The Supreme Court almost immediately granted Special Counsel Jack Smith’s Monday request for expedited consideration—a highly unusual rapid response that highlights the historic nature of the case.

Smith wants the court to weigh in on the question of whether former president Donald Trump has absolute presidential immunity for crimes he’s accused of carrying out while in the White House.

In its response, the high court ordered Trump’s attorneys to file a reply to Smith’s petition by next Wednesday, Dec. 20 at 4 p.m. ET.

The Supreme Court’s Monday decision does not mean it will take up the case—it simply means the nine-judge panel will make that decision on a much faster timeline than it normally would.

  • VubDapple@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The republicans who own the supreme court, chosen by the Federalist Society, are not maga republicans. They might just throw trump under a bus if they thought there was still a way for Republicans to hold onto power without him

    • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s a risk, but the Supreme Court might also realize that Trump’s recent “dictator” rhetoric is a direct challenge to their power also if he gets elected.

      Dictators don’t allow others to wield any real power.

    • Chainweasel@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I wonder if they realize another Trump presidency would make them irrelevant.
      Trump is going to rule as a dictator with an iron fist if he’s elected again. There won’t be a need for 9 justices on the Supreme Court when we have a single Supreme Ruler that does the same job.

    • xkforce@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      No they fucking wont.

      These same assholes overturned Roe v Wade and did a lot of other questionable things. There is zero evidence they’ll suddenly grow a conscience.

      • Beemo Dinosaurierfuß@feddit.de
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        1 year ago

        That’s not what OP said.

        They will never grow a conscience, but they will happily throw Trump under the bus if it serves them.
        He is not one of them so he can easily be made part of the out group.

        The very second dumping Trump is better for their aspirations of power than holding on to him they will do just that.
        Not for moral reasons though, those don’t even fall into consideration.

          • myster0n@feddit.nl
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            1 year ago

            If they say that the president has full immunity there’s nothing stopping Biden from rounding them up and gutting them like fish.

            • Burn_The_Right@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              there’s nothing stopping Biden from rounding them up and gutting them like fish.

              They know that’s conservative-only behavior. That’s why conservatives are so goddamned bold. They know normal people won’t engage in the same criminal behavior they engage in, so they can punch as low as they want without fear of extrajudicial retribution.

      • BraveSirZaphod@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Just yesterday, they allowed Washington to ban gay conversion therapy under the basis that regulating medical therapy is reserved to the states. A few years back, Gorsuch supported a ruling banning workplace discrimination of LGBT people under the logic that it’s sex-based discrimination.

        To be clear, Alito and Thomas are straight-up partisan hacks, but the others have some manner of legal ideology, even if it leads to terrible results sometimes. Beyond that, they have lifetime appointments. They don’t need Trump anymore and owe him nothing.

    • TenderfootGungi@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      In fact, I believe most of these billionaires that hand pick the Supreme Court justices would love to get rid of trump. He is diverging much of their power.

  • Ulrich_the_Old@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    It seems to me that he has handed the supreme court a gun with one bullet. The best outcome for the court would be to turn the gun on themselves.

    • mrbubblesort@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      I dunno, maybe this is wishful thinking but to me it seems like a good play. If they rule in favor of him, they’re even more likely to win the other trials. If they rule in favor of Trump, they’re risking their own necks because they’d be giving Biden free reign to do literally whatever he wants. Threading the needle and deciding something like only Trump is allowed, or only in this specific case it’s ok, has no legal justification whatsoever and Roberts isn’t crazy enough to attempt it.

    • Riskable@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      Not only that but if the SCOTUS rules that presidents are immune to prosecution for anything they do while in office Biden should just straight up murder all the justices that voted in favor of the opinion. There would be no (legal) consequences!