You may be wondering, as I am, whether President Trump’s announcement “Long live the king” with a picture of the President wearing a crown, violates Article I, Section 9, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution. “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States. . . .”
My instincts tell me that it would be impossible. All signs are that he will be an historically awful president. Yet, we have just seen a stunning demonstration of the power of right wing prapaganda. So it will be interesting, but maybe disheartening, to watch.
Presidential candidate Donald J. Trump: "On my first day back in the White House I will . . . invoke the Alien Enemies Act to remove all known or suspected gang members, drug dealers or cartel members from the United States, ending the scourge of illegal alien gang violence once and for all"
The question is just how the Alien Enemies Act could be used to deport aliens who are suspected (by whom, on what standard?) to be gang or cartel members or drug dealers.
In a personal injury case, punitive damages, if awarded, are
calibrated to cause pain to the defendant. Rich defendant, higher punitives. In
some European countries criminal are sentenced to “day fines,” confiscating,
each day, so much of the defendant’s income as would reduce all defendants,
rich or poor, to roughly the same standard of living from income: something a
little above subsistence.
To have any effect on Trump’s behavior and to have any hope
of securing witnesses and court personnel from intimidation, a meaningful deterrent
is needed. If it is financial in nature, it has to be a high dollar amount.
Let us suppose that Trump is convicted in the Washington D.C. case and the New York case, but in the latter only of a misdemeanor. (See Conjectures & Arguments, Philosophy & Law: Legal Problems of the New York Criminal Case against Trump.) In the Florida case he benefits either from postponement until after the election from the hand of his appointee Judge Canon or from her Judgment of Acquittal (Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 29, which, when granted after the jury is sworn, is unappealable).
In the case brought by the New York County District Attorney, Trump’s goose would be pretty well cooked on the misdemeanor Falsification of Business Records in the Second Degree, NYPL. §175.05. There are 34 counts of the indictment listing e.g., invoices and checks falsified to cover up the hush money payments made via Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels. That is, it would be cooked but for the two year misdemeanor statute of limitations.
Did Trump committed the felony of falsification of business records in the first degree, §175.10, for which there is no limitations problem?
Suppose Trump were right that Congress should have made him president because it was actually he who was Constitutionally elected in 2020.
"Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?" Henry II
There very probably is sufficient evidence to indict the former president of one or more felonies. The question will have to be faced by the DOJ and by at least one state prosecutor whether to do so.
Either decision will be tragic.
The following propositions seem to me to be probably true: Had Ted Cruz or Josh Hawley been Vice President, Donald Trump would now be the President of the United States. Swing state legislators would have cooperated to that end. Most elected Republicans, whether or not they participated in the coup, would not have objected and very few would have resisted. Most of the Republicans rank and file would have celebrated.
Is fascism a phenomenon that resembles such natural kinds as protons, platypuses, or diamonds or is it more like the color red, which fades into pinks, purples, grays, white, or black with never anything like a boundary? To discharge the metaphors, is it possible to choose among and combine in almost any imaginable way the elements of being antidemocratic, leader-cultish, hostile to the rule of law and civil liberties, racist, misogynistic, nationalistic, militaristic, anti-rational, religiously intolerant, propagandizing, inegalitarian, politically violent, and fostering of coziness between the state and business and of the opposite between state and any organization of employees?
It is by subscribing to the inaugural oath, as set out in the Constitution, that the US president elect becomes the US president. It reads: "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Article II, Sec. 1.
