The U.S. Supreme Court still hasn't issued a ruling in the Donald Trump immunity case, which has essentially handed a legal win to the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, according to a Washington Post columnist.
Trump's strategy in all four of his criminal prosecutions has been to delay the proceedings past the election in hopes that he could shut them down if he wins, and the top court has already jeopardized the start of a trial in the federal election interference case by waiting so long to issue a decision on his claims of broad immunity, wrote Jennifer Rubin.
"Thanks to U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon’s near-comedic stalling of Trump’s Espionage Act case and the Supreme Court’s equally blatant procrastination, Trump may get his way," Rubin wrote.
"Cannon’s obvious favoritism toward Trump in entertaining specious arguments, holding nonsensical hearings (including a bizarre hours-long hearing featuring nonparty lawyers debating a well-settled issue) and delaying definitive decisions that could be appealed has been widely panned," she added. "No wonder her fellow judges — including the chief judge in her Southern District of Florida — wanted her to recuse. But is the Supreme Court’s majority any better?"
Regardless of the ruling in Trump's immunity case, the court's tardiness offers him either legal or political protection from accountability.
"If Trump’s Jan. 6 trial speeds ahead, U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan will be seen as meddling in the election," Rubin wrote. "If she holds off until after the election, it will be clear the Supreme Court already did Trump’s bidding."
Special counsel Jack Smith asked the court to consider those issues in December, but they instead waited two months to take up the case and then scheduled hearings for more than a month later, and they still haven't issued an opinion on that case.
"The delay is all the more outrageous because virtually no credible court watcher expects the Supreme Court to find that former presidents enjoy absolute immunity,'" Rubin wrote.
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"Had the court simply affirmed the decisions of either the U.S. District Court in D.C. or the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, the district court trial could have commenced in routine fashion. In whatever way the Supreme Court eventually decides to parse which acts are subject to immunity (rather than simply decide no immunity could exist in a coup attempt) and contrives a process for proceeding in the lower court, the justice system entitling the people as well as defendants to a timely trial will be undermined."
Their procrastination also sends a signal to Cannon and other judges that delay and procedural gridlock is an acceptable strategy to allow Trump to escape justice, and Rubin said Congress must step in.
"The Supreme Court justices’ egregious conduct has only underscored that lifetime tenure leads to abuse of power," Rubin wrote. "To preserve any hope of restoring the court’s integrity, voters, Congress and the president must insist on strict ethics reform, term limits and rebalancing of the court with additional justices who appreciate judicial norms and ethics. The current crew of justices can no longer be relied upon to render fair, impartial — or timely — justice."
