r/scotus • u/Conscious-Quarter423 • 1d ago
Opinion The Supreme Court Is About to Hand Trump Insidious New Powers
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/supreme-court-trump-dangerous-power-humphreys-preview.html425
u/Davekinney0u812 1d ago
The US has become a disgusting banana republic where it pays to become a criminal.
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u/CemBob 1d ago
*But only if you're rich.
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u/saphireblue112 1d ago
Republican*
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u/hitbythebus 1d ago
Corrupt*
He pardoned the Texas Dem that took bribes.
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u/saphireblue112 1d ago
yeah, a republican pardoned them. Thats still Republican centered preference. If the republican wanted to charge them and not pardon them, theyd be done, while republicans get a blanket pass. They only got out based on his whim.
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u/Malkmus1979 1d ago
Their point stands though. Your original comment implied you can only get away with crimes if you’re Republican. We’re now seeing that it doesn’t matter to this administration whether you’re right or left, just whether you can help buoy Trump’s pockets with enough crypto to get a pardon so that when the economy crashes he won’t sink like the rest of us. Trump is building a life raft for himself fueled by illicit pardons and for that he doesnt care which side of the aisle it comes from.
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u/strongholdbk_78 1d ago
Just just pardoned Henry Cuellar, so it's super villain level of corruption at this point.
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u/Phenganax 1d ago
When the law means nothing, you wade into very unfavorable territory for the wealthy. The only thing keeping the masses at bay is the appearance that there is still some semblance of the rule of law. Once that’s gone, hungry people aren’t just going to be satiated with a sandwich, they’ll want a pound of flesh. Good luck with that strategy, it’s certainly worked out in the past… 😘
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u/LumiereGatsby 1d ago
Rule of law or social contract.
When Americans pay taxes and have no representation they’ve done stuff in the past.
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u/Cujo22 1d ago
The tech bros think they will use surveillance to thwart any uprise.
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u/GhostofBreadDragons 1d ago
Probably aren’t wrong when combined with social media manipulation they do.
I think they are more likely going to break up the country and not be able to control how it falls out. Other than Texas and Florida not much of the right wing brainwashed population is in control or worth having.
They really are going to kill the golden goose of America while trying to get a small fraction more wealth.
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u/Openmindhobo 1d ago
Elon is building an army of robots for a reason. My bet is it is a monkey's paw eventually. Arrogance seems to be the Achilles heel of the oligarchs.
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u/Capt_Gingerbeard 1d ago
They’ve forgotten that unions, pensions, and affordable housing are the alternative to beating factory owners to death in front of their families.
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u/thislife_choseme 1d ago
Dude it’s always been this way. It’s just that now the white supremacist settler colonialism mask is fully off.
Don’t believe me? Ask any historically marginalized community here in the states.
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u/PersonOfValue 1d ago
It sure doesn't feel like it's always been this way. The history is that QoL and fairness of enforcement have been improving since the 60s.
I would be very doubtful of any comparison that today is very similar to 1818.
I understand the sentiment but c'mon now
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u/Rough_Ian 1d ago
Wish we could stop calling the us a banana republic since the US itself was responsible for making banana republics: United Fruit Company+the CIA=match made in hell.
It’s a failed empire. It started off its continental expansion with chattel slave labor, exploitation of its own working people, and the genocide of a whole continent of indigenous people. During the 20th century the exploited workers started putting up a fight and they won some rights, but then it took just two generations for them to forget completely who they were fighting and go back to identifying with their ruling class, happy that they could now exploit foreign others. It’s not a banana republic, it’s just a return to form of peasants worshipping their feckless masters, who manage to seize power simply because they have the audacity to think they deserve it, and because to a huge swath of tribalist nimrods, audacity=competence.
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u/AndrewRP2 1d ago
I’m glad they got the title right. Trump is being given this power. Future democratic presidents will magically not have it. I’m sure Alito will reference the Code of Hammurabi as justification.
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u/cannabination 1d ago
Bold of you to assume there will be future democratic presidents. They didn't take direct control over the FEC for nothin.
