This July 4th we are entering our biggest fight for our democracy as a country and a people. On July 2 the Supreme Court formally declared that former President Trump is above the law. It ruled that Trump is “immune” from prosecution in the federal election case, formerly protecting him from indictment for misconduct allegations while performing “official acts” as President. Yes, we can end up with a felon, a liar, and a criminal for president. But on a grander scale, the Supreme Court’s ruling puts Trump and future presidents above the law– leading us directly toward a fascist dictatorship.
The President is now “a king above the law” said Justice Sotomayor who dissented together with Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Of course, it shouldn’t surprise us., While Trump was president, he stacked the Supreme Court with three more conservative judges– Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett, ending up with 6 conservative judges out of nine.
These conservative judges with every decision they make are taking the country further towards the right and against the interests of workers, women, immigrants, and the poor.
According to Robert Reich, Labor Secretary during Clinton, the practical consequences of this ruling will be:
- The case United States vs. Donald Trump will almost certainly not be concluded before the election, meaning that a verdict against Trump could be rendered meaningless if Trump is elected and he orders the Justice Department to, in essence, throw the case out. Allegations in the indictment concerning Trump’s dealings with the Justice Department, in which he sought to install a loyalist, Jeff Clark, as acting attorney general to claim there was fraud in the election, will probably be thrown out by Judge Chutkan. (Judge Tania Chutkan will have to determine how much of the federal criminal case involving Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat to Joe Biden in the 2020 election can survive).
- Allegations that Trump tried to strongarm his vice president, Mike Pence, into using his role overseeing the election certification proceeding on Jan. 6, 2021, to overturn the results of the 2020 Presidential election, will likely be thrown out as well.
- The Supreme Court has ordered a similar fact-finding process on most of the remaining allegations in the indictment — those concerning Trump’s attempts to pressure state officials into helping him win the election, as well as his plot to create false slates of electors in various states who then declared that he had won in states where he had lost.
We the people must raise our voices loud and clear. In these elections we’re not just fighting against one individual over another. We’re fighting for our democracy.
Those who rule are seeing the necessity for fascism over democracy. What is fascism, but an authoritarian regime where our constitutional rights will be taken away, one by one as it’s happening today? We need to up our efforts so that we don’t end up with a dictator over our country that will impose whatever laws are needed to control the working people.
Why is this happening? Those who rule hear, see, and feel the rumbling of the masses—of those who uphold the vote and democratic rights, the homeless, the unemployed, the immigrants, the youth who are pushing against the power of corporate greed, the think tanks, and the wealthy whom Trump represents.
The masses have no choice but to fight for a better world, without hunger and homelessness, without poverty, without women’s bodies being shackled by unjust laws. Yes, the fight is for a new world where children will play and thrive, where youth can reach their potential, and where there’s no homelessness nor hunger because this new world that is possible with new technology will provide for us all.
Now more than ever our vote counts.
Laura Garcia is co-editor of El Tribuno del Pueblo. Visit www.tribunodelpueblo.org. Active Teatro de las Chicanas in the 1970s, she is co-editor of the book, Teatro Chicana: A Collective Memoir and Selected Plays (Chicana Matters).
