'There Are No Kings in America': Biden Blasts Supreme Court, Issues Dire Warning After Immunity Ruling
dailyboulder.com
“(With) today’s Supreme Court decision on presidential immunity, that fundamentally changed. For all practical purposes, there are virtually no limits on what the president can do. It’s a fundamentally new principle and it’s a dangerous precedent because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by the law even including the supreme court of the United States.”
Throughout his address, Biden underscored the gravity of the moment, emphasizing that the only barrier to the president’s authority now lies in the personal restraint of the officeholder. He warned vehemently against the prospect of Trump returning to power, painting a stark picture of the dangers such an outcome could pose.
Then fucking do something about it Joe! The DNC has been little more than passive observers to the raise of fascism.
Since we're talking about a SCOTUS ruling, it would be on Congress to pass legislation.
And to follow up on @teodor_from_achewood@lemmy.world's comment, the Democratic National Committee is a private party organization that supports Democratic candidates in elections. They have nothing to do with passing legislation.
It's on Biden to personally demonstrate to SCOTUS just how dangerous the ruling was.
By calling for drone strikes on SCOTUS, yes.
No, Congress cannot pass legislation on this matter. The ruling says that the Constitution itself grants the President immunity, so it would take a Constitutional amendment to change it.
Sure they can. They can pass legislation that says "The President of the United States of America does not have criminal immunity from official acts taken as President."
Once that's done, a case would have to be identified and charged. The President would need to do something that would be considered a crime, and would be considered an official act, then be charged with that crime. Then it would follow its way through the legal process - district court, appeals court, en banc, eventually landing at the Supreme Court, who would decide whether that legislation was constitutional.
There are plenty of unconstitutional laws still on the books, especially at the state level, "atheists cannot hold public office" is a great example. Of course, those laws are "unenforceable" under normal circumstances; these are not normal circumstances. We've seen how the fascists abuse the legal system. It would not surprise me one bit for them to latch on to one of those "still on the books" unconstitutional laws and attempt to enforce it, because throwing wrenches into the machinery is the point.
Using the "atheists cannot hold public office" example, it would be elementary to cause harm to someone's campaign for elected office just by seeking to enforce an unconstitutional law. Drawing attention to the lack of religious belief in a candidate, forcing said candidate to defend themselves, getting the unwashed masses to go "Yeah! That's what the law says!" because they're too fucking stupid to understand that other court rulings have nullified that law.
Constitutional amendment
Still. The DNC has systems in place to decide who to back in elections to pass legislation. Their messaging since 2015 has been embarrassing. They keep courting moderate conservatives that don't exist and ignoring unrepresented potential voters who do. They talk about how they win elections when there's good turn out without ever analyzing which candidates encourage high turnout. Americans want to feel represented in politics and we don't. The Democrats need to do something that would weaken the democrat party but would weaken the Republican party more: they need to actively begin dismantling the two party system. We want election reform. We want the police to not be a hostile force against the general populace. We want the society we live in to benefit everyone and not just the kinds of people who can afford to finance an election campaign.
The polling exists. We all know that neither party represents or enacts what the people want do. The Democrats refuse to look around and see what's happening, preferring to rearrange the deck chairs as the ship sinks because that's the only thing they know to do. And you know? I can't really blame them. We the people have also been rearranging the deck chairs. We live in a country that only benefits the top but we all still show up to do our duties without looking at what's going on in other countries where the people are standing up to their authoritarian oppressors.
The worst part is the fascists know what they're doing. They know to decay the structure by raising the temperature because we've become too complacent. We need to stand up to fascism in a way that we haven't ever since McArthyism.
No it does not.
Then what the fuck is a primary and how do they decide to back in a primary and what the fuck is a super delegate?
This is an interpretation of the constitution, so what congress needs to do it to amend the constitution to explicitly state the president is not immune, and good luck getting that through
They can amend it or they can pass law citing a different part of the constitution or other judicial precedent, then if it gets challenged the Supreme Court would have to rule on the constitutionality of it's latest legal justification.
Hopefully after we replace six justices.
"The DNC" doesn't do what you think it does.
It doesn't do what it should.
