{"id":236619,"date":"2024-07-02T14:08:03","date_gmt":"2024-07-02T18:08:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=236619"},"modified":"2024-07-02T14:08:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-02T18:08:19","slug":"its-been-a-devastating-week-for-deep-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/?p=236619","title":{"rendered":"

It’s Been A Devastating Week For Deep State<\/h2>"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2615\ufe0f DEVASTATING \u2619 Tuesday, July 2, 2024 \u2619 C&C NEWS<\/h1>\n

Special Edition: the best news day since the Pandemic. All the hot takes and headlines are wrong about yesterday’s Supreme Court decision. It’s all so much bigger and better than anyone imagines.<\/h3>\n

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JEFF CHILDERS<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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JUL 02, 2024<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Good morning, C&Cers, and Happy, Happy Tuesday! You aren\u2019t going to believe how great yesterday\u2019s news really was. It\u2019s historic. It\u2019s unprecedented. It\u2019s all good. It\u2019s a special, all-Supreme Court roundup , featuring a realistic, hyper-optimistic analysis you won\u2019t find anywhere else. You\u2019re gonna love it.<\/em><\/p>\n

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WORLD NEWS AND COMMENTARY<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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We begin with the UK Independent\u2019s alarming headline from this morning: \u201cBiden warns Trump can do \u2018whatever he pleases\u2019 if elected as Republicans relish Supreme Court immunity ruling.<\/a><\/strong>\u201d Tellingly, that was a modified headline. Earlier in the day, it more simply said,\u00a0 \u201cSupreme Court awards Trump some immunity from prosecution.<\/a>\u201d Biden did say that<\/em> though, even though the Supremes ended none<\/em> of the Trump cases. Biden is cognitively functioning on par with an above-average boiled turnip. But Biden and his handlers have no idea how good the decision really<\/em> was, or they would be crying much, much harder.<\/p>\n

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How good was it? It was so<\/em> good I actually started wondering if the QAnon people have been right all along. It was that<\/em> good. It was that much of a game-changer. Just not for any of the reasons in the headlines.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s begin with what yesterday\u2019s decision didn\u2019t<\/em> do. Trump v. United States<\/em> did not \u201ctotally immunize\u201d the President. Instead, it created a three-tier test (the Supreme Court loves three-tiered tests), which explains why the Independent\u2019s first<\/em> headline said it provided Trump with \u201csome\u201d immunity.<\/p>\n

But Democrats desperately hope for some distraction from Biden\u2019s terrible Debate, and they are thinking maybe this could be it<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Joe made a short, sleepy, mumbly announcement last night<\/a> that was just a feeble tantrum about the Immunity decision. While reading the three-minute blurb off a teleprompter, Joe recited, \u201cFor all practical purposes, today\u2019s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do. This is a fundamentally new principle. And it\u2019s a dangerous precedent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three liberal Justices were equally unhinged, with Justice Sotomayor going so far as to say the majority decision transformed the Office of the President into \u201ca king above the law.\u201d I blame the public schools for Justice Sotomayor not knowing what a king is. She was probably thinking about a royal personage more like Burger King.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Let\u2019s cut through all the noise right now. I\u2019ll tell you what it actually said, and then I will explain why it changes everything. And after explaining how it doesn\u2019t help Trump much, I\u2019ll tell you how the Supreme Court sneakily helped Trump anyway, even though this decision largely ignored his actual cases. Stick with me for a minute, it will be worth it.<\/p>\n

Regarding Presidential Immunity \u2014for the first time in American history\u2014 the Supreme Court, solidly relying on a whole bunch of previous cases about related presidential issues, announced a brand-new three-tier immunity test:<\/p>\n

Tier 1: Total Immunity for Constitutional Acts.<\/strong> \u201cThe President is absolutely immune from criminal prosecution for conduct within his exclusive sphere of constitutional authority.\u201d This blessed tier is only for when a president exercises explicit authority under Article Two of the Constitution<\/a>.\u00a0 Things like negotiating treaties, issuing pardons, and directing military operations. As you can imagine, this is a small, well-defined tier.<\/p>\n

