The U.S. Supreme Court has set April 25 as the date it will hear Donald Trump’s claim of presidential immunity from prosecution on charges related to his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss - the last day of oral arguments of its current term.

The court released its updated argument calendar a week after it agreed to take up the case and gave the former president a boost by putting on hold the criminal prosecution being pursued by Special Counsel Jack Smith. It previously had disclosed which week it would hear the matter but had not given the precise date.

The justices will review a lower court’s rejection of Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution because he was president when he took actions aimed at reversing President Joe Biden’s election victory over him.

  • shalafi@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    This court is just an extension of the party.

    Oh bull. I’ve been collecting examples of the Court NOT acting conservatively, let alone acting partisan. I’m no fan of this Court, and I loathe Thomas, but they make some surprising calls. If they were an organ of the GOP, none of these cases would have passed, OR, they would have heard them to shoot down the lower court rulings.

    https://old.lemmy.world/comment/8055718

    There was an earlier ruling where they shot Trump down, but I can’t find it for all the noise over recent events.

    I’m kinda OK with them putting off the call on the immunity case, it’s a weighty one, but I’m scared as hell they’ll take too long to ponder the arguments. Calling it now: They reject Trump’s claim. Just like they allowed him on the ballot, and the unanimity was telling, I think they understand the chaos that would ensue.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Why do they need to put this off? Is there really a need to ponder over the question of ‘is a president allowed to break laws with impunity?’ Because it seems to me like there’s only one answer there and it’s “FUCK NO.”

      • Telodzrum@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        The Court is actually moving much faster than they traditionally do in such matters.

        • FenrirIII@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          No they aren’t. They were asked to take this up a long time ago and didn’t. Then, when shit started looking bad for Trump, they suddenly reverse course and delay his trial.

          • JonsJava@lemmy.worldM
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            8 months ago

            You are correct. Mr. Smith’s team requested that the SCOTUS review this months ago. Long before it was brought to them by Trump’s team, as a way to expedite the process, and stop the “play out the clock” approach they take.

        • JonsJava@lemmy.worldM
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          8 months ago

          There’s zero tradition for a former president being indicted numerous times for almost a hundred crimes. There’s no measuring stick for this.

        • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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          8 months ago

          They didn’t have to move at all, though. That’s the thing, they’re doing this voluntarily, just like with their ruling on Trump being on the ballots because they claim Congress has to hold a vote every time they want to enforce a law that has existed for 150 years. They chose to rule on that, they didn’t have to.

          • shalafi@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            So you don’t want a SCOTUS ruling on this? You would rather leave it somewhat ambiguous? I want a solid ruling.

            • JonsJava@lemmy.worldM
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              8 months ago

              Most times, precedent is set by what the court decides NOT to review. When they say nothing, they are saying “the lower court has it right”. This is standard practice.

            • FiniteBanjo@lemmy.today
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              8 months ago

              Other courts should be handling this, the SCOTUS ruling delays proceedings or otherwise makes him immune to crime, both bad outcomes.

      • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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        8 months ago

        It is fairly complicated. Should Obama be imprisoned for murder of US citizens in drone strikes? Should Bush be held liable for the incompetence in allowing 9/11? Should Clinton be held responsible for deaths in Kosovo for violation of the war powers act?

        Presidents do seem to have immunity with regard to actions as a President. Creating a ruling that protects presidential action and allows criminal prosecution for other actions is going to be difficult. There’s also the matter of if actions done with immunity can be used as evidence against a president.

        There is some existing precedent for distinguishing the President from the Candidate during elections. This could be used as a basis for a ruling Trump isn’t immune, but it’s hardly definitive.

        It’s going to take more than an “I know it when I see it” ruling.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Except the question is not ‘is the president ever allowed to break the law,’ the question is ‘can the president break the law whenever he feels like it?’ The answer is obviously no.

        • extant@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          All of these are asking if someone is guilty when the actual question is are we allowed to bring you to court to determine if you are guilty. A president should not have immunity and if a president feels they need to take extreme actions they should justify them before a court and accept the consequences of their actions. If someone does not want to be in that position to make such a call and pay such a price they have no business taking that role.

          • ryathal@sh.itjust.works
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            8 months ago

            In most cases the guilt is largely proven, criminal liability would require a court to agree, but the findings from official reports are sufficient evidence. I’m not sure no immunity is a realistic outcome, a test for what actions are protected is most likely.