The point of the party is supposed to be long-term strategy and putting the platform over any one person.
When people talk about what the DNC should be doing, it's not some "gotchya" to point out that they're not doing their job and leadership needs replaced.
It's just proving their point
Some might call them enablers at this point.
He’s so pissed about it he’s gonna do absolutely nothing!
I would love to see him detain every scotus justice and stash em in a safe house for their protection/national security. Give them no freedom of movement or agency over their lives... see if they change their tune.
So, Biden can order seal team 6 to permanently fix the Supreme Court by removing 6 and leaving 3 alive. Gotcha.
After all, those 6 argued that he has the right to do so.
Democrats will continue to give sternly worded remarks all the way up to their appointment with the gallows, so brave!
Ugh, it's literally Julius Caesar vs Cato all over again.
Biden is Cato obviously.
I declare an official act of presidency!
Insert Michael Scott drawing a gun.
Only if he claims it’s an official act though! Don’t forget that part! Write “official act as president” on everything!
If he issues it as an executive order, it works.
In red ink at a 45° angle. He's basically a sovcit now.
Biden fucking dumbass going blast no kings well I can promise you if Trump wins exactly how he will act. He will take Full of advantage of this ruling.
Best thing Biden can do but he want is take advantage of it to in helping out the American people.
Any seal team actually, also various other military personnel.
If only he were in some position of power to do something about it hmmmmmm.
He doesn't. Impeaching judges is the House's job.
You know your house rep is up for election this year?
Yeah but now he's above the law, so I say do it anyway and overturn the ruling his damn self.
Legally .. but the law doesn't apply to the president so long as they're doing it for a reason they believe to be official.
The ruling more or less explicitly states that Biden could go on national television, say "Won't someone rid me of these troublesome justices?", have them assassinated, and face no legal repercussions because using the bully pulpit is covered by presidential immunity
Farther. He could use the military or any branch of government to kill them and still get immunity. We now have a long, don't get me wrong we always had some assumption that that's how it went but seeing it on paper is an eye opener.
Hell, he could sign literally every US asset over to anyone he pleases and there's nothing we could do via a legal means. It's not supposed to work that way but if no law constrains the office then the office is simply free to do literally whatever they want.
Dumbass and spineless Biden and Democrats. The supreme court literally just started that America had a king but this dumbass party would rather take some stupid fucking high road bullshit instead of playing the game to ensure the fascist fuck around and find out.
They don't even have to resort to assassinations, they could really tell the IRS to audit 501(c) and remove their status from the churches and bullshit Republican charities, or tell the justice department to focus on domestic terrorism and corruption to fuck over Republican groups and representatives, or tell the FDA to allow the sale of raw milk.
Play the god damn game and be the fucking king if these corrupt justice says there's a king.
That is a guaranteed path to fascism.
I'm not gonna say that the chances are good, but if they refuse, and win, and then walk back the changes, maybe fascism can be averted.
If they walk into using these tools and normalise them even more, then when the other party gets the government again, you get a republican fascist, and if the other party never gets the government again, it's because you got a "democrat" fascist.
Don't race to the bottom, everyone loses there.
No, you use the fascist power granted by fascists to abuse the fascists who granted it in the first place. Power is the only thing that stops fascists. Start with a few nights in a black site for the justices who thought granting absolute power to the president was OK. If scotus already accepts fascism from their team it's already too late for your plan to work.
So fascist powers for the fascists, but not for the non-fascists.
Get rid of all thet right now with whatever means IMO.
When have the Democrats ever shown us that they’ll do that?
Roe? Voting Rights act? Hell, a Republican had to save ObamaCare.
Democrats aren’t going to save us from FASCISM. The sooner everyone realizes this, the more prepared we’ll be to fight against it.
I honestly don't know why anyone is strategising as if they're on the same side as dems or any politician. I'm not even convinced we have a common enemy in Trump, because they don't seem serious about beating him.
The question you should ask when voting is "Who is my preferred enemy?" Biden won't abuse the carte blanche immunity from criminal prosecution? Great, sounds like he's the weaker enemy, so vote for him. Force him to keep the position he clearly doesn't want. Force him to disappoint his base for another four years.
