I just want to focus some attention on a couple of key aspects of the SCOTUS decision.
Of course we are all thrilled at the Creep getting nailed, and by his 2 appointees no less. Delicious.
And, yes, SCOTUS punted. The GOP justices don’t have the nerve to actually nail Trump. And this does let him run out the clock. Trump’s fate is already locked in on the election. It’s too late to do anything else. The Senate’s failure in the impeachment fixed that in cement.
But here’s what seems to me to be deeply and lastingly significant. An immense threat to democracy was averted!
The great danger in all of this was SCOTUS establishing a precedent liberating POTUS from prosecution. That would have been a disaster reaching into the decades to come. And SCOTUS didn’t do that. Even though they chickened out on Trump as such, they acknowledged the rule of law.
American democracy is much harder to kill than people think!
The second great impact of the decision is to scare the crap out of Trump and make him cling to power. Yes, that’s a good thing.
As I have argued before, a narcissist like Trump will always quit a game he thinks he will lose. If you think he would never pull out of the race, you don’t get the logic of the narcissist. And if you think the GOP elite wouldn’t be thrilled to replace him on the ticket, if only to protect their Senators, you don’t get how much they hate him and how coldly they’ll throw anyone under the bus. They’ll never cut him loose but they would be dancing if he pulled out himself. And unlike many, I think a palatable GOP shill would be very hard for Biden to beat.
You may not share that concern. In any event, this ruling raises the prosecutorial stakes against Trump, reducing his likelihood of pulling out. He will be clinging to office like a life preserver. The SCOTUS ruled against him, but as long as he is POTUS, he has Barr to suborn Justice to protect him. His narcissism compels him to avoid a loss, but his self-preservation instincts—and his are highly honed and shrewd!--will make him grip the White House like a condemned man gripping the bars of the cell to avoid the execution chamber.
Yes, SCOTUS was largely gutless and Trump will run out the clock. But it is still a very good day.
By the way, the 7-2 vote is interesting. SCOTUS has historically been very hard for any partisan power to command. Those folks are appointed for life and though they carry their own ideological commitments, they do have a way of confounding those who appoint them or count on them to carry their water.