            • extant@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              To me it seems that if something was agreed upon to be a law it should be enforced and if there are exceptions to the rule they should be written into the law itself. If something isn’t written into the law itself it should go to court where a determination can be made and if a jury finds there was good cause to commit such an action they can find them not guilty and a future exception can be added. By adding a blanket immunity it’s like adding cheat mode into the game and it’s going to be exploited in ways that we haven’t imagined yet.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        More BS. This Court is conservative, not partisan. They owe nothing to Trump or the GOP. LOL, I even posted two accounts of them voting, or ignoring, both of those parties.

        And as to my references, got any arguments? Perhaps they should have taken the trans bathroom ruling and fought it? How about Washington’s tax deal? That could have been Earth shattering.

    • Daft_ish@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Wow this list is quite damning.

      Supreme Court allows federal agents to cut razor wire Texas installed on US-Mexico border

      Omg the Supreme Court honors the federal governments right to control the boarder. So controversial and certainly something that would never get flipped on its head.

      Oh the SUPREME COURT didn’t want to talk about $500 mask fines???

      This has to be satire.

    • DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz
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      8 months ago

      Whoa, bud- careful with those counter-hivemind opinions. You’ll get slapped for wrongthink around here.

      edit: Case-in-point: my ratio right now.

      • no banana@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        People should stop with this hivemind stuff. It’s okay to feel something and be corrected. It’s fine to learn.

        • DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz
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          8 months ago

          wow yeah I totally didn’t get slapped for wrongthink by the hivemind, you guys sure showed me with this “correction”

          what am I supposed to have learned from this?

      • Dkarma@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Yeah imagine thinking the 9th and 14th amendments matter… Silly liberals

        • DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz
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          8 months ago

          is that an echo i hear? echo…echo…echo…

          I don’t suppose you could explain how the 14th amendment works in the relevant case to give the contrary opinion to the unanimous court? I’m with the guy above, they suck and are awful, but not wrong on this one in particular. That you think the 9th amendment is somehow relevant is… telling.

          edit: crickets. Crickets and downvotes. Nope, no hivemind punishing wrongthink here. Nosiree.

            • DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz
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              8 months ago

              So, explaining how the 14th amendment works or how the 9th is relevant to his case is… beneath you. I’m painfully illogical for asking for an explanation. “the hivemind will downvote you for having a contrary opinion” is a lazy argument(?), despite direct incontrovertible evidence to support my claim.

              I made no arguments, I asked a question and asserted a claim.

              Thank you for deigning to reply, but I reject this as being of very poor quality, and mostly projection.

      • StupidBrotherInLaw@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I read your comment and it reminded me of something, but I just couldn’t put my finger on it. It took me a few minutes, then it dawned on me: it was my drunk Trumper uncle at Thanksgiving dinner. He was telling us how the “Mexicans and Blacks” are sabotaging “White Christianity™” by crossing the border and interbreeding with white women and that our telling him to shut up and go home was the real intolerance

        Tl;dr: dumb people often blame everyone else for any consequences of their failure to recognize they’re dumb.

        • DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz
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          8 months ago

          It’s called the Dunning-Kruger Effect, and yes it’s remarkable how often humans fall into this trap, isn’t it? In my experience, the appropriate response is to educate people when they are mistaken. Perhaps you could take the time to correct my mistake instead of ridiculing me?

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        The hive-mind children in here are worse than reddit ever was, and was there for 12-years. Notice not a soul stated anything counter to what I posted?

          • DarkNightoftheSoul@mander.xyz
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            8 months ago

            Shalafil posted a rebuttal 8 hours before this comment accusing them of not defending themselves, and this person posted a far more thorough debunking.

            That you think “non-sequitur therefore your argument is invalid” is a compelling argument is depressing.

            • Saledovil@sh.itjust.works
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              8 months ago

              The overturning of Roe vs Wade, which was an almost 50 year old precedent, is an example of the supreme court acting in a partisan manner. Since the premise is that the current supreme court has never acted in a partisan manner, the counterexample refutes the premise. And if the premise of an argument is not true, then the argument doesn’t support the thesis. So, the guy you cited is also wrong.

              Edit: Turns out the rebuttal you linked is a reply to a different, albeit identically worded post. And in this context, Shalafil didn’t use the term ‘never’ in their premise, meaning that in that context, a single counterexample actually isn’t enough to disprove the premise. So you’re right on this one. Sorta annoying that these two clash several times in this discussion.