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Late Friday afternoon, after most people had already turned off the news receptor parts of their brains for the holiday weekend, the Supreme Court decided not to hear Donald Trump’s squirrelshit claim (why should bats get all the attention?) that presidents are gods, so he can’t be prosecuted for his role in trying to overturn the 2020 election.
The Court turned down a request from Special Counsel Jack Smith to hear Trump’s claim immediately, before it works its way through the appeals court process. Trump’s attorneys claim that presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution, not only while they’re in office, but also afterward. No legal scholars take the idea seriously, and US District Judge Tanya Chutkan said it was stupid nonsense on December 1, and Trump appealed to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Smith then filed to ask the Supremes to take the appeal immediately, something the Court does from time to time in serious cases, like during the Nixon Tapes case in Watergate.
The Supremes announced they’d declined the request to take up the question in the briefest possible one-sentence ruling, with no explanation of why, no indication how the justices voted, and no written dissents.
Fortunately, at the same time he asked the Supremes to expedite the appeal, Smith also asked the DC Circuit to expedite it too, which hooray it has, because who ever heard of an American citizen declaring they have the divine right to commit crimes with complete immunity? A three-judge panel of the appeals court will hear oral arguments on January 9, and if the panel laughs at the ridiculous argument as is expected, Trump could delay things further by demanding the full DC Circuit hear the appeal.
One way or the other, the appeal will make its way to the Supreme Court, and if Trump asks for a review by the full DC Circuit, Smith could once again request that the Supreme Court jump in and stop that nonsense. Politico says the Supreme Court would be likely to hear it by “mid- to late-January.”
Trump’s trial in the election subversion case is set to begin March 4, so depending on how much the Supreme Court drags things out, the trial may have to be delayed, and Trump will be so very happy that he’ll probably incite death threats against fewer people involved in the case than he might otherwise. (It’s OK, probably, because if you’ve ever been president, you probably can’t be prosecuted for anything you do afterwards, either.)
This much is certain, at least: At every turn in the proceedings, Trump will keep calling Smith “deranged,” and accuse Biden of being a tyrant (which is OK, because aren’t presidents able to do anything they want?), and his dumbshit followers will keep sending him money.
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