Per Curiam
Telling the Supreme Court, “We’ve got this!”
Today, the Circuit Court to which Donald Trump had appealed his denial of immunity by the District Court in which he is being tried for his January 6th infractions issued its ruling.
It denied his appeal.
Now, I want you to remember back over a month ago (I know, it’s hard) when the Special Prosecutor Jack Smith had taken this case to the Supreme Court initially, as he wanted this expedited so as to not slow the trial down.
SCOTUS kicked it back to the appeals court. A lot of Dems were angry at “Trump’s Court” for delaying the trial. But (and there’s always a “but” isn’t there?) a lot of folks on MSNBC’s shows at the time had another explanation that tonight I didn't hear one person do any more than allude to kind of sideways. Now several noted my point, but they didn’t relate it to that ruling by SCOTUS.
That’s the idea that this Court — the “Roberts Court” — and specifically Roberts himself, didn't want themselves to be held to account by either side for this ruling. Why not? Well, on the Trump side, they’d get a lot of flack, because of all the numerous issues they’ve already decided against his interests. This one’s kind of heavy, and while “simple” in legal terminology by almost every legal analyst MSNBC talked to tonight, it carries some weight. So they’d want to avoid that criticism.
On the other side, they’re already getting flack still over Dobbs, with accusations of politicization of their decisions, with the lowest rating of any past Court in history. A ton of Americans don’t trust their decisions to be honest with a firm legal basis behind them. That’s gotta hurt.
So they kicked it back down to the appeals court.
This does two things.
First, it allows them time, given that this week, they’re hearing the appeal over the Colorado case about Trump and the 14th Amendment. It didn’t take a seer of extraordinary power to see that one coming, even a month ago, given Trump appeals everything he doesn't like.
Second, according to every single analyst I saw tonight, this case about immunity for Presidents is so simple, and so idiotically argued and even considered for appeal, the likelihood of SCOTUS ruling in Trump’s favor is about ten million to one. So, to further avoid being excoriated by the public for helping Trump delay this trial further, all they have to do is kick it back by denying cert once the appeals court issues their ruling and Trump appeals it.
The appeals court itself helped them justify that. How?
Read the title of this article. Per Curiam is Latin which means “by the Court”. It literally means that the decision is issued by “The Court”, and is a unanimous decision, not attributable to any one judge. It is literally one that was reviewed by the entire 11 justices on that appeals court, and every single one agreed with the decision as written. In other words, they’re saying to Roberts, “Hey, dude, we’ve got this.”
That also explains the longer time it took for that decision to be issued — it had to be circulated to all 11 of them.
Another little indication that a delay is less likely (If SCOTUS really does what I anticipate) was remarks made by DC Circuit Judge Tanya Chutkan. She remarked that she has a vacation in Bermuda in August, and she hopes she’ll make it depending on “a case which hasn’t made it back on my calendar”, or something to that affect.
Almost every legal analyst tonight said that shows that if SCOTUS does kick it back and let the appeals court decision stand, that Chutkan can start the trial by the summer and still make her vacation.
And the trial then occurs before the election, and maybe even before the Party Conventions. This is made more likely since the appeals court gave Trump till Monday the 11th to appeal to SCOTUS. That’s a damn short time frame.
In short, it is very likely that Trump is screwed.
Good.
