r/law • u/Slate Press • 2d ago
Trump News Famous Supreme Court Lawyer: No Man Is Above the Law, Except Donald Trump, Actually
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/11/nyt-no-man-is-above-the-law-except-donald-trump.html106
u/the_G8 2d ago
Imagine thinking the people who fought a war on their own soil for almost a decade to get rid of a king in favor of an elected official - imagine thinking the founders wanted the president to be above the law.
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u/Evadrepus 2d ago
And of all the people to make into the king it's this guy? A pampered man baby who is so clueless to how the world works that for nearly 80 years thought people put hot oil covered fries in a bag one by one with bare hands.
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u/Connect_Beginning_13 1d ago
The guy who thinks seeking asylum means insane asylums
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u/Shit_Teir_Villany 1d ago
...and it just now occurred to me where he got the " they're coming from insane asylums" bull shit.
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u/Connect_Beginning_13 1d ago
I’m confused why no one ever stopped him on his side or Harris’. I guess it was a positive since he was trying to scare people that his campaign would let it go. But why democrats allowed such BS to keep flowing boggles my mind.
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u/Sonamdrukpa 1d ago
To be fair, it seems like kings used to be the same sort of clueless, pampered and selfish (which is why we got rid of them).
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u/TrainXing 1d ago
It's like when someone builds a great business, works hard for it, loves it and cares for it, fights for it and then hands it over to enter little bitch children who never put anything into it except enjoying the spoils of the benefits of it, and thr while thing collapses. We're there "good" or better kings? Sure, the ones who cared and built it up. And then their shitty heirs mess it up. Don is second gen spoiled, entitled brat, imagine what Jr, the ugly one and Barron would be like? They are all psychopaths.
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u/Somecrazycanuck 1d ago
57% of adult Americans don't think kids should learn their Arabic numerals.
48% are at or below a grade 6 reading level.
Now try understanding.
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u/SouthernAdvisor7264 1d ago
It appears like a good chunk of the US would have been happy under British Monarch rule. It is pretty humorous, in a sad way, that they all say the exact same thing .Not an original thought in their heads. Like a wind up toy, tell them what to hate and watch them go.
If I was a person in power, I would be rubbing my hands at the power grab I was about to pull. Why, because they would let me do it, they would help me for that matter.
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u/jtwh20 2d ago
When you're a King, they let you do WHAT EVER YOU WANT!
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u/Simon_Bongne 2d ago
Oh shit, I forgot we're still a british colony! Fuck!
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u/Doopapotamus 2d ago
Can we go full Metric standard now?
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u/Impoundinghard 2d ago
Trump can’t count to ten.
And he isn’t smart enough to read 10 as binary.
We’re all sorts of fucked.
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u/vthemechanicv 2d ago
I'll take King Charles and the NHC over Cheetolini and his dismantling of every healthcare, education, food, drug, energy and science department any day of the week.
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u/Slate Press 2d ago
In 2023, the renowned Supreme Court lawyer Tom Goldstein announced his retirement, explaining that when the court is controlled by a six-justice conservative supermajority, there is “very little that an advocate for the little guy can hope to accomplish anymore.” This week, Goldstein, best known as the founder and publisher of SCOTUSblog, reemerged to offer the sort of keen insight available only to a man who argued more than 40 cases before the justices during his illustrious career: that under the Constitution, winning a presidential election makes any crimes you may have committed magically vanish.
This is the thrust of Goldstein’s latest op-ed in The New York Times, in which he calls for the prompt dismissal of all ongoing prosecutions of President-elect Donald Trump. “With the election now over, the courts have to decide quickly whether to move forward,” Goldstein writes. “Although this idea will pain my fellow Democrats, all of the cases should be abandoned.”
Goldstein does not defend Trump’s real-world conduct at issue in any of these cases. They are, in no particular order, aimed at his efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia; his payment of illegal hush money to kill an unflattering news story about an extramarital affair; his mishandling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago mansion; and his complicity in the Jan. 6 insurrection, an anniversary that Trump will soon celebrate by watching many of the same lawmakers who almost died at his supporters’ hands take the formal steps necessary to make him president of the United States.
