Supreme Court Closes Ranks With Trump

On June 30, Donald Trump promoted two posts calling for the arbitrary, baseless jailing of more than a dozen of his political enemies — Democrats and Republicans — on his Twitter knock-off website. It was typical behavior for Trump — and unthinkable for any other former U.S. President.

The next day, the Supreme Court rewrote the Constitution to align it with Trump, so that he could act out his lawless fantasies. “The President may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers,” the conservative supermajority wrote, effectively placing him above the law, just after explicitly denying they were doing so, by saying, “The president is not above the law.”

But their gaslighting didn’t confuse Justice Sonia Sotomayor. In her dissent, she spelled out exactly what that meant: “Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”

“It’s as if they are trying to set the stage for Donald Trump’s new monarchical presidency,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, a former professor of constitutional law, said on MSNBC.

The opinion “turns the Constitution’s text and structure inside out and upside down, saying things that are flatly contradicted by the document’s unambiguous letter and obvious spirit,” Yale constitutional law professor Akhil Reed Amar wrote in the Atlantic.

It’s also wildly unpopular. Repealing Roe v. Wade in Dobbs was opposed by 60-65% of Americans in various polls. Overturning presidential immunity was opposed by 70% of Americans in a CBS poll in early June.

The lawless alignment of the Supreme Court supermajority with Trump’s dictatorial ambitions starkly underscored the fundamental problem with President Joe Biden’s campaign. It’s not that Biden is too old, or performed badly in the debate, which has obsessed and distracted the political class, under the leadership of the New York Times. It’s that he fundamentally fails to grasp the full extent of the anti-democratic forces imperiling our democracy, of which Trump is merely a symptom and superspreader, not the underlying disease. See, for example, Biden’s refusal to even consider expanding the Supreme Court, when everything hinges on curbing its destructive power. Biden’s failure to recognize the full extent of the threat and respond accordingly is the fundamental weakness of his presidency and his campaign. But it’s a weakness shared by the party more broadly.

This was thrown into relief by something else that happened just before the Supreme Court’s lawless immunity ruling. On June 30, while hosting the BET Awards, Taraji P. Henson repeatedly highlighted the threat posed by Project 2025, a draconian plan supported by conservative Trump-aligned groups to dramatically expand presidential power, fire up to 50,000 government workers — replacing them with Trump loyalists —  and enact an oppressive Christian nationalist agenda, including a nationwide abortion ban, restrictions on birth control and mass deportations of millions of long-time residents.

“Show up and show out when it’s time to vote, because it’s not just about the presidential election,” Henson said. “It’s time for us to play chess, not checkers. It’s about making decisions that will affect us as human beings. Our careers, our next generations to come. Did you know that it is now a crime to be homeless? Pay attention. It’s not a secret: Look it up. They are attacking our most vulnerable citizens. The Project 2025 plan is not a game. Look it up!”

And that’s just what people did, as searches for “Project 2025” skyrocketed immediately afterward.

Biden and the rest of the Democratic Party have been surprisingly quiet about Project 2025, and have done nothing to advance a similarly integrated progressive vision of how to advance a democracy that cares for all its people — an integrated vision, not a laundry list. Chess, not checkers, as Henson put it.

The clearest indication of the impact Henson had was Trump’s sudden — and typically incoherent — disavowal of Project 2025, which was drafted by scores of former Trump officials, and whose main goals align perfectly with his own stated priorities.

“I know nothing about Project 2025,” Trump posted, and then quickly both attacked it and wished for its success. “I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” he said. Strong words for something he knows nothing about. But next, in another contradiction, he said, “Anything they do, I wish them luck,” before adding, “but I have nothing to do with them.” He also said, “I have no idea who is behind it,” even though the Heritage Foundation proudly and publicly spearheaded it, and the names of the co-authors and editors are public — 81% of whom worked in Trump’s administration or transition team, according to a tabulation by The Guardian.

Trump is famously uninterested in serious policy — suggesting drinking bleach to fight COVID-19, for example — so one might half-believe his feigned ignorance. But Project 2025 is first and foremost about giving him unrestricted power, and that’s one thing he’s avidly interested in. So, in short, Henson struck a nerve and Trump reacted — exactly the way we’d expect him to.

As the media continues to obsess over whether Biden should drop out, Henson’s call out and the response reminds us that democracy is about we, the people, and what we choose to do. It will not be saved by institutions, as the Supreme Court so clearly showed us, and as Trump is so eager to demonstrate once again. It will not be saved by an ideal candidate defeating him, either. Because the threat to democracy goes far beyond Trump, and far beyond the Supreme Court he helped shape. But defeating Trump this November — along with Republicans up and down the ticket — is a necessary first step.