Leaked Supreme Court memos reveal John Roberts’ role in shielding Trump from prosecution

https://www.salon.com/2024/09/16/leaked-memos-reveal-john-roberts-role-in-shielding-from-prosecution/

42 Comments

  1. Pretty_Boy_Bagel on

    Roberts is a Bush croney and not MAGA, so why would he shield Trump unless a) Putin’s got something on him, b) his pea-brain is susceptible to right-wing BS, or c) both a) and b)?

  2. transcriptoin_error on

    The SCOTUS needs a deep cleaning.

    >John Roberts, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, on Feb. 22 issued a memo to his colleagues urging them not only to take up an appeal from former President Donald Trump over his immunity claim, but also to rule in favor of granting him that immunity.

    >“I think it likely that we will view the separation of powers analysis differently” from the appeals court, he wrote in the memo leaked to the New York Times, essentially suggesting the court would shield Trump from certain charges and the appellate court’s decision greenlighting his 2020 election interference trial.

  3. OppositeDifference on

    I thought at the time it was extremely weird that they were even going to rule on the immunity thing considering how devoid it was of any sort of legal merit.

    Turns out Roberts is no better than the others these days. If he ever was.

  4. Sure_Quality5354 on

    Impeachment investigations are needed NOW. For roberts, clarence and alito. This is a crisis of the highest order

  5. Ffs, why do they want a fascist coup? Why don’t they just win fair elections based on policy like tradition dictates?

  6. the GOP is the enemy of the people.  Every complicit Trump defender wipes their ass with the constitution and law. 

  7. Economy_Day5890 on

    Roberts is corrupt. He ALWAYS was. That schtick that journalists always write about, about how he “cares deeply about the institution” he’s a Heritage Foundation stooge. They’re helping Trump cheat. Believe me, if the roles were reversed the SCOTUS would’ve granted Jack Smith’s request to hear the case early, and then came down hard on said Democrat. They’re partisan hacks. Alito and Thomas are straight up corrupt. Blatantly corrupt.

  8. This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.salon.com/2024/09/16/leaked-memos-reveal-john-roberts-role-in-shielding-from-prosecution/) reduced by 86%. (I’m a bot)
    *****
    > John Roberts, the chief justice of the Supreme Court, on Feb. 22 issued a memo to his colleagues urging them not only to take up an appeal from former President Donald Trump over his immunity claim, but also to rule in favor of granting him that immunity.

    > In a historic 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court made a ruling that not only shielded Trump from prosecution, but also broadly expanded the scope of presidential power in the future.

    > Overseeing the immunity case before the Supreme Court's intervention was Judge Tanya Chutkan, who must now interpret the its ruling in Trump v. United States and decide which charges against Trump are still valid under the new framing of what a president can or cannot do.

    *****
    [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/1fiabjr/leaked_supreme_court_memos_reveal_john_roberts/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ “Version 2.02, ~693915 tl;drs so far.”) | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr “PM’s and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.”) | *Top* *keywords*: **justice**^#1 **Court**^#2 **case**^#3 **Trump**^#4 **Roberts**^#5

  9. Calls balls and strikes. Yeah, right. 

    Chief Justice John Roberts is an enemy of the US Constitution. 

  10. It’s quite likely during Kamala’s administration that she will get a chance to replace 1-2 conservative justices on the supreme court. In 2025, Thomas turns 77; Alito turns 75; Roberts turns 70. In the last year of her first term, Thomas will be 80; Alito will be 77; Roberts will be 74.

  11. If Harris wins and doesn’t go after these mother fuckers than it will be a travesty. They need to be stopped.

  12. It’s really unbelievable and feels like an insurmountable problem. These are lifetime roles and the majority are now deep in MAGA-land. It’s terrifying.

  13. I TRULY do not understand why Trump has such a strong hold on these people. I don’t get how a comb over joke “business” man became such a figure that people make him to be a Jesus.

    Also, I’ll add that there needs to be term limits for SCOTUS.

  14. Global-Squirrel999 on

    I am 100% convinced that no matter who wins in November, all the pieces will be in the right places to pull off the ultimate coup.

    Jan 6th was an amateurish trial run. They had no plan, no allies, and no legal framework to pull it off. Now, the Federalist society is involved and the Supreme Court has been laying the groundwork for a successful Jan 6th coup in 2025.

    I guarantee the plan will be:

    1.) Harris wins (duh)

    2.) Red states will announce investigations into “irregularities” in the vote count using the same justification Vance uses for the Haitian blood libel in Springfield (e.g. “My constituents have been telling me”, or easily disprovable videos of election officials doing *things*)

    3.) The majority Republican state legislatures will put together an illegal alternative slate of electors, claiming that it’s still a democratic result because the state legislatures were elected by the people to do that.

    3.) Congress will count votes on Jan. 6th and Republicans will stall the process by putting forward illegal slates of electors.

    4.) A class action will be brought by Republican governors to the Supreme Court, who will hear arguments the same day and have a 50 page opinion ready by January 20th saying alternative elector slates are legal and constitutional, leaving no time for a rebuttal.

    5.) Donald Trump will be the next president. Either that or we have a constitutional crisis when Harris refuses to certify the results while impeachment proceedings against the Supreme Court justices take place and a new court is appointed, who can overturn the unconstitutional ruling. Assuming Republicans hold the House, Mike Johnson would be sworn in as President under the Presidential Succession Act and likely hold that position for a month or two while the impeachment proceedings take place, meanwhile enacting Project 2025 and beginning mass deportations immediately. Either that or Mike Johnson gets a VP who becomes President of the Senate, and then promptly counts the illegal electors and Donald Trump is inaugurated.

