sucked up to him and worshipped him and put him in place of Jesus will suffer. This beautiful country of ours, this wonderful free, prosperous way of life that we have come to take so much for granted that we no longer value it, is going to be lost forever. 

The Supreme Court killed the Constitution for Donald Trump and it felt like nothing happened. But the hard times are coming, and when they come, we won’t be able to elect a different president to turn it around. Because the Supreme Court gave the president the power to do anything so long as he claims it is an “official act.” And that includes cancelling future elections or killing anyone who dares to run against him. 

From the dissent of the Supreme Court’s immunity decision giving presidents the power of absolute dictators:

The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way … he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. 

Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. 

Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. 

Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. 

Immune, immune, immune. 

Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law. Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop.

With fear for our democracy, I dissent.