6/21/24

Today's intersection: the unitary executive, John Eastman, SCOTUS and environmental protection

When the US Constitution was written the Federalists argued for a strong central government with co-equal branches but today neo-Federalists advocate for a weaker central government with a strong unitary executive — well, if that executive is a Republican anyway.

Two days before Donald Trump's attempted takeover of the United States in 2021 John Eastman was summoned to the Oval Office to share some exotic extralegal scenarios then in 2022 as he left a Santa Fe restaurant he was frisked by federal agents who seized his iPhone Pro 12 presumed to contain incriminating evidence of Trump's attempted autogolpe. An unindicted co-conspirator, Eastman knew Jeffrey Epstein through impeachment lawyer Bruce Castor and through Alan Dershowitz, also believed to be a pedophile. 

But, in 2023 with direction from Eastman and others the Trump-packed Supreme Court of the United States reversed environmental protection for a majority of American citizens and enabled the corporatocracy to pollute at will. Today, Republicans and their toadies cry government overreach while waters of the United States or WOTUS architects regroup for another round in Congress as Eastman and other christofascists work to install a Republican executive at any cost and kill the legal doctrine called the “Chevron deference.”
But before getting sucked into the gravitational force that is Donald Trump, Eastman, 64, was the sort of conservative legal figure whose name one might forget, a law professor with a cushy job and a chairmanship at a practice group of the conservative legal organization the Federalist Society. He epitomizes the type of anti-regulatory, Federalist Society–bred legal mind you can expect to see elevated by Trump. Many environmental lawyers see the preservation of rivers, lakes, forests, and the air—which cross state lines—as an issue of inherently federal concern. [Fish, Toads, and John Eastman: Inside the Conservative Project to Undo Federal Environmental Laws]
Yes, the US Environmental Protection Agency and US Fish and Wildlife Service are within the Executive Branch and as Commander in Chief the president could simply order the Army Corps of Engineers and all to stand down.

Trump's lawyers are arguing that a unitary executive could launch the extraordinary rendition or worse of anyone anywhere anytime without due process because he can. But SCOTUS is in a box: if it rules the unitary executive is immune to prosecution President Joe Biden could call for the removal of every Republican who incited insurrection. And while Trump is a clear and present danger to national security and his imprisonment at Guantanamo Bay an intriguing goal house arrest, a gag order and loss of passport is probably adequate if POTUS Biden orders it.

ip image: East Pecos Baldy in the Santa Fe National Forest not far from where an American subsidiary of Australian company New World Cobalt was granted twenty federal permits to drill test holes.
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3 comments:

  1. larry kurtzJune 28, 2024 at 4:43 AM

    If Joe Biden is a unitary executive he should call the bluff and have Donald Trump jailed for leading an insurrection.

    ReplyDelete
  2. larry kurtzJuly 1, 2024 at 1:24 PM

    Donald Trump is a traitor so now that SCOTUS has ruled POTUS is a unitary executive President Biden is within his power to order the US Marshals Service to arrest and confine him until his next trial date.

    ReplyDelete
  3. larry kurtzJuly 1, 2024 at 2:22 PM

    Honestly? I’m even more terrified now that the GOP will assassinate our POTUS and VPOTUS then install the Republican Speaker of the House who would name Herr Trump his Veep then step down.

    ReplyDelete

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