While he's doing that, get to work building alternatives that meet people's needs from the bottom up and wean them off of this criminal system, to undermine it and prepare people to thrive as it crumbles.
The great thing about this political theory of change is that it's the same regardless of who's in power. It decouples you from the capricious, disempowering shifts of electoral politics.
That would be juuuuuust about the dumbest thing they could possibly do. It would mobilize gigantic swaths of voters who are heavily invested in rhetoric over fact-checking.
Doing away with Roe mobilized many of those voters who could be considered to be fence sitters towards the left. Removing church tax exemptions would move them right back and it would do NOTHING to solve the problem, because while the actual big offenders are happily USING the hell out of that tax exemption, they're rich enough that they'll get along fine without it.
It WOULD hurt a whole lot of TINY churches that employ 1-50 people per church and actually do community work, though. All of those would go away. That's a LOT of rural food shelves.
I'm largely against the religious tax exemption, but that's a problem we should worry about AFTER we can replace the nationwide infrastructure we'd be dismantling by doing so with something at least as effective as what's there now.
It also screws over the many churches or other religious organizations that genuinely do good for their communities
Ok Biden, time to do something about these fascists. They just gave you everything you need to squash the threat, on a silver platter fit for a king. It’s time to process the new information, understand the powers granted to you, and act - are you up to this task? Please don’t let America down, because you have asserted yourself as the only one who can now do anything about it.
Never underestimate establishment Democrats' ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory
Fire a Justice..... Or you know a couple.....
Out of a cannon.
At a brick wall. 3 feet away.
The bricks don't deserve that abuse.
Biden: The Supreme Court ruled I can do ANYTHING I WANT!
Also Biden: So I will do NOTHING! Please Vote kthxbai!
Yes, because he actually cares about what the Constitution stands for, not just some adversarial power game. Claim the paradox of tolerance all you want, but fighting fire with fire here is just participating in the same race to the bottom that's destroying our democracy here in the USA.
Preemptive strikes exist. Law does not need to apply after the fact if the law is allowed preventive measures.
And arguing about if one should take such a preventive strike, yes they should since the perp has already declared threatening intentions to cause immediate harm.
The people arguing against using this new power because using it now makes you just as bad as "them," are the dog-sitting-in-a-room-on-fire meme.
"Using the fire ax is just as evil as destroying the house yourself! Get fucked. We caught the Republicans smoking. Make them smoke the whole pack.
If he has practicality no limits what's preventing him from getting the decision undone and making it so that the president could never have such power?
If he has all the power in the world he should also have power to undo that power.
He doesn't have legislative power, that's the difference. He controls the executive branch, so he can direct law enforcement and regulator agencies and more however he wants. But he can't single-handedly restrict his own power in a way the next president can't undo
So tell SCOTUS either they reverse it and add that they'll never do it again or they get "executive ordered". If they refuse you "executive order" them, after all that's what they thought wouldn't be illegal. Continue until you get a SCOTUS who won't refuse. If the SCOTUS wants to throw their lives away for their own stupidity, let them.
The constitution has been ripped to shreds, spit on, and set on fire. Any moral high ground is meaningless at this point.
I think you're just projecting your own beliefs onto him. I seriously doubt any politician at this level gives two shits about anything but themselves and their power.
Modern dems cant fathom having gumption. All they have is furrowed brows while the repubs destroy dismantle and overthrow.
Dem brow furrowing will intensify until GOP is the one true ruler.
Alternative take: letting Republicans do whatever they want and not fighting back or taking actions to prevent it, is what is destroying your democracy.
Only you plebs argue about the constitution while the people in charge treat it like a napkin.
If he clearly cared, he would get rid of the fucking traitors that are in office, right now.
Wow it's a shame he's a fucking pussy who won't author an 'official act' to oust the supreme court.
Right? Order the DOJ to lock up all of the justices (so it's bi-partisan!).
"Biden Blasts Supreme Court" could have a whole new meaning after their latest ruling
Please make this happen.
What is to stop Biden from cancelling the upcoming election?
