Today’s decision destroyed the principle on which this nation was founded, that all people in the United States of America should be equal before the law.
The name of the case is “Donald J. Trump v. United States” (Heather Cox Richardson)
Until July 1st, 2024, I was willing to call the United States a democracy. I recognize that our particular experiment in democracy was always partial—for much of the history of this country women were denied a right to vote, as were African-Americans, and even today far too many are excluded from the democratic process.
Nevertheless, yesterday’s decision arrogating supreme power to the president is of another order.
I also recognize that for much of the more recent history of our nation, our democracy has masked the reality of our plutocracy. It is the rich who rule us, and this never more consolidated by (yet another) Supreme Court decision than Citizens United, when wealthy donors and corporations gained economic sovereignty over elections.1
Nevertheless, yesterday’s decision is the nail in the coffin. We have so ratcheted up executive power as to make the president our sovereign.
Yesterday was the return of the king.
When I read the decision of the Court yesterday, I was not surprised. The court is stacked by justices appointed by Trump. There is little surprise they would defend him, other than the surprise that “justices” would so cravenly offer obeisance to him, bringing down a court decision that amounts to a constitutional amendment, a decision so novel2 it is unrecognizable in relationship to the original ideas of our constitution.
The justices (all of whom are not that old and appointed for life) themselves enjoy a certain kind of sovereignty, and in this decision keep some power over the one they have made sovereign, retaining the right to define as a court what counts as “official acts” of the executive.
Entirely apart from the reality that a Trump monarchy under these new immunity protections will be a literal threat to everyone, the decision breaks not just the terms of a potential Trump win but the terms of all future presidency.
We no longer have a democracy. We have a plutocratic monarchy, perhaps a dictatorship, one that may or may not fall into illiberalism or fascism, all depending on who becomes president and lives the state of exception.
This morning I was sitting with a small group reading Galatians. At one point Paul asks, “Do you really want to go back to being subjects to those old systems? Why?”
I really do wonder why the Supreme Court justices, who are presumably well-read and intelligent, wish to return to a monarchy. I suspect it may have to do, as it often does, with race, and the concerns so many have (the ones who buy into replacement theories, that is) that democracy no longer serves white people well when they cease to be a majority.
But for today, as we collectively grieve, I would be remiss in not saying: although U.S. democracy has only been tried in fits and starts, and has never been all it could be; and although U.S. democracy has not been very democratic for many groups, for whom this new moment does not seem that new.
Nevertheless, the final nail in the coffin went in yesterday. It really did. U.S. democracy is dead. We are back to the age of kings.
It remains to be seen whether we as a people have the political will to try democracy again, or the political power to make it happen.
All part of a very long game by conservative dark money to over-throw democracy.
Presidential immunity is a brand new doctrine. In February 2021, explaining away his vote to acquit Trump for inciting an insurrection, Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who had also protected Trump in his first impeachment trial in 2019, said: “Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office…. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation, and former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.”
But it was not just McConnell who thought that way. At his confirmation hearing in 2005, now–Chief Justice John Roberts said: “I believe that no one is above the law under our system and that includes the president. The president is fully bound by the law, the Constitution, and statutes.”
In his 2006 confirmation hearings, Samuel Alito said: “There is nothing that is more important for our republic than the rule of law. No person in this country, no matter how high or powerful, is above the law.”
And in 2018, Brett Kavanaugh told the Senate: “No one’s above the law in the United States, that’s a foundational principle…. We’re all equal before the law…. The foundation of our Constitution was that…the presidency would not be a monarchy…. [T]he president is not above the law, no one is above the law.”
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I've felt like the lost lamb bleating in the night as the wolf makes its leisurely approach. I have always promoted separation of church and state. I have held Bonhoeffer at a distance.
To distort the metaphor, the wolf has huffed and puffed and blown the house down.
Dr. Nessan posted today: "On the 28th February 1933, President Hindenburg signed the Emergency Decree for the Protection of the German People. This decree suspended the democratic aspects of the Weimar Republic and declared a state of emergency.
This decree gave the Nazis a legal basis for the persecution and oppression of any opponents, who were framed as traitors to the republic. People could be imprisoned for any or no reason."
I have read books about pastors who cooperated with the Nazis and about pastors who defied the Nazis. My question to you , as pastors is this: "What is God calling us to do?" Bishop ABC, Dr. XYZ have both advised me to "preach the Gospel." Jesus loves me, this I know? Love God, love your neighbor, Amen, shut up?
I know there are pastors preaching against Christian Nationalism, but at what cost?
I am meeting with our local UCC pastor to pray for a path forward. Democracy is not our God, but it's sure been a nice smooth ride in an established vehicle. Now we're out of gas,
tires slashed, windshield smashed and we're hiding in the ditch.
For the love of Jesus, your sister in Christ.