Tier 2: Presumptive Immunity for Official Acts.<\/strong> The Court declared that \u201cthe President must be immune from prosecution for an official act unless the Government can show that applying a criminal prohibition to that act would pose no dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch.\u201d In short, if the President acts officially<\/em>, as President, that act is immune\u2014but a prosecutor can still proceed if they can show criminalizing that type<\/em> of conduct will not hinder the Presidential office.<\/p>\n

Tier Two answers the Democrats\u2019 most deranged temper tantrums. Prosecuting Presidents who order the military to assassinate (i.e. murder) their opponents would not harm the Presidential office, because presidents are not supposed<\/em> to murder people, and it wouldn\u2019t hinder the Presidential office to criminalize murder. Duh.<\/p>\n

Tier 3: No Immunity for Unofficial Acts.<\/strong> \u201cThe separation of powers does not bar a prosecution predicated on the President’s unofficial<\/em> acts. The first step in deciding whether a former President is entitled to immunity from a particular prosecution is to distinguish his official from unofficial actions.\u201d For example, the Court said a President has zero immunity when he acts as the leader of his political party, or when pursuing his personal interests.<\/p>\n

Actually, assassinating political rivals would probably fall squarely under Tier 3 \u2014 enjoying no immunity at all.<\/p>\n

As you can see, this three-tier system neither turns Presidents into kings \u2014not Burger King, impotent King Charles, or Solomon\u2014 nor places presidents above the law. Certainly not Trump. The decision only resolved a couple of the worst counts in a single Trump case. As for the surviving counts involved in this particular appeal (Judge Chutkan\u2019s case), the Supremes bounced most of the counts back down to her, to apply the new test and then get back to them.<\/p>\n

I know that\u2019s a lot of legal mumbo jumbo. But stick with me. This is where it gets really<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Over-reacting Democrats \u2014and there are plenty of those\u2014 are really only mad because the decision helped Trump indirectly<\/em>, with timing<\/em>. Judge Chutkan now must order more briefing and hold more hearings to satisfy the new 3-Tier Immunity Test. That will probably result in more<\/em> appeals arguing she applied the test wrong, and so forth, and before you know it, Bob\u2019s your uncle, the election will have come and gone and Trump will be walking around free as a bluebird with only an ankle monitor from his other conviction.<\/p>\n

Democrats are also peeved because it gives Trump a small second bite at his \u201ccheck stub\u201d conviction. Yesterday, his lawyers filed a letter motion to delay sentencing \u2014scheduled for next week\u2014 and asked Judge Merchan to reconsider the verdict under the new test<\/a>.\u00a0 It\u2019s a long shot, because they never argued presidential immunity as a defense in that case. But still, it annoyed Democrats.<\/p>\n

But all of this political wrangling misses the point. Let\u2019s jump into the C&C time machine and travel back in time to 2020, before the Trump cases were filed. (Cue wacky time-travel music.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

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Clueless, low-information Democrats are wailing that the Judges anointed a Presidential King by creating a three-tier test under which \u2014wait for it\u2014 Presidents can be prosecuted for crimes.<\/em> Democrats are acting like this is a revolutionary improvement<\/em> of the Presidential position. But that, like nearly everything else partisan Democrats say, is a lie.<\/p>\n

What was the rule before the Supreme Court issued its decision? Well, before Trump, no president was ever prosecuted for a crime.<\/em> Not for droning an Iraqi wedding. Not for illegal wars. Not even for jaywalking or running lawn sprinklers on a Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Presidential prosecutions never ever<\/em> happened.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss this: before Trump, presidents obviously enjoyed de facto<\/em> total immunity. The unspoken<\/em> rule that everyone followed was that nobody can prosecute the President, or even a former President.<\/em><\/p>\n

During the period the de facto<\/em> total immunity rule reigned, the Supreme Court never had<\/em> to address Presidential immunity. There were no cases; that\u2019s how absolute the immunity was. But now that the Court has crafted a de jure<\/em> (legal) rubric, Presidents who do illegal things can<\/em> be prosecuted. They can now be prosecuted much more easily<\/em>, in fact. Just not for nuisance claims, like the creative, trumped-up claims brought against President Trump, such as for notating his check stubs wrong.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s do a little thought experiment. Evidence shows President Obama was involved in the now-discredited Russia Dossier matter, which was used as a false predicate to spy on the Trump campaign for partisan political purposes. Evidence suggests Obama knew<\/em> the Dossier was fake, purchased by the Clinton campaign. Yesterday\u2019s new 3-tier test provides a clear procedure<\/em> for prosecuting Obama for those very serious allegations.<\/p>\n

