27 April 2019

Nonjusticiable

Donald Trump made one of his more profoundly stupid comments this past week. He posted on Twitter "if the partisan Dems ever tried to Impeach, I would first head to the U.S. Supreme Court."

This is comically wrong for two reasons. Anyone who knows anything about the Supreme Court knows it is a court of final appeal. It's not a court of first pleading that remedies disputes. (Yes there are a few rare exceptions to that, but Trump's claim here is not one of them.)

And second, the Supreme Court and other federal courts know that impeachment issues are what is legally known as nonjusticiable. That means they can't be reviewed by a court. Impeachment is a political process and the Supreme Court has previously ruled it's entirely up to Congress to decide all matters regarding impeachment.

To this end, the Los Angeles Times published a great piece yesterday (link here) explaining how absurd Trump's claim actually is.

One is left wondering why Trump said what he did, given any lawyer would know it was laughable. Was it meant to impress his base, making them think he was so powerful or so righteous that the Supreme Court would instantly take his side?

What is amazing is that for a man who is so notoriously thin skinned, he has no problem proudly displaying his ignorance for all the world to see.

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