Attention to the Unseen

Slate reports: In a nearly 100-page order issued Monday morning, [Judge Aileen] Cannon states that special counsel Jack Smith’s appointment by the attorney general violates the appointments clause of the Constitution, which she says mandates that “officers of the United States—whether inferior or principal—must be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.” Cannon concluded that there isn’t any statute in the United States Code that authorizes Smith’s appointment, so he therefore cannot legally conduct his classified documents prosecution….

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Lisa Needham writes: It’s been barely a week since conservatives on the US Supreme Court radically upended the balance of power between the branches of government, giving the federal courts the exclusive power to interpret statutes rather than deferring to agency experts. And we’re already seeing impacts on the ground. Right-wingers have been in the habit of running to their preferred courts to get regulations overturned, but the decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, which officially destroyed agency deference, will…

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  The Supreme Court this week severely undermined the principle that no one is above the law – a bedrock of our nation’s system of government – with its historic ruling declaring that presidents have absolute immunity for their official acts. In her fierce dissent, Justice Sotomayor accused the conservative majority of making the president a “king above the law.” Eminent legal scholar and one of the most cited by SCOTUS, Yale’s Akhil Reed Amar, joins Ali Velshi to discuss…

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Middle East Eye reports: The new British government has appointed Richard Hermer, an experienced lawyer who has often spoken out against Israeli breaches of international law, as the country’s attorney general. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose Labour Party won a landslide majority in this week’s election, selected Hermer as the chief legal adviser to the government on Friday. The attorney general oversees the Government Legal Department, the Serious Fraud Office and the Crown Prosecution Service (which Starmer led between 2008…

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Joseph Nunn writes: The Insurrection Act is a nuclear bomb hidden in the United States Code. Enacted in the early years of this country’s existence, it was subsequently modified several times, as Congress greatly expanded the President’s powers under the law during the bloody tumult of the Civil War and Reconstruction. It has largely been ignored ever since. But today, the law has garnered renewed attention and raised concerns in many quarters for a reason that should echo ominously this…

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Don Moynihan writes: [Trump’s] impeachment for fomenting an insurrection was derailed by Mitch McConnell and other Republican Senators who insisted that the legal system would hold him accountable: “We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being held accountable by either one.” Almost four years on, the legal system has failed to hold Trump accountable, and will not before he would gain authority to pardon himself. The only…

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The New York Times reports: The Supreme Court’s decision on Monday about executive immunity makes it all but certain that former President Donald J. Trump will not stand trial on charges of seeking to overturn the last election before voters decide whether to send him back to the White House in the next one. But the ruling also opened the door for prosecutors to detail much of their evidence against Mr. Trump in front of a federal judge — and…

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Mark Joseph Stern writes: The Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority fundamentally altered American democracy on Monday, awarding the president a sweeping and novel immunity when he weaponizes the power of his office for corrupt, violent, or treasonous purposes. This near-insurmountable shield against prosecution for crimes committed while in office upends the structure of the federal government, elevating the presidency to a king-like status high above the other branches. The immediate impact of the court’s sweeping decision will be devastating enough, allowing…

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Politico reports: Donald Trump may never see the inside of a criminal courtroom again. The Supreme Court’s sweeping ruling that Trump — and all presidents — are immune from prosecution for their “official” actions immediately gutted some of the central allegations that special counsel Jack Smith leveled against Trump a year ago, when he charged the former president with conspiring to subvert the 2020 election. And it may eventually sink the rest of them, too. Constitutional experts digesting the breathtaking…

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Axios reports: House Democrats are previewing plans for a forceful legislative and investigative push against the Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents have legal immunity for “official acts.” Why it matters: It is part of House Democrats’ effort to frame themselves in the 2024 election as a potential bulwark against unified conservative control of a federal government led by former President Trump. “Everyone is making that argument with donors” after President Biden’s poor debate performance last week, one House Democrat told Axios. “The only thing more…

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