In other words, the High Court incinerated de facto<\/em> Presidential immunity, and replaced it with a clear de jure<\/em> prosecutorial process. Former and future Presidents susceptible to more serious crimes than Trump\u2019s are now fair game. I even got a very reluctant AI chatbot to agree:<\/p>\n

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The irony! By bringing all these silly, creative claims against President Trump for keeping a few boxes of \u201cclassified documents,\u201d and because his bookkeeper wrote the wrong thing on a check stub, the Supreme Court got an unprecedented opportunity to end forever the silent, implicit protection previously enjoyed by every other previous President. That de facto<\/em> absolute immunity is gone, never to return.<\/p>\n

And now it\u2019s open season on serious crimes committed by Presidents.<\/p>\n

If President Trump wins the election, this decision provides exactly the right tool his DOJ needs to prosecute the last twenty years of Presidential malfeasance and abuses of authority. It almost seems like Trump planned it this way. In hindsight, it couldn\u2019t have gone any better for Trump in the big picture.<\/em> When Trump\u2019s DOJ brings its first charges against Biden and Obama, the media cannot wail about it being \u201cunprecedented.\u201d He\u2019ll just be following the law.<\/p>\n

Beyond those long-term benefits for President Trump, the decision also placed a massive granite capstone on out-of-control Presidential authority. All future Presidents, Trump included, must now consider potential criminal liability under the new Trump v. US<\/em> standard. The new rule will make Presidents much more careful when acting outside their Constitutional authority, like when they mandate vaccine shots or something, just as a random example.<\/p>\n

So \u2026 it\u2019s not even so much that Trump<\/em> won. The American People won<\/em>.<\/p>\n

But the good news doesn\u2019t stop there! Justice Thomas\u2019s concurrence slid an assassin\u2019s knife into Trump\u2019s two most dangerous criminal cases.<\/p>\n

Judge Aileen M. Cannon sits in the Southern District of Florida and presides over the Mar-a-Lago raid case. She is the only Trump judge the Democrats dislike, intensely, because she has been ruling fairly. Judge Cannon right now<\/em> is considering the issue of Special Prosecutor Jack Smith\u2019s authority. And Justice Thomas just penned an entire concurring opinion carefully analyzing Prosecutor Smith\u2019s authority. Justice Thomas\u2019s conclusion was that Smith lacks the Constitutional basis to prosecute his two Trump cases. Yesterday\u2019s headline from the New York Sun<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Justice Thomas\u2019s astonishing concurrence is not binding law. That\u2019s not what the case was about. But it just handed a shrink-wrapped legal package to Judge Cannon, that will fuel her decision against the Special Prosecutor. After all, she now has a complete roadmap dished up by a sitting Supreme Court Justice<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Justice Thomas was Judge Cannon\u2019s law clerk.<\/p>\n

If Judge Cannon follows Justice Thomas\u2019s Constitutional roadmap \u2014and why wouldn\u2019t she?\u2014 both of Prosecutor Smith\u2019s cases will probably be dismissed. Democrats couldn\u2019t fairly criticize Judge Cannon\u2019s decision to dismiss, because she won\u2019t just be some rebellious federal judge in South Florida. Her opinion would be consistent with a Supreme Court Justice\u2019s analysis<\/em>. And when the government inevitably appeals, in light of Thomas\u2019s concurrence, the Eleventh Circuit would be under great pressure to affirm her decision. Then the majority of the Supreme Court could decline to hear a further appeal, since the Court has essentially<\/em> already weighed in.<\/p>\n

If it isn\u2019t quite checkmate, it looks a lot like \u201cmate in two.\u201d Yesterday\u2019s opinion greatly helped Trump, both by complicating his other cases apart from Prosecutor Smith\u2019s, and also by stabbing Agent Smith\u2019s two cases in the heart.<\/p>\n

