knapplc Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 In the wake of Justice Kennedy's departure, there's a pretty important legal question to ask: Should Trump be allowed to nominate a Supreme Court judge who could possibly be called upon to render judgment in legal proceedings against him? LINK Quote Much of the conversation since Justice Kennedy announced his retirement has been focused on whether a more conservative replacement might lead to the overthrow of landmark decisions on abortion rights, gay marriage and other issues. These are undoubtedly important concerns. But not enough attention has been placed on the crucial question of whether the Supreme Court in the Trump era will provide an effective bulwark against autocratic lawless rule. Indeed, legal experts are already debating several knotty constitutional questions that involve the president and may one day soon have to be decided by the court. Can the president pardon himself or others specifically to extricate himself from criminal investigation? Can the president be compelled to testify before a grand jury? Can a sitting president be criminally indicted? Did the appointment of the special counsel somehow violate the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, as some conservatives implausibly insist? Can a president ever obstruct justice? What is the proper legal remedy for Mr. Trump’s repeated violations of the Emoluments Clause? It is no exaggeration to say that never before has the selection of a Supreme Court nominee been so thoroughly compromised by the president’s profound personal interest in appointing a judge he can count on to protect him. Link to comment
NM11046 Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 No. Follow-up, if/when a POTUS is impeached or charged and convicted of criminally of stealing an election by cooperating with a foreign entity should his nominees and actions during his time in office be overturned immediately? 3 Link to comment
funhusker Posted June 29, 2018 Share Posted June 29, 2018 8 minutes ago, NM11046 said: No. Follow-up, if/when a POTUS is impeached or charged and convicted of criminally of stealing an election by cooperating with a foreign entity should his nominees and actions during his time in office be overturned immediately? To the follow up: I'd say "no". That is why the Senate confirmations are so important and should be done with due diligence. Link to comment
Moiraine Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 1 hour ago, funhusker said: To the follow up: I'd say "no". That is why the Senate confirmations are so important and should be done with due diligence. Not sure I'm following you. Yes, they should have blocked some, but let's say there's wrongdoing that no one is aware of until after the fact and then the president gets impeached. Why should no action be taken afterward? None of this matters though. The only chance Trump ever faces any consequences, and probably not even then, is if people vote him and the GOP out of office. Hell, by 2020 I wouldn't be surprised if he refuses to step down and the GOP backs him. Link to comment
Nebfanatic Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 2 hours ago, NM11046 said: No. Follow-up, if/when a POTUS is impeached or charged and convicted of criminally of stealing an election by cooperating with a foreign entity should his nominees and actions during his time in office be overturned immediately? What is the protocol on something like this? We can't let Pence or anyone in the administration currently take power as POTUS if trump were impeached on this basis right? Link to comment
funhusker Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 13 hours ago, Moiraine said: Not sure I'm following you. Yes, they should have blocked some, but let's say there's wrongdoing that no one is aware of until after the fact and then the president gets impeached. Why should no action be taken afterward? None of this matters though. The only chance Trump ever faces any consequences, and probably not even then, is if people vote him and the GOP out of office. Hell, by 2020 I wouldn't be surprised if he refuses to step down and the GOP backs him. I think if the people nominated are involved in something they can also be impeached and removed from office. But under our system, our Senate "should" be doing background checks and interviews to make sure the person is qualified for the position. If they are approving people just because the President "says so", then they aren't doing their jobs. And no, I don't think the Senate is doing their jobs with these nominations. That's on them, not the President. I'm sure it has always been this way, but it seems to be really obvious now with some of the nominations.... Link to comment
ZRod Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 Trump isn't publicly under criminal investigation right now. But given how close the public investigation is to him there should be some kind of recusal or delay until the investigation has reached its end. That said, the Senate is the fail safe here The only problem is yet again, the framers were counting on people to do the right thing. We're seeing that when you let corruption run amuck people will never do the right thing. 2 Link to comment
NM11046 Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 Agree with the comments on Senate being a stop gap, I guess I'm assuming that some of them (ie. Nunes) are going to get tied up in the charges. Going to be some constitution changing things happen with this administration. Link to comment
Moiraine Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 12 minutes ago, NM11046 said: Agree with the comments on Senate being a stop gap, I guess I'm assuming that some of them (ie. Nunes) are going to get tied up in the charges. Going to be some constitution changing things happen with this administration. I wish I could feel that positive about it. 1 Link to comment
Making Chimichangas Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 19 hours ago, NM11046 said: No. Follow-up, if/when a POTUS is impeached or charged and convicted of criminally of stealing an election by cooperating with a foreign entity should his nominees and actions during his time in office be overturned immediately? Yes. Link to comment
Guy Chamberlin Posted June 30, 2018 Share Posted June 30, 2018 And......there is now contested but intriguing news about Justice Kennedy's son, knowing Donald Trump and working for Deutsche Bank, the only bank willing to bail him out from his massive debt a few years ago. 2 Link to comment
BigRedBuster Posted July 2, 2018 Share Posted July 2, 2018 On 6/30/2018 at 1:47 PM, Guy Chamberlin said: And......there is now contested but intriguing news about Justice Kennedy's son, knowing Donald Trump and working for Deutsche Bank, the only bank willing to bail him out from his massive debt a few years ago. I am trying my best to figure out how this would have affected anything. If Kennedy's son bailed Trump out when he needed a loan, wouldn't Trump on Kennedy a favor and not the other way around? This just seems like a real stretch of something anti-Trump people are trying to link together. 1 Link to comment
Guy Chamberlin Posted July 2, 2018 Share Posted July 2, 2018 2 hours ago, BigRedBuster said: I am trying my best to figure out how this would have affected anything. If Kennedy's son bailed Trump out when he needed a loan, wouldn't Trump on Kennedy a favor and not the other way around? This just seems like a real stretch of something anti-Trump people are trying to link together. Yeah, the connections themselves jump out at you, but it's hard to walk through how or why they took a nefarious course. Apparently Donald Trump was heard saying something nice to Judge Kennedy about his son, the Deutsche Bank guy. From there, they've jumped to the fact that Kennedy was relatively healthy by Supreme Court standards and had the power to time his retirement for political purposes. I tend to believe only in Conspiracies In Broad Daylight: people in power look out for people in power for obvious reasons that we choose to ignore. Link to comment
Danny Bateman Posted July 7, 2018 Share Posted July 7, 2018 On 6/30/2018 at 9:55 AM, ZRod said: Trump isn't publicly under criminal investigation right now. But given how close the public investigation is to him there should be some kind of recusal or delay until the investigation has reached its end. That said, the Senate is the fail safe here The only problem is yet again, the framers were counting on people to do the right thing. We're seeing that when you let corruption run amuck people will never do the right thing. I think most people in the Senate take their job very seriously & convince themselves they approach things like SCOTUS votes with from a nonpartisan perspective. I.e., vote on the merits of the person without regard for the nominee's politics. Serious people should be confirmed and non-serious people should be voted down. It's good for the band to appear above the partisan fray and all that. Obviously Mitch McConnell doesn't give a single solitary damn about any of this. The problem is the nominees politics do matter. They will likely shift the Court hard to the right for quite some time. But the Senators voting to confirm them will offer some mealy-mouthed drivel about how impressed they were with their answers & individual Senators probably won't ever have to face repercussions for their vote. Link to comment
Recommended Posts