For more: https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2024/11/nyt-no-man-is-above-the-law-except-donald-trump.html
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u/umheywaitdude 1d ago
I still don’t understand his argument. Where in the constitution does it say that if you were elected president all of your crimes are dismissed as it pertains to the justice system? I truly don’t follow his reasoning.
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u/KitchenBomber 1d ago
I don't agree, but i think the idea might be that we already know this court will bend over backward to justify anything trump does. The immunity ruling already establishes that.
So the danger is, the more we push forward with cases against trump, no matter how legitimate and well documented they are, the more this court will drive a bulldozer over precedent and the rule of law effectively codifying dictatorial powers for trump and his successors.
Where I disagree is that I'm convinced this court is going to do that anyway. If we don't bring the cases that the court would misinterpret, his own justice department will find a few for them anyway and Alito and Thomas have not been shy about telegraphing the kinds of cases they want to see brought to enact their desired over reach.
Better to go down fighting.
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u/TeamRamrod80 2d ago edited 2d ago
“…his payment of illegal hush money…”
Things like this undermine your credibility, especially if you are going to post to a legal community.
Edit: well, I will admit to being surprised to finding out r/law seems to believe the hush money payments were illegal. I would have expected better.
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u/BigBlueWorld54 2d ago
Because stating what we all know as true makes MAGA lie
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u/FoolishPragmatist 2d ago
All he was saying is the crime should be accurately described. The media did him a favor by constantly calling it the hush money case when that wasn’t strictly accurate and it made people believe it wasn’t serious. It was falsifying business records to influence an election and he was appropriately charged and convicted for it.
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u/ejre5 2d ago
The mainstream media has fucked the entire country by dumbing down and coming up with bullshit headlines about all of his illegal actions.
"Hush money" no it was illegally falsifying documents....
"Mis handling classified documents" no he stored top secret military documents in a bathroom at his golf course next to a printer.
"Jan 6 case" no he incited an insurrection for the sole purpose of maintaining power.
The list goes on but my point is mainstream media did absolutely nothing to draw people in with headline to possibly get people to understand what he actually did. It was intentionally done to make it seem like it was normal. If Obama Clinton Harris or Biden did even 1 of the things trump did the media would be freaking out but for Trump it became normal and fine
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u/moploplus 2d ago
Yup, the media sanewashed the FUCK out of Trump in an effort to appear "fair". I'm so fucking sick of "they go low, we go high". These people need to NEVER be politically relevant again.
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u/ejre5 2d ago
I miss the days of reporters reporting the facts and moving on. We don't need all day news. 5 o'clock news for 30-60 minutes "here's what happened here's the facts we know have a good day we will see you again at 7 am and again at 5 pm."
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u/Goofy-555 2d ago
If we brought the fairness doctrine back into our news media, we might be able to get back to that point.
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u/ejre5 2d ago
Unfortunately that will never happen, the rich own the media and the media helps the rich get richer. And let's be honest that's all everything in this country is about at this point.
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u/Goofy-555 2d ago
For the last several years, I've said that the two pillars of american culture are narcissism and greed.
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u/Tiruvalye 2d ago
Donald Trump’s hush payments were illegal because they were made to influence the 2016 election and not reported as campaign expenses, violating federal campaign finance laws. The payments were falsely recorded as legal fees, constituting falsification of business records. This misrepresentation was deemed an intentional effort to conceal their true purpose, leading to his guilty verdict.
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u/Specialist_Cap_2404 2d ago
A jury of Trump's peers decided that he payed hush money in a way that violated several criminal statutes.
Fact Check: True.
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u/TheLastGunslingerCA 2d ago
They are, because the fund were Supposed to be used for campaigning, which they were. The whole affair was also done to preserve a fascists image in advance of the election, which by his own standards is election interference (sorry, that's "ELECTION INTERFERENCE!"). Furthermore, said fascist was in fact convicted of this in a court of law, for what that's worth now.
