Thread by @SenWhitehouse

Well, the FedSoc justices pretty much disgraced themselves and their fake pet theories in yesterday’s oral argument on presidential immunity.🧵

Remember when they were “minimalists”? Yesterday they embarked on a long policy peregrination so as to make what Gorsuch called a “ruling for the ages.” (He actually said that.) Behind the stunning pomposity, it’s miles from “minimalist.”

Remember when they were “constitutionalists”? The constitution says they’ve got to stick to the “case or controversy” before them, and yet they went on their wild hypothetical wanderings. Some “constitutionalists.”

Remember when they were “originalists”? Follow the text, never mind what outcomes it leads to?

All gone, in a fog of chin-stroking and hand-waving about what various rulings might portend, and what effects they could have. (That may not be a bad way to rule, but it’s sure not “originalism.”)

Remember their recent switch (Dobbs, Bruen) to “history and tradition”? The “history” is that no president but Nixon and Trump committed crimes; none sought immunity.

The “tradition” is that U.S. presidents for centuries got along just fine without get-out-of-jail-free cards; knowing that if they do crime, they do time.

This case was easy. The FedSoccers had an indictment in front of them. They had zero precedent of absolute presidential immunity.

The question before them was, could the government proceed to trial under that indictment? Instead they embarked on a graduate policy seminar “for the ages.” Oy.

Other than flagrant violations of their own alleged principles, what did this grotesque exercise produce? DELAY. It produced DELAY.

In Bush v. Gore, the FedSoc justices decided the case that put Bush in the presidency one day after oral arguments. When the Republican Party needed speed, FedSoc justices delivered.

And if, as some predict, the Court sends it back for fact-finding, note the variance from the Court’s recent penchant for fact-finding even false facts.  
whitehouse.senate.gov/wp-content/upl…

Guess I wasn’t the only one that noticed! politico.com/news/2024/04/2…