The Supreme Court of the United States has issued a historical decision, 23-939 Trump v. the United States (07/01/202.) declaring that the President of the United States has absolute immunity for all official acts and activities and a presumption of immunity for private actions. (Thomas Jefferson and the other drafters would have disagreed if this ‘originalist’ court had bothered to consult them.) Congress has already surrendered even more power to the President. It has sacrificed its constitutionally mandated responsibility as the first of the three pillars of our famous ‘checks and balances’ to the God of Partisan Politics. The most notorious example occurred last year when the GOP House scuttled its own immigration bill -- when ordered to do so by Donald Trump for fear it would help the Democrats.
Now, the Supreme Court, the third-named pillar of ‘checks and balance’ in the Constitution, has completed the transition to elected dictatorship. Anyone affected by any Presidential act, e.g., the widow and children of the proverbial man shot in broad daylight on 5th Avenue, must prove a negative, a daunting task. A presumption of immunity requires a much higher burden of proof than a straightforward murder prosecution.
The MAGA crowd are out celebrating in the streets, drunk with the belief that their leader and hero will, upon coming into office, accomplish every one of their different dream projects such as banning abortion nationally, making guns available to everyone, and expelling millions of dark-skinned migrants. The Democratic crowd is in a dither (never mind talking about Biden’s age).
SCOTUS’ decision ensures that Trump’s current legal problems will be delayed until his inauguration in 2025. His attorneys have already appealed to the Supreme Court arguing that Trump v. the United States makes their client immune for actions taken BEFORE he became President. After that he can order his Attorney General to drop all federal charges. He can also deal with all the actions in state courts by ordering the arrest of all the prosecutors, declaring them acts of sedition. Even before Trump v. United States, the presumptive next President has declared that he would, once in office, take revenge against all his enemies, jailing them (or worse). SCOTUS has now preemptively given him the authority to do confident that he can do so without safe from later prosecution.
I suggest that MAGA stop the cheering and that the Democrats get a grip. Both have overlooked the fact that Joe Biden is still President. Two can play the game of the unrestrained power gifted by SCOTUS. Biden, if he acts decisively, can derail MAGA and Trump -- and prove his fitness and virility for office. Biden can cite the ‘national security threat’ posed by Iran, Russia, China, North Korea threat and order the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to take control of all the gun manufacturers and gun stores in the United States and confiscate all privately held military style weapons (i.e., AR-15s) capable of easy conversion to military use and their ammunition. The US Armed Forces need to ensure availability of small arms and ammunition for any emergency. Biden has precedent. Truman, after all, seized the country’s railroads in 1946 to prevent a ‘national emergency.’ Biden can count on the fact that two thirds of the US population would approve. President Biden could next order the FBI to protect physicians performing emergency abortions under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act (EMTALA), in his official capacity enforcing federal preeminence. Polls indicate that four fifths of Americans would approve.
Biden should take a page from Dwight Eisenhower. Famously, Arkansas Governor Orville Faubus ordered the Arkansas National Guard to prevent black children from entering Little Rock High School under the SCOTUS’ Brown v. Board of Education desegregation decision. Eisenhower promptly used his authority to federalize the same Arkansas National Guard under the 1807 Insurrection Act and ordered it to protect the same black kids entering Little Rock High School. (Ike also sent a battalion of the 101st Airborne to Little Rock to make sure everyone knew he meant business.)
Citing the same Act, Biden should federalize the Texas National Guard and order it to remove the razor wire Texas Governor Abbot placed in the Rio Grande on Mexico’s. borders. Abbott usurped the President’s constitutional power to control our borders. Should Abbott and/or his Attorney General Ken Paxton object; they can be detained. If Trump objects, I suggest Biden direct Trump’s Secret Service protective detail to detain him incommunicado at his Trump Tower residence. Any judge issuing an injunction against Biden’s Actions can and should be detained for aiding and abetting the insurrection. These two actions would nail down black and most Latino voters.
If somebody petitions the Supreme Court to stop him, Biden can take a page from Andrew Jackson. In 1833, Georgia ordered the confiscation of the land and property of the Cherokee Indians and their deportation. The famed Supreme Court Chief Justice John Marshall ruled against Georgia and called on the US Army to enforce his judgment. President Jackson refused, famously quoted as saying: "John Marshall has made his decision; now let him enforce it!"
I lack the space to list all the other executive actions the President can take under Trump v. United States that would be popular with large swathes of the population. History has proven that people love the tough guy who takes bold, even outrageous, actions. Trump’s outrageousness got him elected; now is the time for Biden to become more outrageous and possibly take away his base – with due thanks to Trump’s Supreme Court.