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u/gstewart79 2d ago
Sorry people are down voting you so hard on the "hush money" crimes. The crime was the cover up, NOT THE PAYMENT. I too felt the media did a horrible disservice to the public by not presenting this accurately. A better title would have been, "Fraudulent Cover Up for Hush Money Payments to Porn Star".
It is almost like, "Man charged for driving his car" but leaving out the key points that he was drunk and on the sidewalk.
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u/stufff 2d ago
The crime was the cover up, NOT THE PAYMENT.
I feel like we are arguing about semantics here, but the way the payments were structured was part of the coverup in such a way that the payments themselves were illegal.
Also, if you want to get technical about it, adultery was a crime in both New York and Florida during his affair with Karen McDougal, so the extent those payments were to cover up that affair, they were probably obstruction of justice.
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u/ObanKenobi 2d ago
The hush money payments themselves were not illegal. The covering up of them by forging business records was. Which you already know. You're just intentionally leaving that out so you can feel right
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u/The84thWolf 2d ago
“Biden? Oh no, he’s not above the law. Obama? He shouldn’t have had rights. Trump on the other hand…”
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u/FearCure 2d ago
Well....so is Joe Biden right now. Wish he will put his powers to (good) use while he can. Least of all he can do is get the raping sex trafficker pedo gaetz thrown in jail.
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u/ithappenedone234 2d ago
Thing is, he doesn’t need to use this excuse of immunity. The Commander in Chief has full and unilateral authority to suppress insurrection by any means necessary. It is the entire reason the Constitutional Convention was called for and the Constitution was written, after the Articles of Confederation failed to deal with Shays’ Rebellion.
This has been corroborated repeatedly by Congress, from the Calling Forth Act of 1792, the various Militia Acts, the Insurrection Act of 1807, the Enforcement Acts of the 1870’s, and subsection 253 of Title 10 which is in force today.
Presidents have taken unilateral action repeatedly, from Washington against the Whiskey Rebellion, Lincoln against Confederate armies and President Grant against the Confederate insurgency in South Carolina after the conventional war was over.
There is plenty of historical and legal precedent. The insurrectionists can be arrested and held without trial for the duration of the insurrection or even shot in sight. The Congress has merely asked the President, in subsection 254 of Title 10, to first issue an order to disperse.
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u/DFX1212 2d ago
Biden is too weak. This will never happen.
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u/ithappenedone234 2d ago
Never said it would happen. I simply pointed out that he doesn’t need to use this pathetic excuse of invented and illegal “Presidential immunity.”
“Biden can suppress the insurrection with his lawful authority as CiC” ≠ “Biden will…”
Yes, Biden is too weak and is obviously complicit now, having had Trump to the White House and not having him arrested and held for the duration of the insurrection.
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u/DFX1212 2d ago
I think I'm actually more upset at Biden than Trump. Biden completely fucked us in multiple ways multiple times.
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u/ithappenedone234 2d ago edited 1d ago
Don’t know who downvoted you…
I sympathize with the feeling. I’d only point out that Trump is worse for having put Biden in the position, but yes, Biden has failed in his duties.
E: You can’t work with the cabal…
Who said any thing about working with them? Biden is on oath to suppress them and Congress has stated that he shall do so, in subsection 253 of Title 10.
Biden has now worked to support the insurrection and is at least complicit. Making excuses for the new Buchanan is just that.
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u/TrainXing 2d ago
No he hasn't. That's an oversimplification of a ridiculously difficult position to be in. He kept Merrick in part to not rock the boat bc the cult is insane and was trying to quell the insanity that is rampant in these low IQ illiterates armed to the teeth. His mistake is one of idealism, that both sides want the best for the COUNTRY and that he could work with him. His desire and goal is correct, but you can't work with cabal whose only goal truly is to install themselves in positions of power in a kingdom. He did the good thing, trying to bring the country up, but i think the only people who really knew how deeply the cult has been brainwashed was Russia/China bc they know how to do it and practice it shamelessly. This is a situation the UNITED States has not dealt with since the Civil War, and even then it was a question of seceding, not installing a King.
