Unlike the Holland, Dozier, Holland Supremes hit song of 1966, this hangin’ on has nothing to do with a love affair between a man, and a woman, but rather an illicit affair between an illegitimate relationship between a corrupt former president and the Supreme Court justices appointed by him. Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett all lied about Roe v. Wade during their senate confirmation hearings. They all claimed to adhere to stare decisis when it came to Roe, but quickly changed their minds during the Dobbs case. Key to their decision was that there was no right to privacy explicitly mentioned in the Constitution.
However, when the Colorado ballot initiative came before them they seemed to have put on blinders, as none of these textualists noticed that it clearly stated, in the 14th amendment, that an elected official who participated in an insurrection could only hold office again if 2/3 of Congress agreed to allow him to serve. Yet, these so-called originalists claimed that in order to have an impact this amendment would need congressional approval.
This brings us to the Jack Smith insurrection prosecution against Donald Trump. In December of 2023, after Trump’s attorneys had appealed his indictment on grounds of total presidential immunity. Attorney Smith asked the Supreme Court to take up the case on an expedited basis. They refused sending it to the appeals court which took until February to rule that Trump’s claims were bonkers. Trump appealed to the Supreme Court, and his judges. The Court agreed to take up the case, but put off the presentation until April 25th which was the last date that the Court was in session.
The hearing started off with Trump’s attorney making his presentation. The justices seemed skeptical of Trum’s claim of absolute immunity, but then the conservative justices began to ignore the case before them. Instead, they began dealing in future hypotheticals. Justice Alito posed the idea that some suture president would refuse to leave office because he would be afraid of being prosecuted by his successor. He totally ignored the fact that the defendant in this case had refused to leave office even though there had been no threat of prosecution at that time.
I doubt that the Court will grant full immunity for Trump since that would also give total immunity for President Biden. Instead expect them to kick this case back to the lower Court. Thus keeping us hangin’ on, thus allowing Trump to run for reelection which means he may never face prosecution for trying to overthrow the government of the United States.