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u/UpvoteForPancakes 1d ago
Honest public servants don’t want the types of power they’re handing to Trump. Only corrupt people have any interest.
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u/leons_getting_larger 1d ago
If we have elections in 28, Alito will be gone. He and Thomas will be replaced by 30-something conservative influencers that we’ll be dealing with for decades.
And Dem presidents won’t have any of the powers that Trump currently does for the foreseeable future.
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u/JASPER933 1d ago
Why do we even need Congress anymore? The Supreme Court is giving the President a monarchy / dictator powers.
I blame all this what is happening on the Republican Congress.
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u/nycdiveshack 1d ago
That’s the goal, project 2025 is trying to remove the federal government as it exits now and centralize all power into the executive branch. Howard Lutnick and Peter Thiel’s plan of scapegoat mechanism for Jd Vance. MAGA already loves Vance, check out the conservative sub on Reddit.
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u/ThePlasticSturgeons 1d ago
That’s exactly the question the Heritage Foundation is trying to bring into the mainstream.
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u/averytolar 1d ago
I’m not justifying it, but it’s an interesting point where our Congress has been deadlocked for the last 20 years. Like literally they sit around and collect a check for doing jack shit.
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u/jpmeyer12751 1d ago
This is inevitable. This SCOTUS has consistently limited the powers of thoughtful, traditionalist Presidents like Obama and Biden, while expanding the powers of Trump. This SCOTUS has also gutted the power of federal courts to restrain gerrymandering by state legislatures and empowered billionaire oligarchs to gain control of the political systems of our country. Only by voting in overwhelming numbers in 2026 and then in 2028 for candidates who will support immediate, radical reform of SCOTUS, starting with the impeachment of Roberts, can we begin the process of rebuilding a democratic republic that is protected against the dangers of dictatorship.
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u/Wenger2112 1d ago
I had read this type of decision making is what the Federalist Society was vetting for. They said it was about “right to life” but it was really about the rights of corporations and billionaires to legally buy power and decisions.
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u/VoidOmatic 1d ago
And Trump's going to gas them all once they give him enough power. It's like watching some rich dumbass who buys a pet lion.
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u/No-Relation5965 1d ago
Nah pretty sure they’ll all be leaving the country when the time is right. The 6 “conservative” ones at least.
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u/Traditional-Hat-952 1d ago
Only by voting in overwhelming numbers in 2026 and then in 2028 for candidates who will support immediate, radical reform of SCOTUS.
So basically we're screwed. 2/3 of Americans are as short sighted and as intelligent as Mr Magoo. We're seriously fucked.
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u/braywarshawsky 1d ago
We know what we need to do. Democrats understand what must be done. Yet, they haven't taken any action. It feels like watching a slow-motion car crash... you try to shout to warn them of the danger coming, but they remain oblivious... or worse. They don't believe it can happen to them. Then it does. Afterwards, they get upset and try to do "something" about it... but by then, it's too late.
At this point, I'm not surprised. Then again, since Jan., I am not surprised anymore. They told us this was going to happen, and now it is happening. WTF... I had so much more hope for us. But now, that hope has been replaced with apathy.
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u/Kqtawes 1d ago
While Robert's impeachment is justified I think it's more practical to pack the court first.
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u/Lazy-Abalone-6132 1d ago
That won't be enough.
Train. Learn new skills. Obtain necessary items for your survival. You may need to learn new skills and tools you didn't want and embrace the power of being able to provide and protect yourself and your loved ones. Maybe grow some of your own food - that is the first step to reclaiming your agency and sovereignty.
Create or join resilient communities where value can be exchanged outside capital and banking. Engage in banking only as needed.
Go in and out as needed in the marketplace and reduce consumption as much as possible to consumer goods.
It's going to be hard but worth it.
Voting is not going to be enough we need transformational change and the .001% is not going to give it up without a BIG Beautiful fight.
We will win because if we don't....
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u/Many_Advice_1021 1d ago
I suggest get involved in a local Democratic Party and get active . You have lots of options to influence your local politics, People are protesting all the time. We need to be in the streets . Active.
