Then Chief Justice Burger, no liberal, wrote in the 5-4 Nixon v Fitzgerald case on which Trump’s lawyers relied in SCOTUS today that no claim of immunity for crimes committed by a former president while in office would “be credible.” He was right.

The justices who were eager to…

“why will so many vote for him anyway? For a significant segment of the Republican electorate, the white-hot core of the Trump movement, it is because they want to see the system overthrown. This should not come as a shock, for it is not a new phenomenon. On the contrary, it is…

Quite a story. The lesson is clear: When the MDs tell you somebody is “brain dead,” press on for more evidence, a second opinion, etc. Instances like this are rare, but they do occur.

“The extent to which at least three justices were willing to go on Wednesday to throw basic principles of federalism, equity, and common sense to the wind in the interest of allowing states to ban abortions even in cases in which they are medically necessary to stabilize a…

“The justices do not always need to rule in favor of a conservative party on the merits in order to achieve a conservative result. They can do so simply by manipulating their own calendar.” True, but there’s still time for SCOTUS to redeem itself — if it rejects Trump’s immunity…

“Trump is accused of seeking to deprive Americans, through deceit, of information most would have wanted to know about a candidate before deciding whether to make him president. The law is wise enough to take account of this element of a crime against democracy.” Precisely!…

“Geometry, with its shapes and volumes, taught me about poetic structure, . . . I love structures. They were, in a way, what I was able to convey in my writings on poetry, because I could see the skeleton beneath the skin.” — Helen Vendler, whom we just lost at 90. Now I see what…

“To argue that it is part of a sitting president’s duty to prevent the certification of his own loss and of his competitor’s victory is really laughable.” — from my interview in Die Zeit this morning (English version) ⬇️
zeit.de/politik/auslan…

“Whether he wigs out when witnesses such as Michael Cohen take the stand or keeps running afoul of the gag order (both strong possibilities), Trump’s temper tantrums only underscore his dilemma. Unable to mask his emotions in the midst of a narcissist’s worst nightmare, Trump has…

In the DC indictment, prosecutors charge a criminal conspiracy by Mr. Trump to overturn the election results to stay in power. “In Mr. Trump’s telling, those same events are official acts he undertook as president to safeguard the integrity of the race and cannot be subject to…

“The Framers would laugh at Trump’s immunity claim. So why are the court’s constitutional originalists taking so long?” Could it be that they’d rather see the case vanish altogether under a new presidential administration? 
bostonglobe.com/2024/04/23/opi…

“In light of the urgent political implications and the simplicity of the single issue before the justices, it should decide his immunity claim no more than a two weeks after hearing oral arguments.” I think it shouldn’t take even that long.
msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-…

“Rudolph Giuliani, Mark Meadows, and others who advised Donald Trump during the 2020 election were indicted in Arizona on April 24, along with all the fake electors who acted on Trump’s behalf to try to keep him in power despite his loss in the state.”
nytimes.com/2024/04/24/us/…

I agree with Andrew Weissmann (weissmann11 on Threads)🌻. This already major criminal case has now become a genuine bombshell. So much for trying to call it just a tawdry little matter.