Being now his powers are effectively unchecked, couldn't he just call off the election as an official act. Rather than stupid shit like ordering assassination or deploying the military, just say "I'm cancelling the election until such time this ruling is overturned and a constitutional amendment is enacted that states that the president is not immune from criminal prosecution"
He doesn't need to cancel the elections. He just needs to wait until after the conventions, when congress and the supreme court are in recess. And then he issues an executive order barring convicted felons from holding federal office.
That would be some very funny chaos
Saving that move for Trump. It's the dystopian future I guess we deserve.
This protects him from prosecution but doesn't require other officials to help him break the law. States don't need the president's approval to run elections, and Congress doesn't need his approval to certify the votes of electors in the presidential election specifically.
He can just pardon all of them, and his discussions can't even be questioned in court now. Hell, bribery is legal now too.
This reminds me of something......gaining favor of the ruler is key to your advancement.
I like how every single one of these comments are blaming Biden and the Democrats for a supreme court ruling that the conservatives and Republicans enacted. How about we put the blame on the people who are actually doing the terrible things?
This is why the Republicans keep winning btw, because they're united.
Why doesn't Biden just illegally overturn this ruling? He has immunity
Watched the debate, this is a verbatim quote I pulled from the transcript, Biden: "And if I’m elected, I’m going to restore Roe v. Wade." Why does he have to wait for re-election?
I expect Reps. to strip rights and will always blame them for that. The flip side of that is I expect Dems. to restore them, which isn't happening and so they should be criticized. It's just always "we'll fix it in the future" which is why I put the biden quote in.
Because the Republicans control Congress, and at this point only an act of Congress can restore it.
It comes down to this: a Republican president would veto any abortion protection law, but a Democratic president would pass it. But the law has to get to his desk first.
Only congress can do something and they tried and failed because we didn't have enough of a majority. Vote down-ticket blue to get as much control as possible.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senate-republicans-block-bill-codify-roe-wade-abortion/story?id=84627147
If you don't put down a rabid dog and get bitten, I'm not going to blame the dog.
We're not talking about a diseased animal, we're talking about people who are making conscious decisions knowing what the results will be. I can and so absolutely blame people for that.
Your metaphor insinuates that Republicans are unable to control their actions. If that were the case, that's all the more reason to vote and get them out of positions of power.
I don't think you understand. No reasonable person thinks that republicans are good or not to blame. Blaming the republicans won't stop them from taking power. They have done and continue to do what they have said they will do and the Democratic party has done nothing to stop them.
It's like your sky diving, and your parachute fails to open. Do you get upset at gravity or the guy who packed your parachute? Yeah, gravity is what is going to kill you, but it doesn't care, that was the plan. The guy who packed the parachute is your only real way of controlling the situation.
The Democratic Party packed the parachute and it isn't opening. Hopefully it does soon.
Maybe you should Unite with people that are left of Richard Nixon some day soon.
The 18th century British
Maybe he should wield his newfound power instead
This is how dictatorships start. You know it, right?
Right, murica is no longer a democracy in practice if this stands.
Sorta. It's a democracy with the voting and all that at this time. Since the person holding presidency is now above the law, then as long as the current president decides that we get to continue to have a republic, then we're a republic. The moment a US president decides that it needs to be an official act to end voting, or just stall on voting indefinitely, then we stop being a republic. Basically, we're living on borrowed time until the "by the people" part of the US nation is taken away by whomever we voted in as president last.
President Biden has the idea that he should respect the Constitution. He's unlikely to decide to end the republic. If he gets reelected (and the conservatives don't just kick off a civil war trying to end the election like they failed to do back in 2020), then we buy at least a few more years. Then... we go into a cycle where if benevolent dictators keep getting elected we stay afloat. The moment a populist gets elected president who also doesn't personally decide to not take over as dictator, the republic ends.
Time to use these powers to clear out the Supreme Court and put in non corrupt assholes.
That's just not true. If you are a fascist and rich, you are a king. You can commit crimes in broad daylight and nothing can be done about it.
There's a very important difference here. If you're fascist and rich, things can be done about your crimes. They are still crimes. Just nothing will be done.
