On Monday, the Supreme Court’s far-right supermajority dealt a critical blow to democracy by granting presidents far-reaching immunity from criminal prosecution for "official" acts, eviscerating the rule of law in a country that was founded to end the rule of kings. The 6-3 decision clears the way for Donald Trump to escape justice in his ongoing federal trials and to become a dictator on "day one" should he return to office in 2025.
Trump won the presidency in 2016 by prevailing in the Electoral College despite losing the popular vote to his Democratic opponent, and he could do so again in 2024. Like Trump, the court's far-right majority itself was built on another undemocratic institution: minority rule in the U.S. Senate.
Daily Kos Elections calculations found that Senate Republicans last won more votes or represented more Americans than Democrats in 1998, but the GOP has controlled the upper chamber nearly half the time since then. This was the case from 2000 through 2006, and again from 2014 through 2020, covering six of the last 12 federal elections.
This minority rule let Republican presidents appoint five Supreme Court justices—a majority of the bench. Trump appointed three—Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett—while George W. Bush, who lost the popular vote for his first term, appointed the other two—John Roberts and Samuel Alito. Although a Democratic-held Senate in 1991 confirmed the sixth far-right justice, George H.W. Bush appointee Clarence Thomas, the senators voting to approve Thomas represented fewer people than those opposed.
