“Power tends to corrupt, absolute power corrupts absolutely” – Lord Acton (1887)
In March the US Supreme Court reversed a decision by Colorado’s supreme court to remove Donald Trump from it’s primary election ballots. In doing so, not only did they ignore the constitution, they acted in unseemly haste to make sure his name got printed on the ballot papers. This month by a six to three majority they decided that Trump cannot be criminally prosecuted for ‘official acts’, and left it to the very last minute to say so, which is exactly what Trump wanted. His whole strategy is based on delaying any legal proceedings so that if he wins the election in November, he can either pardon himself or instruct his attorney general to dismiss the case. These ‘justices’ have now returned the case to the district court judge to determine which acts are ‘official’, and if she decides some of them aren’t, Trump can take it to the appeal court and then back to the Supreme Court. The whole thing has become a farce.
It used to be said that in America no-one is above the law. Now someone is. The six ‘justices’ who sided with Trump are conservative, in other words they are Republicans. Judges are meant to be apolitical and their decisions are supposed to be arrived at by applying the rule of law, but these six people are looking for ways to re-interpret the law to suit their own agenda. They are shirking their responsibilities by handing immunity to Trump on a plate. The checks and balances which have always been part of the democratic system are being systematically eroded, not by some foreign power, but from within.
One of these ‘Justices’, Clarence Thomas, conveniently forgets to acknowledge receiving gifts and expensive holidays from rich people, when in reality he is obliged to report them. Another so-called Justice, Samuel Alito, displays MAGA flags outside his houses. These people have forgotten the meaning of the word ‘justice’ and their decisions are making a mockery of it. These six conservative Justices don’t have an ounce of integrity among them and have no guiding principle other than self-interest. They are bringing the US judicial system into disrepute and shamelessly exploiting the fact that they are answerable to no-one.
Nominated by Allan




