U.S. Supreme Court Clobbers Democracy – IV Words – The Progressive Perspective

The USA has never been a true representative democracy. Yesterday, the Supreme Court removed the last vestiges of the façade.

Democracy died yesterday in the USA.

Technically, the U.S. republic hasn’t practiced true representative democracy for a long, long time. In fact, given that slaves were counted as only three-fifths of a person when the Constitution was adopted, it never has. That was Article 1, Section 2, which was abolished by the 13th Amendment after the Civil War. Of course, the Electoral College, gerrymandering and the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United decision wiped out other semblances of the real thing.
 
However, whatever shards remained of this sort-of democracy, six justices have wiped them from the table in one fell swoosh of their robes.
 
One of the key tenets of U.S. representative democracy is that “no one is above the law,” a.k.a., there must be “equal justice under the law.” It’s been a pillar of our system, in theory at least, for 237-odd years, and it originated more than eight centuries ago in the Magna Carta.
 
Nevertheless, in an opinion in the case of Trump vs. the United States, issued yesterday, the Court’s conservative justices, three of whom are Donald J. Trump appointees, ruled U.S. presidents actually are above the law. The majority opinion says:
 
“The nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”
 
This, despite the fact that “equal justice under the law” is literally etched in stone above the Supreme Court’s main entrance.
 
You’ll also find it on the Supreme Court’s own website:
 
“‘EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW’ – These words… express the ultimate responsibility of the Supreme Court of the United States.”
 
Naturally, the ruling is generating some hubbub among the nation’s legal eagles.

“The foundation of our system is equal justice under law and is dedicated to the principle of fair, just and impartial application and enforcement of the law regardless of the position or status of any individual alleged to have violated the law.”

American Bar Association

The language from the ruling also necessitates a couple of questions, such as: “Well, gee, Wally, what’s an official act?” and, “Hey, Wally, what’s an unofficial act?”
 
Imagine Justice Roberts as Wally. Except, maybe not, because no one seems to know, or is refusing to say, what the answers are.
 
Yet.
 
The majority supremes kicked that can further down the road, or, more accurately, back down to a lower court. When the lower court decides, Trump will surely appeal to the Supreme Court. Again. Or maybe not, because if he’s elected, his Department of Justice will no doubt drop the case, anyway, and there won’t be anything in need of appeal. Also because – Gee, Wally – based on yesterday’s ruling, Trump would be a king rather than a president.
 
None of this is going to get rolling, let alone be decided, before the election in November, and in the meantime Trump gets to continue running for a second presidential term.
 
There are suggestions that President Joe Biden leverage the implicit power the ruling grants to take some radical, but necessary, actions. After all, this ruling makes him king, too, at least for the moment.
 
A sampling of ideas:

• Make it illegal for a convicted felon to run for president. (Duh!)

• Imprison Donald Trump for planning and instigating an insurrection against the United States of America.

• Remove the six conservative justices from the Court, as they are obviously undermining one of the pillars of U.S. representative democracy.

• Expand the court, effective immediately.

• Abolish the Electoral College, which has been an insult to the equal representation principle of “one person, one vote” since the very beginning.

• Issue an executive order countermanding Citizens United, which gives corporations and special-interest organizations undue power in electing representatives and influencing legislation.

• De-gerrymander voting districts across the United States.

All as official acts of the President of the United States, of course.

Yes, all of them sound a bit over the top if taken unilaterally, and sure, there would be pitfalls with any one of them, and, of course, there would be numerous gargantuan challenges to implementing most of them prior to the election. And, finally, yes, being a democrat, Biden will balk at these suggestions.

For some reason, dems in general and the Democratic National Committee in particular insist on tying their own hands behind their backs in this fight, observing the niceties in an apparent bid to stay above it all.

Unfortunately, at this juncture it will take something radical to keep this republic from the fall toward which it is hurtling.
 
Which would take us back to the Beav once again:  Gee, Wally….
 
Litigation would drag on for years. Decades even. But during that time – one can hope, right? – U.S. citizens will collectively create much better, more equitable and logical ways to run our country for the benefit of all, not just oligarchs and members of the political class.

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• Source: https://ivwords.com/2024/07/02/supreme-court-democracy/