A president can now do what he wants and nothing CAN be done about it, period, barring an actual act of Congress.
That's an important distinction.
Both are incredibly unsettling however.
Yes but could you stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody?
Could you publicly ask a foreign adversary to hack and release a political opponents emails? Or ask a group of white supremacists to stand by?
Could you grab a lady by her vajayjay?
What Biden needs to do, like right fucking now, is pack the courts. AOC trying with a token effort to get them impeached is cute, but will ultimately fail because Republicans won't turn on their own. The Senate is tied (if you count Bernie as one of the dems) and Harris has the tiebreaker. The house is controlled by the Republicans, but only 7 individuals need to break from their party in order to get a simple majority to save the future of America.
Biden could expand the SCOTUS from 9 seats to 13 and immediately submit 4 liberal justices for confirmation to be seated.
Expanding the court doesn't require congressional approval, so Biden could do this unilaterally andas long as he is able to get butts in those seats, they're there to stay even if Trump squeaks his way back in. They could then challenge and overturn the immunity ruling, as well as all the other dogshit rulings that have come out in the last couple of years like Dobbs.He threatened to do it before. He needs to actually pull the trigger.
This is all assuming that most of this isn't political theater, and I'm really starting to wonder how much of United States politics is actually genuine. So often the Democrats have had the opportunity to do something drastic, if less drastic then that frequently done by Republicans, to counteract the erosion of personal freedom and democracy. Yet they always seem to find a reason not to, typically with the justification that they don't want to push the envelope like the Republicans do, despite the fact the Republicans will continue to push the envelope to their benefit when back in power.
I'm starting to think a lot of this is bullshit.
Imagine expanding the court by 4 seats, 4 months before the election and thinking that Republicans in Congress are going to let a single one squeak by before January 6, 2025.
Those seats would be filled by Trump.
That is incorrect. Changing the size of the Court is understood to be a power that Congress has because of the Necessary and Proper clause, and not a power of the Executive.
For an act changing the size of the Court to pass the Senate, you first need 60 Senators to break the filibuster. This means that 10 Republican Senators need to vote for increasing the size of the Court for any such legislation to pass. That’s not going to happen.
You are correct. I retract my statement.
The feeling of helplessness is overwhelming.
Yeah. It’s incredibly frustrating that we are at this point.
The Senate is currently divided in a way that makes passing such a significant change a monumental task. Even with a Democratic majority, the margins are slim, and not all Democratic senators are on board with the idea. Senators like Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have expressed reservations about court-packing, making it highly unlikely that this is something Biden could just do.
Anyone want to ELI5? Whats to stop trump adding 4 more of his own?
Only that he isn't president, but you bet your ass he will do just that the moment he's back in office
Moderation isn't in his playbook, he would never just add 4. He'd add 69+ new judges or else just appoint every single GOP congressman as a Supreme Court Judge.
Public: So do something about it.
Biden: I-i-i-if I do that, I'll be a baka.
I was not expecting the baka lol
Kill them! Do it!
Words are wind.
He blasted them, hard!
Instead of issuing a scathing rebuke shouldn't he just mount a posse and pay them a visit now that he can do whatever he wants?
So, obviously he could just [redacted] the supreme court justices he doesn't like, appoint new ones, and then the only thing congress could do would be to expand the court or whatever, right? but then why couldn't he also just keep killing people in official acts until he gets a bunch of people that are like "yup, that was official and you don't need to do anything about it"? I know that's probably a slippery slope, right and would probably get him a shit ton of public pushback, especially after a certain point, from both conservatives, who predominantly make up the military, and economic power structures, to liberals who would prize decorum and "fair play" above all else (but I repeat myself), and so maybe that leads to a dissolution of society, which maybe leads to an even worse society as the people who control the levers of power are already the most horrible people, but, yadda yadda.
But, I dunno, how many congress people does he have to make go away, before the rest of them start to get the picture and then start to behave in their own self-interest, as they've always behaved? How many people do you really have to threaten in a system where the people who climb to the top are only going to be there out of their own extreme self-interest?
Good for Biden. He is completely right here.
