America is drowning in a sea of broken oaths and the current is rapidly pulling us towards a dictatorship. Sadly, America’s had the means to rescue us if they had followed their oaths. Tragically, we’re getting too used to it.
The Constitution requires the President to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and to solemnly swear … to … defend the Constitution….” Trump’s record indictments violated the Constitution and his oath of office. Specifically:
- Guilty on 34 felony counts offalsifying business records to mask hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels.
- Indicted on 40 counts of pilfering classified documents.
- Indictedon four counts of federal election interference.
- Indicted on 41 counts of interference with Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results.
- Held liable for $354 million for financial fraud.
- Held liable for over $88 million in sexual abuse and defamation cases.
- Charged as anunindicted co-conspirator and mastermind of the plot to overturn the 2020 election.
Constitutional Violations
- Trump violated Foreign and Domestic Emoluments prohibitions against receiving gifts or benefits from foreign or domestic governments without Congress’s consent.
- Trump issued an unconstitutional executive order ending birthright citizenship, which a federal court blocked.
- Was indicted for January 6 insurrection. The case was discontinued after Trump’s majority postponed it until after the 2020 election. But the whole country watched it on TV and computers.
- Courts held Trump violated the First, Fifth, and Sixth Amendments, including the Constitution’s separation of powers mandate by defying one out of every three court orders and the free speech mandate by targeting law firms that represent political opponents.
- Trump violated Constitution’s due process clause by deporting innocent people without due process.
Republican Members of Congress have followed suit. They violated their oaths in order to avoid losing their seats to a Trump-supported candidate.
Members of Congress “solemnly swear, “I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
Republican Senators have a duty to consider the qualifications of presidential nominees to see if they’re qualified, which Republican Senators violated by confirming the most unqualified and dangerous cabinet in American history. They confirmed:
- A Secretary of Health who falsifies the side effects of vaccines, considers ending their use, and is dismantling the Department of Health.
- An alcoholic Fox co-host and sex offender as Defense Secretary who threatens to unleash the military on Trump’s enemies, and wouldn’t discourage Trump’s dangerous decisions.
- A Director of National Intelligence, who parroted Russian propaganda and repeated Russia’s claim that America funded biological weapons labs in Ukraine.
- An Attorney General who pledged to prosecute the prosecutors who indicted Trump, and is ignorant of fundamental legal concepts.
- An FBI Director who wants to put the Biden administration in jail and will execute Trump’s retribution obsession, including against the press.
When Congress considers new legislation the welfare of a member’s constituency and the entire nation should have top priority. But in passing Trump’s $4.5 trillion in tax cuts for the wealthy, Congressional Republicans mislead and screwed all working and needy Americans.
The new tax law recovers the lost tax revenues by cutting Medicaid and Medicare by $1 trillion, but delays the cuts until after the 2026 elections so voters won’t feel the pain until after they vote. Then, it will eliminate 11.8 million people from Medicaid and Medicare. Not surprisingly though, the tax cuts for the wealthy take effect in 2025 and 2026. It’s like wiring money from their bank accounts directly to the very rich.
In law school I revered the Supreme Court Justices loyalty to the Constitution and the model of the government they built us – no longer.
Federal statutes mandate that Supreme Court justices take the following oath: “I do solemnly swear … that I will administer justice without respect to persons, … and … impartially discharge all the duties incumbent upon me as under the Constitution and laws of the United States. So help me God.”
The phrase, “Without respect to persons” means that Supreme Court Justices will decide according to the rule of law, and without or favoring any person. The Federal Judiciary Act requires the Justices to swear that “I will … impartially discharge …. a duties incumbent on me … So help me God.” Well, the Justices disappointed both God and me.
The Supreme Court’s majority is really “Trump’s Majority.” Fearing that Republicans will lose the House majority, Trump asked the Texas legislature to add five more Republican Districts by gerrymandering, i.e., redrawing the states District maps to dilute or eliminate Democratic Voters.
The Republicans will sail through the Supreme Court’s pro-Trump majority, which has held that, no matter how egregious and prejudicial gerrymandering may be, the federal courts have no business interfering with it. Then, Trump’s majority violated the 15th Amendment, which prohibits “denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race or color” by upholding South Carolina Republicans’ removal of 60% of Black voters from their Congressional District map into a White-denominated District to ensure the election of Republican candidates. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t find an interpretation of the Constitution to justify ignoring the 15th Amendment.
Federal court injunctions of unconstitutional behavior have been precedent for the entire country. No longer. Trump’s majority temporarily stayed lower court injunctions blocking deportation without an opportunity to challenge it with claims that deportees would face torture, persecution or even death if removed.
So, Trump can continue to deport immigrants to dangerous countries until the Supreme Court decides that federal courts can no longer issue nationwide injunctions, which can take years.
Other Supreme Court stays have enabled Trump to continue drastically dismantling the government workforce, cutting financial assistance for domestic programs, freezing foreign aid, and firing, without cause, Democratic members of federal agencies that Congress created, providing that their members cannot be removed except for good reason.
As a result of these Supreme Court stays, Trump can continue all these abominations until the Court decides that federal court injunctions blocking unconstitutional behavior are not enforceable nationwide, which is entirely predictable.
Trump’s majority also held that neither Congress nor any court may interfere with the exercise of the President’s exclusive authority even if it violates a criminal law. What happened to the Constitutions core mandate for checks and balances?
There is however some hope that the number of Supreme Court Justices could be increased to minimize the influence of politics and blatant bias on the court. Most Americans support the increase because they doubt that the Supreme Court is fair or adheres to the Constitution in making decisions affecting elections are alarmed – even panic stricken — at Trump’s extreme behavior.