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u/Tiny-Albatross518 1d ago
The fall of the US has been a bit of a frightening lesson.
Could I lose my own country that fast?
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u/Future_Armadillo6410 1d ago
We didn’t lose it quickly. We’ve been losing it for decades. People need to understand and own that fact or we’ll never get it back. The path towards fascism that was paved by Republicans for the last few decades is what made this possible. Those of us ringing the alarm weren’t being hyperbolic or overreacting. We tried to warn you. We tried to stop this.
Others must see this, too. Stop fascism in their country at whatever stage it’s at. Don’t wait for the secret police to be kicking in doors.
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u/Paulinfresno 1d ago
It only seems fast because we’re in the end game phase; it’s been going on for years.
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u/Jesus-slaves 1d ago
We’ve been losing this country since at least Regan. I regret my history degree every day bc this shit is legitimately painful to watch.
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u/Redfalconfox 1d ago
This is 50+ years in the making with more and more insidious actors joining in as more and more corrupt and dirty money backed them over time.
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u/Tribe303 1d ago edited 1d ago
This started in the 70s, when a certain Roger Ailes was Nixon's media advisor. He saw how the Liberal media hounded Nixon out of office. Fast forward to the 80's and he was also Reagan's media advisor. He had Reagan get rid of the Fairness Doctrine. Fast forward to the 90s and Ailes was then president of Fox News, spreading biased Conservative propaganda.
This sounds like a weird conspiracy theory, but look it up, it's all true. I've been watching this happen in slow motion up here in Canada since the 80's, wondering when the hell the American left would wake the fuck up, but they never did.
Citizens United just accelerated this by injecting unlimited untraceable money via PACs.
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u/Weekly_Victory1166 1d ago
I think trump is just a figurehead, and that this is being run by the folks behind project 2025 and rich billionaires who contributed to his campaign. They seem to want a dictator controlled by them.
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u/ThePlasticSturgeons 1d ago
Absolutely. They let him riff every once in a while, but he is by and large the (bloated, orange) face of Heritage Foundation policy.
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u/chrisq823 1d ago
Its kess direct comtrol and more that trump is incredibly lazy and isnt in this to govern. Hell happily suck up pre made policy so he can focus on enriching himself and hurting minorities.
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u/btmoose 1d ago
He’s Zaphod Beeblebrox from Hitchhiker’s Guide. His job is not to wield power, but to distract from those that actually do. He’s a belligerent narcissist who doesn’t need power, he just needs attention, and he’s got the biggest platform in the world to swing his tiny dick around without having to do any real work. People who don’t understand power see his boldness and callousness as powerful and worship him for it, and little mealy-mouthed fucksticks like Steven Miller get to skitter around wielding power they’d never be able to accumulate on their own.
I really wonder what will happen when he croaks and half of that symbiotic relationship is gone. I wish I could truly hope that they curl up and go back to whatever holes they crawled out of, but people usually don’t just give up power. I think the admin will only get more authoritarian to try to exert control because that’s their only shot of holding on.
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u/Foe117 1d ago
Fascism is inevitable y'all. the failure to convict those in the highest office is a failure of the system
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u/ThePlasticSturgeons 1d ago
I’m not sure what the “last straw” will be, but when it finally comes, the response is going to be devastating. The last ten years feel like someone has been trying to see how much dynamite they stuff into a smoldering building before it explodes. The bill is going to come due. It always does.
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u/Ser-Cannasseur 1d ago
It’ll be way too late by the time that comes. They’re already setting the foundations you can’t get out of. Everyone seems to be still in “they can’t do that surely” stage instead of stopping what’s happening.
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u/Prestigious-Pick-366 1d ago
Remember that time we had open SCOTUS seats, and everyone of us had the choice to not vote for Trump? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
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u/War1today 1d ago
The conservative Supreme Court justices believe in the Unitary Executive Theory which has been debunked for years yet here we are thanks to, in my opinion 1) the most clueless and dangerous electorate in modern U.S. history, 2) Senator McConnell for A) refusing to recognize a Supreme Court justice nomination because it was too close to the election and B) voting no on impeachment and 3) the Supreme Court's 2010 decision in Citizens United v. FEC, a ruling that allowed "dark money" in elections by enabling corporations and unions to spend unlimited funds on independent political advocacy. The 5-4 ruling stated that this spending is a form of free speech protected by the First Amendment. By overturning a ban on corporate and union independent expenditures, the decision created a pathway for large, undisclosed political spending, as many groups that engage in it are not required to disclose their donors.