Gotta say i read that to the tune of "there are no cats in america"
I never thought I'd say this, but can we channel a little Andrew Jackson energy in regard to the courts?
Time to legally immediately replace every Justice except for Sotomayor and Jackson.
Why not Kagan and Jackson?
Jackson added, for sure.
Kagan no way.
Kagan has sided with conservatives way too many times with the "look, their conclusion is poorly reasoned and unconstitutional, but you can technically get to the conclusion constitutionally from a liberal perspective if..." and then she sides with the conservatives.
Poking around in legal details can be fun, but she can be a professor while we get someone taking action on the court instead of siding with employer-imposed religious mandates over employee bodily autonomy (hobby lobby), supporting the "Muslim ban"(trump via Hawaii), and crippling contract law so that class action lawsuits can't be brought against corporations over faulty or illegal contracts. (American Express versus Italian colors).
Kagan is not helping people, get someone on there who wants to help people.
Biden no longer has the moral high ground to pretend this would be illegal.
Surpreme Court just literally said he can do whatever he wants. Everything he does is legal.
So use those powers to actually want to "save Democracy" if you believe it's truly in danger. Or would that make your carrot disappear of forcing people to vote for you?
I wonder how long now until the north and south separate. I'm semi facetious, I don't see how this situation can be resolved from this point. The Supreme Court has to go or else this ends one of 2 ways.
If Biden overturned the decision that gave Donald Trump immunity, then the southern republican states would almost certainly rebel. If Donald Trump takes power as a king in January, then the northern Democratic states will almost certainly rebel.
That's some high-fiction you're spinning up.
We keep saying that. But if you told me a decade ago that roe v wade would be overturned and an open fascist would be the likely next president and scotus also just ruled that presidents are literally not beholden to any laws then I'd have said the same thing.
okay assasinate Trump, you're legally allowed to do that now
That would be confusing for the secret service.
Is he going to do anything about it or just promise he won't use his dictatorial powers for evil?
We need someone that will use every tool at their disposal to stop trump.
Biden has shown time and time again, that's he's just not willing to do that.
Stopping trump is more important than Biden, if he won't fight, and he won't get out of the way, and the party won't force him to...
It's time to ask why we still support the party. The voters are the irreplaceable part, not the party.
The problem with that, is now "every tool at their disposal to stop trump" is an object lesson in exactly what Biden is talking about.
'Every tool' means Every tool
Biden could have expanded the courts 4 years ago, but he didnt.
This could have never happened.
Roe vs Wade could still be standing.
So much shit could be better, but Biden didn't want to fight.
Biden could not have expanded the court. That requires an act of Congress. Even if the Democrats passed such an act in the House, it would have been dead in the Senate because they have never had the needed supermajority and none of the Republicans would have voted for it.
He needs to take action, not talk about it.
He won’t.
Evil wins when good people do nothing, especially when those good people have the means to.
Welp he's just gonna wait till let trump be the first to use it. We are still cooked. 🤡🔫
No kings but us.
Another issue is in 2128 AD or whatever when we've totally forgotten Biden and Trump except in niche history lessons, and Throckmorton Cacadoodoo, the newest demagogue takes the presidency, like I know it's "slippery slope" but man it feels like this downward incline is becoming more lubricated.
I like you optimism that it wiuld take that long instead of the more likely scenario of the next Republican president.
The GOP has been working up to this point for four decades, they aren't going to wait now that they have the powers set up. They also don't need to fear the Dems abusing the power because the Dems proved they can't even get rid of the filibuster the GOP undermined to stack the courts.
It will be the next Republican president, not just the angry orange.
At this rate American Presidents will be immune from prosecution on humanitarian grounds, same reason 80+ year old prisoners are often released to die free.
That's even more reason for Biden to do something but sadly Democrats have learned helplessness.
Official act Trump right in his cake hole.
I sure hope someone enforces the law
At this point, I think we just need to have civil war 2.0 and get it over with. It will be horrific, but unfortunately, they fucked up reconstruction after the first go around. I really don't see another way out of this.
There’s a simpler way, someone may need to perish. The vacuum left will eventually take care of itself as there’s no players strong enough to fill the void.
De facto, yes there is.