This is catastrophic in so many ways. The first is that it
increases the already high chances that the United States ends up with a
dictator who will attempt to rapidly disassemble democracy in pursuit of
becoming President for Life. It simultaneously increases the chances that yes,
he will go ahead and violate the civil and human rights of political opponents
and classes of people he calls Communists, Marxists, and fascists.
People forget that the first German concentration camp (Dachau) was built in 1933 to hold members
of the Communist and Social Democratic Parties, and Trump has made it clear
that he’s building enough camps to process a minimum of 11 million people (migrants, at least for starters).
The conservatives on the Supreme Court have also exposed
their hubris, willful ignorance, and foolishness to the entire world in stark
terms, and it will cost them and the nation dearly in the long run. They
somehow presume that if Trump is elected and goes full dictator, that the power
of the court, and their reputation, will save them. The truth is, Trump’s
relationships with everyone he meets are completely transactional. If the court
ever stops being useful to him, he will terminate it with prejudice if he
thinks he can get away with it, and this court is doing everything it can to
make him think he can get away with it.
These justices’ foolishness lies in their lack of foresight
as to what happens if Trump wins in 2024. In the justice’s efforts to ensure
that they are the most powerful branch of government, they are about to make it
the weakest. They are creating a win-win situation for Trump, and a lose-lose
for themselves. When Trump is president again, he is likely to believe that he
has the option of “removing” any member of the Supreme Court who defies him. As
long as the court doesn’t rule against him, they’re fine. From the justices’ perspective, they either end up neutered lap dogs of a despot, who do whatever
they’re told out of fear, or they defy him and end up somewhere … unpleasant (at
best). Taking a dirt nap at worst. After all, if Trump can rub out a political
opponent, can’t he do the same to an uncooperative jurist?