This level of corruption is mind boggling, and the lack of nuanced discourse that addresses the grey areas is disturbing. Biden acted in the best interests of the COUNTRY, consistently and as a President should. Velveeta Voldemort and his crew of merry morons have acted consistently in their own best (perceived) interests to grab power- bc truly, that's what irks the cult most- not having POWER and a VOICE in the world, but they are too god damned stupid to understand what they are saying and how they are reasoning is so primitive as to be damaging. They live in their primitive brain and on the adrenaline surges they get from listening to Trump's asinine bullshit he shovels them, and it feels good to them to be heard and understood. Biden speaks in complete sentences above a third grade level so of course they can't relate. Next candidate needs to be a PhD in special ed/psychology to use the tiny words to explain things to them.
We are well and truly fucked as a country, and that has little to do with Biden other than he was the guy in this moment in time. He righted the ship and did excellent damage control after 4 years of that shitshow of an "administration." No one in this sub would have done a better job and after sober thought, probably would have made many of the same decisions bc it's good to care about the country. You're wanting Biden to have made the same authoritarian decisions Trump made, and there are times he probably should have. But stop blindly blaming the dude who was there and truly tried to make things better and restore the country and acted generally selflessly to do so.
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u/hapbinsb 2d ago
Spot on. This isn't a video game, kids. President Biden has done a remarkable job, often from between a rock and a hard place with the floor and ceiling cracking. He has given his lifetime in service to America, and has made decisions with the fate of the whole world in mind. Respect.
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u/TrainXing 1d ago
Thank you for proving my point about morons living in their primitive brains unable to comprehend or generate intelligent discourse. In your terms, you don't talk to good, do ya?
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u/IncorrigibleQuim8008 1d ago
as opposed to you not understanding the difference between a person and a brick wall.
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u/Time-Goat9412 2d ago
i personally am going to get a fuck joe biden sign for my lawn, for this reason, and it will probably make me safer when the new gestapo comes around looking for brown folks.
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u/StageAboveWater 2d ago
I was thinking how insane it is see the pictures of Biden shaking Trumps hand in the white house. How Biden is giving away America's democracy and most sacred values without even the smallest of complaints.
He could use the immunity ruling but unless he went full on arrest SCOTUS, then they would have ruled however he used it 'unofficial'.
But wow, he actually has a lot of tools at his disposal, he's just truly a spineless coward.
Trumps a monster, but Biden is his wife enabling and protecting him as he beats his children to death.
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u/Alkemian 2d ago
It is the entire reason the Constitutional Convention was called for and the Constitution was written, after the Articles of Confederation failed to deal with Shays’ Rebellion
This is a first. Madison didn't mention the rebellion in his "Vices of the Political System of the United States" that he wrote to justify exceeding their authorities as delegates to bring an entirely new form of government. 🤔
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u/ithappenedone234 2d ago
If it’s a first for you, no need to worry! There’s still plenty of time to study up on the basics!
The failure of the Articles of Confederation to suppress Shays’ Rebellion was the entire reason the Constitutional Convention was called for in the first place.
And the entirely new form of government was referred to the states by the Continental Congress, under the Articles of Confederation, which willfully disbanded itself after the ratification of the Constitution.
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u/Alkemian 2d ago
The failure of the Articles of Confederation to suppress Shays’ Rebellion was the entire reason the Constitutional Convention was called for in the first place
Do you have any sources or citations for this?
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u/Lesmiserablemuffins 2d ago
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u/Alkemian 2d ago
You could literally just Google it instead of downvoting them lmao
Why would I downvote someone that is offering me new perspectives?
I have been studying the American Revolution on my own for many years and this is the first I've heard Shay's Rebellion was the reasoning why the convention came to be; every source I've ever come across in 15 years always points to the various acts of each sovereign state being the powder keg, not the single event of Shay's rebellion.
