I don't know anymore. SCOTUS seems to be making things up as they go along. And I should have said circuit courts.
Franklin Roosevelt tried adding justices after a conservative court struck down some of his policies. He got blocked. Senate can vote to add seats but Republicans will not allow that.
The biggest difference between then and now is that Republicans have discovered they don't need to have any shame anymore, and thus can just do whatever they want. I don't know if Democrats will ever figure out this one weird trick.
A difference between science and pseudoscience like creationism is that science finds data and forms conclusions while pseudoscience starts with conclusion and tries to find, twist or invent data to fit. Which is what this court did. All lower courts ruled quickly and unanimously there was no immunity. The extreme court decided they wanted Trump, not presidents generally but Trump to have immunity because they are Trump supporters. They tried to cobble a legal doctrine to fit.
Today's court decision, though, seems to have given the executive branch added latitude. It'd be wise for the Democrats to at least explore it. At the very least, the way it's set up now, it will take months or years for a challenge to work through the courts.
Gee, I wonder how many more Supreme Court justices Trump will be able to appoint when he wins in November? Maybe the republicans should pack the courts like the Democrats threatened to do.
As someone else mentioned above, the Republicans have manufactured a constitutional crisis. To me, that would indicate Biden could cite that in attempt after attempt to take a lot of other previously unthinkable steps, and he might be covered because SCOTUS said POTUS is immune from prosecution on official presidential business. Even what that means is extremely vague. IMO, Biden could do anything and just stay in office saying it's for the good of the constitution and the country until it reaches a court that might, by then, be comprised very differently.
Wins what in November? You understand that an interpretation of today's ruling could mean the postponement of the election, right?
Trump has asked New York state conviction be thrown out because he has immunity even though most acts took place before he was president.
I'm going to remind everything that part of the argument that won the case today for "presidential immunity" was that a president only could be prosecuted for arranging the murder of a political opponent is if that president was first impeached and removed by Congress. That is exactly what Trump's lawyer said, that that would be OK in their interpretation of the law. SCOTUS has left that now open for debate or interpretation by lower courts. Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War with the expectation that he had far fewer powers than SCOTUS today seemed to bestow upon the president. As long as he can make a reasonable case that he's doing it as an official duty of his office, he's practically untouchable.
This will hang over him for a while, though, because it's a state crime and it will have to run its way through the courts. He's already been found guilty. That's not going to change until some court throws it out, and it remains in question. However, again, Joe Biden now has been endowed with vague but potentially limitless powers if he has a skilled legal team helping wield them. He could leave Trump in felony limbo potentially for years.
Please stop thinking Biden can do anything he wants. Aside from being an institutionalist, you can bet your life savings and your firstborn the Extreme Court would find a way to say he can't. They aren't interested in consistency, logic or law. This court majority has the function of ensuring Republican rule, specifically Trump rule.
I don't know that it could be locked in. The Republicans and Democrats would just go back and forth continuing to add more and more justices to the SC.
Oh no, our democracy is over. =( Now we're going to have presidents applying for loans using the market value of their property, without being fined billions of dollars...
