• disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    The ruling just absolves him from criminal activity. It doesn’t give him complete power to increase the size of SCOTUS or retire Justices. He’d have to order a hit on a Justice to leverage that ruling, and that is an act of an insane person.

    • cybervseas@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      How about house arrest for their “protection”? Developing countries do that all the time.

    • APassenger@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      If there were 5 justices, they’d still be functional. As proven in the past, there’s no requirement for 9.

      Esit: I’d - > If

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        It changed size six times before settling on nine Justices in 1869. Each time it was determined by a congressional vote. It’s not up to POTUS, it’s up to Congress.

        • APassenger@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          It ran at 8 for quite a while. No one’s legitimately saying those decisions don’t count.

          The official number can be whatever. Congress doesn’t get to nominate. And SCOTUS would keep deciding.

          • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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            6 months ago

            Do you understand that Congress needs to vote on the number of Justices?

            I’m not talking about the vote on the nominee, but the actual number of Justices.

            It is currently nine, and will remain nine, until Congress votes on a different number.

            • APassenger@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              I’m not the one being slow. SCOTUS had 8 people while McConnell held up Garland.

              Officially SCOTUS was and is nine people. But if the wheels of government turn slow enough, SCOTUS continues to do its job with whoever has made it through the process.

              Officially 9, it functioned with 8. No one is credibly saying all those decisions must be thrown out or that SCOTUS cannot function during a shortage.

              If that shortage was 4, people would be vocal. But legally, it would still be functional.

              I not talking about changing the official number. I never did in this thread until you did.

    • Veneroso@lemmy.world
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      6 months ago

      So let’s say, hypothetically.

      The president thought that people shouldn’t eat chocolate ice cream. It’s anti-american.

      And “for the good of the country” anyone who eats chocolate ice cream has to be isolated from the rest of society.

      That’s not an official act. It’s not really on the periphery of official acts.

      But because definitionally, anything that, at the president’s sole discretion, is “in the best interest of the United States” is now argued as an official act.

      Biden likes vanilla ice cream.
      But he isn’t going to detain you for unamerican activities if you prefer chocolate ice cream.

      Choose freedom! Choose chocolate ice cream!

      • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        You don’t understand the ruling.

        It is not giving POTUS any additional authority. It grants POTUS immunity from criminal prosecution of a crime related to an official act.

        Biden could personally slap the ice cream cone out of your hand and get away with it, if a court ruled it to be an official act. No one else is immune from crime committed on his behalf.

        This was tailored to Trump’s insurrection charges. If SCOTUS granted POTUS more executive privilege, Biden would just overrule SCOTUS and exempt felons from presidential candidacy.