    The Electoral College needs to be abolished with urgency. We just don’t have time.

  15. I recommend reading the [original story from the Times- Gift Article](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/15/us/justice-roberts-trump-supreme-court.html?unlocked_article_code=1.LE4.xvW8.2Pg0-1IFebe7&smid=url-share) and then dive into this review [of the ruling by NYU Law School Dean emeritus](https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/a-rule-for-the-ages–or-a-rule-for-trump)

    It points out that SCOTUS/ROberts completely discarded and ridiculed what the lower courts had done (a ruling most legal minds thought was sound and air tight when it came out in February)

    > The chief justice tore into the appellate court opinion greenlighting Mr. Trump’s trial, calling it inadequate and poorly reasoned. On one key point, he complained, the lower court judges “failed to grapple with the most difficult questions altogether.” He wrote not only that the Supreme Court should take the case — which would stall the trial — but also how the justices should decide it.

    Roberts firmly expected to be lauded for their ruling and was given praise by his fellow conservative justice prior to it’s release

    > But the public response to the decision, announced in July on the final day of the term, was nothing like what his lofty phrases seemed to anticipate.

    This is why Gorsuch said “A ruling for the ages” in oral arguments. They delayed months to hear the Trump case (last day of Oral arguments in April) and delayed to the last day to release the ruling, but they already knew in February what they were going to do.

  16. youthfuloldster on

    Robert’s financials should be looked into. What motivated this to be on the agenda before November? He’s either partisan or paid.

  17. The corruption in the SCOTUS has been leading us to the worst constitutional crisis since the Civil War.

  18. Tried to appear middle-of-the-roadish until the big Fascist majority. Now the real Adolph Roberts is full steam ahead. Who appointed that turd?

  19. Shoddy-Opportunity55 on

    I’m sick of people painting him as the “good” or moderate conservative on the court. He is still a Republican, and he is bad. We need to have an investigation for impeachment for him, Alito, Thomas, Barrett and Kavanaugh. They’re so bad. 

  20. Leather-Map-8138 on

    Four Supreme Court justices – Roberts, Alito, Gorsuch, and Thomas – belong at Guantanamo as enemy combatants.

  21. Reviews-From-Me on

    I am just about certain that if this was a case of Obama trying to be shielded from criminal prosecution, the Supreme Court would have not granted presidential immunity.

    It’s incredibly frustrating that Donald Trump, time and time again, is proven to be “too big to fail” and given incredible special treatment.

  22. GaiusMaximusCrake on

    “Separation of Powers” is always code for “neither the Constitution nor federal law says anything about this, however, we want to declare what the law should be and make it so, and since the Congress is weak and unable to defend it’s power to pass laws with the consent of the president, we will short-circuit that process and just legislate by Court fiat”.

    And that is exactly what SCOTUS has done. Republicans have rendered the Congress an inert institution that does not defend the powers granted it under Article I, and the Republicans have invited their hand-picked Supreme Court to come in and legislate new powers and immunities for their chosen personage.

    Notice how nobody in the *Trump v. U.S.* majority even bothered to say “The Constitution is silent as to whether the president possesses criminal immunity, so it is up to Congress to legislate such immunity or for the People to amend the Constitution to provide for it”. Instead, they just “announced” it and said that their complex (not-entirely-explained) presidential criminal immunity “statute” flows from “separation of powers” principles. Whatever that is. There are, of course, no limits on what new powers and rights the Court may imbue the executive with under the “separation of powers” principle – it might be any power they want to grant him. And, of course, if push comes to shove, the justices might grant themselves criminal immunity under exactly the same principle because it is a meaningless principle.

    But it is far easier for a narrow majority of unelected justices to declare a new right or privilege into existence that the Founders forgot to include in Article II than it is to amend the Constitution to add that power. And, as we have seen, the People may not *want* to grant the President the power to violate the criminal laws, and the amendment process would submit that power to the People for consideration – a tricky proposition if they don’t want to grant it to the president. Five unelected people declaring it from the bench by Court fiat was far easier than even passing a federal law; and unlike laws which can be repealed or amended, Court fiat can only be reversed by the Court itself, or the People utilizing the pesky amendment process to reverse the Court by amendment.

    This is why I call the Roberts Court an ongoing Constitutional Convention to which neither the governed nor our elected representatives are invited.

  23. This bad bunch of the SCOTUS has spoiled the lifetime appointment privilege.

    A SCOTUS term should be 6 years, like a Senator. They can apply for a second 6 year term, but have to be evaluated and reconfirmed. They can go work in a lower court after either their first or second term and be evaluated/approved then too.

  24. At some point the citizens of this country are going to have enough and they’re going to storm this kangaroo court once and for all. These justices have absolutely no soul. Absolutely no morals. Absolutely no fucking right to decide how we live our lives. These crooks are so beyond compromised it is nauseating. If people would just give dems a super majority they could clean fucking house. These mother fuckers make me so sick!! Republicans have made this country suck so fucking bad it’s very sad. I hate these fucking people. They are sick in the head. You have to be if you actually support someone like trump or Vance. You just have to be. You have to be a sick fucking piece of miserable shit stuck on the bottom of gods shoe to be a supporter of those two fucking moronic sexist racist idiot pigs. I almost wish the country would separate at this point because I know their country would fail quickly. Trumpville would implode. Vance town would burn itself down quickly.

    Soon enough the Supreme Court as we know it will be burned down so a better one can rise like a phoenix. These “justices” belong in fucking prison.

  25. Biden needs to suspend the SCOTUS until investigation take place – it’s we the people NOT me the scotus – wtf is going on ??