Wednesday, April 24, 2019

Trump's Attitude: The Supreme is Mine, All Mine, I Own and Control Them, Believe Me

Trump's Goto Place for Absolution
(He seems to think so)

Trump seems to think that since he made two USSC appointments, that somehow the high court is his pet project – at his whim matter the issue – for example article here from MSNBC in part:

·       The White House’s agenda on DACA? Trump expects the Supreme Court to rule his way. 
·       On birthright citizenship? Trump expects the Supreme Court to rule his way.
·       Redirecting funds through an emergency declaration? Trump expects the Supreme Court to rule his way.
·       Tearing down the country’s health care system? Trump expects the Supreme Court to rule his way.

With those issues in this mind, consider this Trump’s latest mini-tantrum via two tweets natch:

The Mueller Report, despite being written by Angry Democrats and Trump Haters, and with unlimited money behind it ($35,000,000), didn’t lay a glove on me. I DID NOTHING WRONG. If the partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the U.S. Supreme Court.”

And:

Not only are there no ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ there are no Crimes by me at all. All of the Crimes were committed by Crooked Hillary, the Dems, the DNC and Dirty Cops - and we caught them in the act! We waited for Mueller and WON, so now the Dems look to Congress as last hope!”

My note: First of all, I can’t stop laughing at Trump’s total lack of Constitutional knowledge).

Trump said he’d ask the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene if Congress mounts an impeachment effort against him – even though there are no legal or Constitutional grounds for the justices to consider such a request. 

In two tweets Trump said: “If the partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the Supreme Court.” Then: “There no ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors,’ there are no Crimes by me at all.”

Memo for Mr. Trump: The Constitution gives the House of Representatives the wide latitude to impeach any president. Some DEMS have called for starting that process now. Speaker Pelosi and other party leaders have rejected.

To wit:The House shall have the sole Power of Impeachment, and the Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments.”

Even a 1993 Supreme Court decision says the courts have no role to play in that process, but that the Chief Justice (now: John Roberts) would preside over any Senate trial.

Also, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who was nominated by Trump, wrote in the MN Law Review in 2009:If the President does something dastardly, the impeachment process is available. No single prosecutor, judge, or jury should be able to accomplish what the Constitution assigns to the Congress.”

My 2 cents: Yes, impeachment is mostly a political question, but in the case of Nixon is was clearly thatClinton not so much, and Andrew somewhat questionable.

With Trump there is strong circumstantial evidence (and real or direct evidence) and plenty of examples, like his own words and actions, even those attempted but not completed are enough, I strongly believe for the House to charge him with high crimes and thus issues a number of Articles of Impeachment. Then his conviction by trial and vote to remove him from office in the senate.

So, can a person, even a president be charged and convicted on circumstantial evidence? Yes, and it is important to note that our justice system is one that is based on the presumption of innocence until proven guilty just like stated in Blackstone's formulation that it is “Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” 

However, the burden of proof for the prosecution is quite high, sometimes even with amazing advancements in technology, prosecutors aren't able to convince a jury that the defendant's guilt has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt — and sometimes the public disagrees with that decision. But public opinion doesn't matter to the justice system, and where there's reasonable doubt in the jury's collective mind, there simply can be no conviction.

We shall see – stay tuned. This is only half way over.

Thanks for stopping by.




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