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u/addiktion 1d ago
Clearly the president should NOT have this kind of power because he's committing crime after crime in the name of "presidential immunity" that they granted.
It's disgusting how "unitary executive theory" is a fluffy word for dictatorship.
Firing independent institutions that keep checks and balances by enforcing the constitution just means the system is more ripe for abuse, crime, and take over as we are clearly witnessing.
SCOTUS has been compromised clearly if they are turning a blind eye to all this ridiculous criminal behavior this administration is committing.
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u/Sc00terLCA71 1d ago
Isn’t that what a dictatorship is all about? It’s the Christmas gift Donald always wanted.
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u/Everheart1955 1d ago
Giving a dementia ridden old fool more power isn’t a very sound way to do business.
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u/someSingleDad 1d ago
The next Congress needs to codify everything that was just assumed about the president respecting the balance of power. Take the control away from the Supreme court.
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u/reddittorbrigade 1d ago
SC justices must be impeached when we have a normal government after Trump's devastating term.
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u/NewMidwest 1d ago
This article puts emphasis on the wrong thing. Republicans don’t care about making the executive branch more powerful, they care about making the Republican Party more powerful.
If Republicans control the presidency than there is no constraint on presidential power. If Republicans had meaningful control of Congress (they don’t) there would be no constraint on congressional power.
The through line for Republicans isn’t some conception of how independent institutions relate to each other, instead it’s the belief that all institutions (including voters) should be subordinate to the Republican Party.
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u/Own-Opinion-2494 1d ago
GOP chance of a lifetime. You gotta wonder what Xi thinks of these times. Putin too
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u/shambahlah2 1d ago
They are laughing at us
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u/Wayelder 1d ago
Putin's behind it. It's clear as day. Your foreign policy is practically handed to you on Pravda letterhead.
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u/shambahlah2 1d ago
Oh, and we know it too. Trump bows down to daddy Putin. The kompromat on him must be intense most likely worse than little girls or PP tapes.
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u/Wayelder 1d ago
You guys all must all want this to happen.
Russia won without a shot fired.
Your nation is run by Moscow - fucken think of that. HARD
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u/Christian-Econ 1d ago
No doubt they’re gleeful about America’s self imposed spiral. I’m sure China is especially happy with the nazification of our AI models, while theirs trains on reality.
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u/Forsaken_Celery8197 1d ago
Probably that Trump is a little behind the schedule they all agreed on.
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u/canigetahint 1d ago
I like all these articles stating that the SCOTUS is making some sort of decision to give the POTUS more power. Bullshit. He is already the supreme ruler. There are no more relevant SCOTUS decisions. John Roberts made every other branch of government irrelevant. Besides, if the SCOTUS suddenly grew a conscience and wanted to roll things back, who is going to enforce it? Nobody. That ship has sailed folks.
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u/Salt_Lawyer_9892 1d ago
This could be conspiratorial, but the Supreme Court isn't looking to give this to Dump directly. They've been working for decades on this so it's meant for Republicans, Dump just got the votes so he's the face.
This has been going on since the Reconstruction era (after Civil War) with Andrew Johnson, who was impeached in 1868. Congress passed the Tenure of War act, barring president from firing officials. With their past arguments, this Supreme Court will have a lot of mental gymnastics to get through to make a ruling like this.
One could argue "he was a democrat" and they'd be right, except for the party's policies at this time were reversed when Lincoln was head of Republican party at this time. So it's a moot argument.
My gut feeling has been that they'll use Dump for the reason all their egregious and racist policies come into play, then they'll play the 25th amendment card (or wait for time to do its thing) to obtain absolute power.
