‘Justice Delayed Is Democracy Denied’: Supreme Court Excoriated Across Spectrum
Trump may not be tried for attempting to overturn 2020 election before Election Day
The Supreme Court is being castigated across the political spectrum for seeming to dither on Donald Trump’s claim of absolute presidential immunity ahead of this year’s forthcoming election.
Justices last week heard oral arguments about whether Trump has immunity related to his activities connected to trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election and remain in power despite Democrat Joe Biden winning the vote.
Among the array of charges he faces, the former president has been indicted in federal court in Washington DC for those actions.
Trump now is running as the presumptive Republican nominee to return to the White House.
Justices are being criticized for moving too slowly, which could well mean that Trump isn’t tried for trying to overturn the last election before voters turn out for this next one.
“Justice delayed is democracy denied. I mean, that is what’s at stake here,” said Donna Brazile, a political commentator who ran Democrat Al Gore’s 2000 presidential campaign and served twice as acting chair of the Democratic National Committee (DNC).
Some on the right are just as concerned.
“Ali, the Supreme Court has now fiddled while Rome has almost burned to the ground, all but trivializing the existential threat to America’s democracy and the rule of law facing the country. America’s democracy and the rule of law are the heart and soul of the nation,” J. Michael Luttig, an anti-Trump conservative retired federal appellate judge, told MSNBC’s Ali Velshi. “It’s our democracy and the rule of law that have made America the beacon of freedom for the world for almost 250 years.
“Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election did drive a stake through America’s democracy and the rule of law. His efforts to overturn the election both disqualified him from the presidency under the 14th Amendment, and it rendered him subject to prosecution for his offenses against the United States,” Luttig added. “Yet, three and a half years later, the former president has remained unapologetically defiant. [Last] week he argued, as you said, to a receptive Supreme Court that he is absolutely immune from prosecution for his offenses — indeed, that all presidents must be absolutely immune from prosecution for the crimes they commit while in office — in order that he and all future presidents will be free to faithfully execute the laws without fear that they will be held accountable for the crimes they commit while in office. That is an absurd argument.
“That it’s even being made before the Supreme Court is an embarrassment to the Constitution and to our country,” he said. “This said, the Supreme Court’s seriously entertained the former president’s argument earlier this week, clearly telegraphing that it was tempted by this preposterous argument, all the while barely even mentioning the narrow and only question presented to the court for decision. Namely, whether the former president may be prosecuted for the specific offenses he committed in attempting to overturn the 2020 election and remain in power against the will of the American people.”
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