The Supreme Court was hit by a flurry of damaging new leaks Sunday as a series of confidential memos written by the chief justice were revealed by The New York Times.

The court’s Chief Justice John Roberts was clear to his fellow justices in February: He wanted the court to take up a case weighing Donald Trump’s right to presidential immunity—and he seemed inclined to protect the former president.

“I think it likely that we will view the separation of powers analysis differently,” Roberts wrote to his Supreme Court peers, according to a private memo obtained by the *Times. *He was referencing the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision to allow the case to move forward.

Roberts took an unusual level of involvement in this and other cases that ultimately benefited Trump, according to the Times— his handling of the cases surprised even some other justices on the high court, across ideological lines. As president, Trump appointed three of the members of its current conservative supermajority.

  • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    At least one of them (maybe Jackson but I’m probably wrong on who) specifically warned about political parties

    • frezik@midwest.social
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      2 months ago

      It was Washington. However, Washington also tended to side with Hamilton against Jefferson in practice, and those two would quickly form political parties that are the ancestors of the modern ones.

      The “Founding Fathers” were far from a monolithic block of philosopher kings like American mythmaking likes to portray.

      Duverger’s Law was developed in the 1950s and 60s, so it wasn’t understood way back then.

    • MutilationWave@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Yeah Andrew Jackson was not a founding father. He was a person who owned hundreds of human beings as slaves and conducted genocide against the native population. He was a total piece of shit really. Trump ordered Jackson’s portrait hung in the oval office during his presidency.

      • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        You aren’t wrong on any count but it should be noted most of the founding fathers were slavers and conducted genocide on the native population. Jackson was just particularly shameless about both whereas someone like Jefferson was clearly uncomfortable with slavery, just not as much as he was with the idea of not keeping his fellow human beings, some of whom were his biological family, as slaves.

      • HakFoo@lemmy.sdf.org
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        2 months ago

        You think Trump knew him as anything but “the face on the $20 note”?

        If he had gotten office in 1914, he’d have put Grover Cleveland’s portrait up for the same reason.

        • frezik@midwest.social
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          2 months ago

          Trump knows Jackson, actually. Jackson is one of his favorite Presidents. Jackson was also a raging asshole, so that makes sense.

          That Jackson portrait that was hung up during Trump’s tenure? They made sure it was there when Trump met with Native American leaders, and the intended insult was heard loud and clear.