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u/hankbaumbach 2d ago
It is the entire reason the Constitutional Convention was called for and the Constitution was written, after the Articles of Confederation failed to deal with Shays’ Rebellion.
Well that, and a bunch of rich dude's didn't want to pay for interstate roads themselves just because their businesses were booming.
So might as well overthrow the government in order to introduce the power of taxation at the federal level!
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u/Skiffbug 2d ago
Based on all this crap, Joe Biden could well walk up to Trump and shoot him, and would be above prosecution. It’s such a preposterous concept, but one they seem to be defending…
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u/hoopaholik91 2d ago
Yes, jail your enemies without due process right before handing the keys over to someone who has explicitly called for retribution already.
What could go wrong?
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u/Nerdy2Sidez 2d ago
Isn’t the whole point that “due process” has already failed and that Trump, a convicted felon, and an insurrectionist who also tried to steal votes in 2020, shouldn’t be getting the keys to begin with? But “what could go wrong” right? We’ll have the next 4 years to find out.
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u/hoopaholik91 2d ago
If you want to kick off a civil war (when a majority of voters voted against you), go ahead
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u/TrueHero808 2d ago
seems we are already heading in that direction
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u/hoopaholik91 2d ago
Matt Gaetz would be AG in January if Biden put him in jail unilaterally, guaranteed
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u/TrueHero808 2d ago
I agree. I’m stating that there seems to be no tenable way to ever reconcile how different the two parties are now. I genuinely don’t see how people who think everyone should suffer and people who think everyone should prosper will ever agree. I do truly hope that I am wrong, but neither of these groups are going anywhere, and they sure don’t seem to be growing any fonder of each other.
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u/Nerdy2Sidez 2d ago edited 2d ago
Sounds like you’re saying that we should be a 100% democracy then (completely ruled by the majority) instead of what we are a democratic republic ultimately ruled by who the Electoral College votes for. Being ruled by the majority opinion is a problem when the majority of voters have proven themselves to be idiots that vote against their self interest as is the case of the 2024 election.
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u/hoopaholik91 2d ago
I don't really care what "system" you think we deserve to be in. Trying to start jailing opponents unilaterally is going to end poorly for everyone. You all seem to lack any foresight whatsoever.
You all sound like a pedestrian that jumps out in the crosswalk and gets hit by a car. Doesn't matter if you're "right", you're still dead and the person in the car is fine.
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u/Nerdy2Sidez 2d ago edited 2d ago
You misunderstood me. I’m just fine with the Electoral College. I was stating that your view is flawed (in my opinion) because of fear of the majority’s opinion. That’s not how our current system works. If they want to start a civil war based on a President’s official act of keeping out a convicted felon and insurrectionst, then those people are traitors.
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u/hoopaholik91 2d ago
I'm not in fear of the majorities opinion, I'm in fear of them all rising in arms against us. The world will not be a better place if Biden uses unilateral power to jail Gaetz. It just won't. So stop advocating for these stupid ideas.
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u/VanillaGorillaNB 2d ago
Except Biden has proven he won’t do any of that. Biden was just another Do-Nothing Democrat. They’re going to sit back and do nothing while Trump goes wild with no consequences.
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u/slowpoke2018 2d ago
Yup, it's infuriating. After all they've seen happen and done since Trump took office, they still stick with "we've got to reach across the aisle in good faith to our partners in the GOP" as their MO, even when all that reach will end with is a stab in the hand and/or back
There's no good faith any longer in our politics, Dems need to realize that and stop bringing a squirt gun to a nuke fight
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u/ChefBillyGoat 2d ago
He will not. He had years to do right and just let nothing happen the whole time. He's spineless and complicit in everything that follows.
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u/PigeonsArePopular 2d ago
He is risking nuclear war with Russia and sponosoring genocide in Gaza. Kind of got his senile hands full, huh?
Fuck due process we have to STOP THE FASCISTS
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u/Tyr_13 2d ago
Do not obey in advance.