“In the not so distant past, the presidents or certain presidents have engaged in various activity, coups, or operations like Operation Mongoose, when I was a teenager, and yet there were no prosecutions. Why? If what you’re saying is right, it would seem that that would have been ripe for, criminal prosecution of someone.”
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas during oral arguments over Trump’s claims of presidential immunity, the Supreme Court on April 25th.
“So, Justice Thomas, I think this is a central question. The reason why, there have not been prior criminal prosecutions is that they were not crimes.”
Michael Dreeben, attorney for the US Special Counsel, in response
Interesting that Thomas found Operation Mongoose – an extensive campaign of terrorist attacks against civilians, and covert operations, carried out by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency in Cuba against an enemy communist regime authorized on November 30, 1961 by U.S. President John F. Kennedy – as somehow the equivalent of a US president, intending to reverse the results of a US election, fomenting an attack on the US Capitol to implement his remaining in power. However the recent Supreme Court’s rulings on abortion, gun control, voting rights and the establishment of a state religion are opposed by a large number (often a sizeable majority) of Americans, they are also based on reversing or severely limiting prior rulings of that same court. In short, Supreme Court rulings, upon which this nation and its courts have relied on for decades or even longer, are subject to change when the majority of the Court is comprised of jurists appointed by a political party that simply does not like those earlier decisions.
Does it matter that Thomas’ wife, Virginia, actively supported Donald Trump’s effort to erase the results of the November 2020 election? That same effort that was before the court on April 25th? Including three Justices (Thomas, Alito and Gorsuch) who felt free to accept financial benefits from biased sources under the notion that there were no ethical rules applicable to jurists on the Supreme Court? Is it relevant that the Court seemed like a legislative branch of the Republican Party with no checks and balances?
So, it is hardly surprising that a February Marquette Law School national survey found public approval of the Supreme Court at 40%, compared to 66% in the fall of 2020. But that public lack of confidence in the highest court in the land just might be the tip of measurable negative public confidence in our entire systems of governance.
As reported in the Journal of the American Bar Association on April 23rd, “according to the sixth annual American Bar Association Survey of Civic Literacy, seventy-four percent of U.S. residents say American democracy is weaker than five years ago … Among those who thought that democracy was weaker, 31% said the primary cause was misinformation and disinformation, while 29% said the primary cause was political parties. The survey results are from a telephone poll of 1,000 people in English and Spanish.
“It wasn’t clear whether the respondents were blaming one political party over the other and what kind of misinformation that they had in mind. But it was clear that they value fair and free elections; 50% said that was the most important part of a democratic government. Another 30% said the most important part was the balance of power.
“A majority of the respondents, however, had fears about election fairness. Fifty-five percent said they had concerns about the integrity of the November 2024 general election. Among those who did, 36% said their primary concern was meddling with the vote-counting process, 23% said their primary concern was voter fraud, 21% said it was voter suppression, and 10% said it was the potential for violence.”
Utterances from Trump and ultra-rightwing members of Congress suggest that should Mr. Trump be jailed or lose the upcoming presidential election, there would be a de facto call to arms to his army of supporters. In a nation where there are more guns in civilian hands than people, including approximately 30 million semiautomatic assault rifles in an era of lax gun laws, that suggests that Trump’s followers might feel mounting a civil war as a necessity.
The Journal article also pointed out the results of panel discussion of the above survey results, including this response from “retired Judge J. Michael Luttig of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals at Richmond, Virginia, an appointee of former President George H.W. Bush…. Luttig, a co-chair of the ABA Task Force for American Democracy, said he found some of the survey results troubling… ‘This is the first time in American history that there has been so much confusion and so much doubt literally over democracy as a form of government and also about American elections in particular,’ he said.
“Luttig partly blamed claims by former President Donald Trump that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him, despite all evidence to the contrary… ‘The two political parties in America are the political guardians of democracy,’ he said, and when one party isn’t functioning, democracy is put to the test… Luttig had advised then-Vice President Mike Pence that he didn’t have the constitutional authority to reject the 2020 presidential election results. Elections are essential to American democracy, he said.” Democracy is indeed slip-sliding away, as traditional White Christians are now a minority, with many seeing the only path to their continuing in power is an autocracy where they rule.
I’m Peter Dekom, and if Americans want and cherish democracy, they need to do a whole lot more to fight to keep it.
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