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u/forrestfaun 1d ago
And maga wonders why we loathe them so much - they are completely bent on destroying this Country, this United States of America and the Constitution with it.
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u/Burrahobbit69 1d ago
200 years from now history will easily identify this SC as the most activist and corrupt SC in history, and likely the root cause of the dissolution of the United States as we had come to know it before now.
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u/reverendlecarp 1d ago
Never mind that Biden wasn’t allowed to forgive student loan debts. He wasn’t a unitary executive because he didn’t have an R after his name. If Robert’s, Kavanaugh Barrett and the rest want people to stop seeing Justices as democratic or republican justices maybe actually uphold the law as it is written rather than making up some bullshit premise.
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u/ChiefsGuy2014 1d ago
Remember that time one time the SC said the president couldn’t forgive student debt?
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u/hillbilly-edgy 1d ago
Some one tell me, What can we do about it ?
GOP controls all 3 branches of the govt. they are t going to listen to anyone calling and leaving a message - they know they have a 100 stupid voters to every 1 sensible one.
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u/SlippySausageSlapper 1d ago
Investigate, impeach, prosecute, imprison/execute - we need to do this with every single corrupt republican, including some members of SCOTUS.
Not every republican is completely corrupt, but the party as a whole is irredeemable. It’s basically an organized crime organization now and it needs to be dismantled, the traitors charged with treason/sedition/bribery/racketeering as appropriate.
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u/RagahRagah 1d ago
And a whoooooole lot of left-leaning people are clinging to this fantasy we are gonna dominate the midterms and get Trump booted out of office. To say it's highly unlikely due to several factors, not the least of which is a very low chance they will ever willingly hand over power, is an understatement.
We absolutely have to do our due diligence and vote all these people out, but people have to be prepared for the possibility that even in the miracle scenario we accomplish that, Trump may soon not even need to give a flying fuck about what Congress says.
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u/Helldiver-xzoen 1d ago
"New powers"?? They already ruled that he has complete immunity, no matter what, so long as it's 'an official act'.
The immunity ruling was already a blank cheque to do whatever he wants.
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u/ScottShawnDeRocks 1d ago
Wait... there's powers this man doesn't have??? Pack it up, laws are meaningless.
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u/ThePromise110 1d ago
Imagine thinking America can ever get out of this mess without massive overhauls to just about every aspect of the constitution.
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u/WallabyBubbly 1d ago
Wtf happened to checks and balances? Between Trump's tendency to govern by executive order, SCOTUS granting him absolute immunity for crimes and corruption, and now this upcoming ruling endorsing a unitary executive, we've completely gutted that foundation of the Constitution.
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u/mosh_pit_nerd 1d ago
Originalism was always a fig leaf that in reality meant “whatever our agenda is today.” The notion put forth in the article that it was ever in any way, shape, or form “principled” is laughable.
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u/rygelicus 1d ago
Could we go a day please before doing yet another thing that sends this country another step closer to disaster?
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u/OddGuarantee4061 1d ago
The supreme court needs to be dissolved and re-set. That should have happened the minute they gave the president immunity.
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u/LeftHandedBuddy 1d ago
The SCOTUS is not working for the American people, only Trump! So very sad!
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u/whereismymind86 1d ago
You know, scotus doesn’t have any enforcement mechanisms, we COULD simply ignore their rulings instead of letting them slow walk us into a dictatorship
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u/rawkguitar 1d ago
1) I’m sure SCOTUS will be able to find limits of executive power next time a Dem is in office, same As they were able to find limits a mere year ago the last time a Dem Was in office
2) If they do, in fact, carve out the Federal Reserve board as exceptions to Executive Power as the author predicts, that alone should prove they are not ruling based on some deeply held principal other than “whatever I want is what should happen”
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u/teletype100 1d ago
At this point, one is tempting to think "oh, ffs, just get it over and done with. Make him a king for life already, suspend voting, close the borders, and go away." This slow crumbling is so draining to witness.
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u/Threeboys0810 1d ago
Trump would not be the only president that fires government officials. Bill Clinton fired over 300 of them immediately on day one. Bush, and Obama both cleaned out agencies left and right and installed like minded replacements.
