Louisiana Voice

As much as we’d like to, we should forget about Donald Trump and his asinine pronouncements and promises and Joe Biden’s abysmal debate performance.

As bad as both are and were, they are merely distractions from a much, much larger threat to our democratic way of life.

The U.S. Supreme Court is completely out of control and a legitimate threat, wreaking havoc at every turn of our legal system. Basically, the court is six destructionists run amok. In no sequential order, we have:

The 6-3 decision striking down the so-called CHEVRON DOCTRINE, gutting the power of federal agencies to interpret laws that they administer – a clear victory for corporate polluters.

Veterans? Who cares? Used up in fighting America’s seemingly endless wars and conflicts all over the globe, they’re quickly forgotten and ignored when they return home suffering the mental and physical scars of battle. Many end up homeless, the throwaways of a callous, forgetful and unfeeling bureaucracy.

In its GRANTS PASS DECISION, the court upheld the Oregon city’s ban on allowing homeless to sleep on city sidewalks. The cruelest joke of all was that the city has subjected homeless persons to fines of up to $1,250 if found guilt to criminal trespass charges.

There’s no question that something should be done to address the problem of people having to live on the streets, but an impossible-to-collect $1,250 fine assessed against already indigent people? Seriously? With the skyrocketing cost of housing, fed by corporate buyouts of residential homes for investment purposes, more and more Americans are facing the prospect of being thrown to the curb. City fathers would do well to think through the consequences of such laws.

The court also ruled that PUBLIC BRIBERY is, in effect, now legal. Of course, with the earlier rulings on Buckley v. Valeo that abolished limits on the amount of money individuals could spend to benefit politicians, and the 2009 infamous Citizens United decision that corporations are, in effect, people, it has been long-established that money – not principals, not public service and certainly not common sense – now is the grease that turns the political wheels.

Perhaps the late Sen. Russell Long said it best: “Almost a hairline’s difference separates bribes and contributions.”

And how about the SCOTUS ruling to THROW OUT CHARGES against a Pennsylvania police officer who was among the horde that invaded – yes, invaded; we all watched it live on TV – on Jan. 6, 2021?

That decision could well affect charges against more than 300 other Jan. 6 defendants who were among those who were hell-bent on literally overthrowing the U.S. government. That’s not an exaggeration. Had those crazed, frothing-at-the-mouth animals succeeded, any number of sitting members of Congress could well have been murdered that day, including the vice-president of the United States. Scoff if you will, that is the stark realism of what occurred that day.

Finally, we have yesterday’s ruling that the Huffpost says gives Biden the legal authority to have Trump ASSASSINATED. The decision granting Trump immunity prompted THE TIMES OF ISRAELto proclaim in response to the ruling, “The President is now a king.”

As one who has lived through the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, Robert F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, the last catastrophe I would wish inflicted upon this already traumatized nation is to go through another of those.

Of course, Huffpost was being facetious. Anyone with half a brain would know that but the point is well-taken. Let’s carry it a bit further.

The court’s interpretation of executive immunity must now, if applied across-the-board, as it must be, filter all the way down to the mayor of the smallest of villages. So long as any otherwise criminal action is taken in conjunction with his or her official duties, no criminal prosecution may take place.

Extreme? You bet your britches it is. But realistically, that’s precisely what the court has now decreed.

Your senator or congressperson, your governor, your attorney general, your insurance or agriculture commissioner, your legislator, any bureaucrat at any level of government and as earlier noted, your mayor – they’re all now given carte blanche to take bribes or to commit virtually any crime so long as they’re doing the deed as part of their official duties. Sexual assault on a legislative or administrative aide? Well, was the legislator/public servant considering some bill or contract at the time? Okay, then, no problem. Fleeing the scene after running over and maiming or fatally injuring a pedestrian? Was he on his way to cast an important vote or trying to get to a committee meeting? Sorry, he’s immune.

You get the drift. We are going to see more and more office holders coming up with that legal defense to avoid prosecution for just about anything we can imagine.

It sets up the inevitable addendum “Do you have any idea what I’m doing?” to the tried and true “Do you know who I am?”

With this opinion in hand, maybe President Biden should issue full pardons for former Gov. Edwin Edwards and former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, who was railroaded by President George W. Bush and Repugnantcan operative Karl Rove.

For the rest of us, though…We’re still the peons and subject to strictest interpretations of the law – and don’t you ever forget it.