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But beyond any benefits to President Trump, we the people<\/em> benefited the most.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court still wasn\u2019t done yet. It quietly slipped in another decision that could help tear the bloated, rotten heart out of the entire deep state<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u200d\u2696\ufe0f\u200d\u2696\ufe0f\u200d\u2696\ufe0f This term delivered a trifecta of swamp-draining decisions. Let\u2019s recap. In Jarkezy,<\/em> the Court deleted Executive Agencies\u2019 ability to prosecute citizens for crimes; that must now happen in a real court with a real jury. In Loper Bright,<\/em> the Supreme Court overturned Chevron,<\/em> stripping Executive Agencies\u2019 right to interpret laws by themselves and restoring that power to the courts<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Yesterday, the Supreme Court quietly published Corner Post v. Federal Reserve<\/a>,<\/em>and squared the deep-state-demolishing circle. Corner Post<\/em> deleted the current 6-year statute of limitations for challenging Executive Agency rules under the Administrative Procedure Act. Now, citizen plaintiffs can challenge long-standing Agency regulations within 6 years of being affected by them<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The Loper Bright<\/em> decision made it easier to overturn bad Agency decisions going forwards. And Corner Post<\/em> just opened the door to retroactive challenges to decades-old<\/em> regulations. It\u2019s a gold rush<\/em> for new, re-envigorated litigation against the Regulatory State. Virtually everything is now up for grabs. And I\u2019m not the only one who noticed:<\/p>\n

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Liberal Justice Jackson, dissenting in Corner Post, also noticed how revolutionary this decision was. Jackson wrote, \u201cAt the end of a momentous Term, this much is clear: The tsunami of lawsuits against agencies that the Court’s holdings in this case and Loper Bright have authorized has the potential to devastate the functioning of the Federal Government.\u201d<\/p>\n

They\u2019re going to need a bigger courthouse<\/em>. Do it! Devastate the functioning of the Federal Government!<\/p>\n

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Ironically, Justice Jackson was right, in one sense. A tsunami<\/em> is a natural event, like the flood waters crashing through a broken dam. Something unnatural<\/em> (a dam) held the waters back. It\u2019s time for the river to flow through its proper channel again.<\/p>\n

Collectively, the new three-part immunity test plus the three-decision trifecta of administrative agency cases drastically pruned presidential authority, about which conservatives and liberals alike (depending on who the sitting president was), have long and bitterly complained.<\/p>\n

The \u201cpower of the pen\u201d might no longer be as powerful as advertised. Today the Presidential pen is looking more like a cheap Chinese knock-off.<\/p>\n

It is difficult to overestimate how much this Supreme Court just historically and permanently altered the landscape of federal government overreach. I\u2019m tempted to invoke again my overused \u20182024\u2019 canard. But actually, I believe this unimaginable improvement in our national prospects was the inevitable result of the Supreme Court observing the government\u2019s wild and painful overreach during the pandemic.<\/p>\n

In other words: vaccine mandates<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve longed for a lone decision saying HHS and OSHA can\u2019t just arbitrarily order people to take experimental medical treatments they don\u2019t want. We didn\u2019t get that. But what we did<\/em> get is arguably and breathtakingly much, much better. The Supreme Court took the long view<\/em>. They\u2019ve changed everything<\/em> \u2014including but not only medical freedom\u2014 for the better.<\/p>\n

We had no right to expect this revolutionary Supreme Court session. What a great day to be alive.<\/p>\n

There was also so much more<\/em> good news yesterday, including massive vaccine injury wins and Epstein document drops. But you\u2019ll have to wait until tomorrow for those.<\/p>\n

Happy, happy, happy Tuesday! Be encouraged! And come back tomorrow for lots more essential news in Wednesday morning\u2019s Coffee & Covid roundup.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2615\ufe0f DEVASTATING \u2619 Tuesday, July 2, 2024 \u2619 C&C NEWS Special Edition: the best news day since the Pandemic. All the hot takes and headlines are wrong about yesterday’s Supreme Court decision. It’s all so much bigger and better than … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-236619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236619","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=236619"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/236619\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=236619"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=236619"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofthenation.co\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=236619"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}