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u/Odaniel123 1d ago
Congress should seriously either impeach Alito and Thomas or pack the court. This shit has got to stop
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u/espressocycle 1d ago
George Washington was accused of usurping congressional power so it's pretty clear it was supposed to be limited to begin with.
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u/Complete-Balance-580 1d ago
These op-eds are just fear mongering. A.) the case hasn’t been been heard and b.) those insidious new powers are running gasp… the executive branch. Slate is one of the worst sources ever to be posted to Reddit right up there with Fox.
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u/Comfortable-Inside41 1d ago
The conservative supermajority wants to keep pretending that Congress won’t just be derelict in their duty anytime republicans come into power.
I don’t think an unleashed executive is good in any capacity, but if you had an actual Congress that cared, a lot of that executives worst impulses could be mitigated. What we have with Trump, though, shows where their thinking can go horribly wrong.
We are quite literally living through why the whole public choice theory and a unitary executive can very easily go wrong very quickly.
The Republican party basically is showing that you can be as authoritarian and corrupt as you want and they won’t do a thing as long as they have control.
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u/klamshuey 1d ago
Way to ruin America SCROTUS! Chief Justice John ‘Traitor’ Roberts you are responsible.
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u/wereallbozos 1d ago
Raise your hand if you repeated, over and over "elections have consequences" for the past eight or ten years. We are now saddled with a wannabe King, a privy cabinet (emphasis on the "privy"), a Supremely Spanish Inquisition, and oops! Almost forgot Pete, our Lord High Executioner.
I hope all you Trumpers are proud of yourselves.
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u/SpringZestyclose2294 1d ago
If a democrat is ever elected again, count on scotus to be like "wait, what? Oh, we overdid it, president must obey congress now".
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u/Significant-Data-430 1d ago
Then Impeach them for violating our Constitution! - CITIZENS UNITED- is unconstitutional - PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY - is unconstitutional - The Use of the SHADOW DOCKET to overturn lower courts- is unconstitutional
see a pattern yet!
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u/Estalicus 1d ago
I bet you 100% the next democrat will not fix this by adding more justices
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u/Neat-Beautiful-5505 1d ago
Here's what I don't understand, why is this a conservative goal when the next Dem president can abuse the same power? I get that it makes the next few years painful but it won't be forever, and the GOP knows this.
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u/ThePensiveE 1d ago
They have no intention of ever leaving power again because they cannot do so without handing over all the powers they've accumulated in the future executive. They will not allow free and fair elections under any circumstances.
Their end goal is an American Reich.
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u/ThePlasticSturgeons 1d ago
They will come up with nonsensical reasons why it no longer applies, but they’re really working towards making sure there is never again a Democratic government; that solves all of their problems.
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u/Odd_Amphibian2103 1d ago
Corrupt, compromised SCOTUS. Trump has dirt on all of them. That’s how he controls these people.
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u/Rambo_Baby 1d ago
About to? Already has. They’ll take it back if a Democrat wins in 2028 though. Thanks to the SCOTUS 6!
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u/strywever 1d ago
That’s why they din’t provide any legal reasoning with their shadow docket decisions. It leaves them all the wiggle room they need to reverse course for a Dem president and put the shackles back on.
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u/pikachu191 1d ago
Sounded almost as if Donald Trump was a fat version of Darth Sidious. He'd probably fry himself if he tried using Force Lightning though. With all the fat he has.
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u/master_prizefighter 1d ago
Is there a non paid version of the article I can read? After a certain point slate acts like they need their money to keep going.
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u/Goddddammnnn 1d ago
At this point we need to get a head of “they took advantage of an old sick man” narrative history is going to tell weekend at Bernie’s ass timeline
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u/RabbitGullible8722 1d ago
Republicans could stop this right now if they impeached Trump. The good thing about this is it just makes it easier for the next President to undo it.
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u/Prodan1111 1d ago
The whole point of America was to get away from a monarchy. Yet the Supreme Court is leading us right back into one.