THE LAW:...Is Trump Above It All?...Does The Constitution Have To Spell It Out Word For Word?...He Thinks So...

 

By DUARDO PAZ-MARTINEZ

McAllen, Texas |...It would be too simplistic to say that no one was above the law in this country until Donald J. Trump arrived on the political scene. Law, as many of us know, can at times be twisted in interpretation or, worse yet, ignored. The recent impeachment of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton comes to mind. He beat it, but it was a political not a legal ruling in the State Senate.

This well-known concept of "No One Is Above The Law" is currently playing like a moveable feast across the abused national landscape. Americans and Talking Head lawyers, especially, are eating it up.

This much is true: Republican Trump is the current lightning rod in a slew of stare downs at our Constitution, rightly or wrongly.

He is under indictment on several fronts, clearly for inciting a riot that saw the U.S. Capitol trashed by his supporters and for attempting to overturn the 2020 election with strong-arm tactics aimed at vote-counting officials in Georgia. This, too: Four separate criminal cases, a trial slated to start in March.

So far, he remains free, thus forcing thoughts into the minds of many Americans that he is untouchable, i.e. above the law and not subject to prosecution. Is he? Well, until he robs a bank or guns someone down, Trump's fights are nebulous as fuck, as kids today like to say. He loudly claims immunity, noting that some of what he said and did took place while he was president from 2016 to January 2021. That's dubious, but out there.

The Capitol assault on January 6, 2021 is blamed on Trump. He gave a rousing "rigged election" speech in Washington D.C. that protestors later told courts inspired them to go and mess with the vote certification giving the presidency to Democrat Joe Biden at the nearby Capitol. Armed protestors heard Trump's call for action and then walked over and stormed in, injuring security police officers and menacing members of Congress in the building.

It was a sad day for America. Hundreds of those protestors were later arrested, charged and tried - a handful for sedition, earning them lengthy prison terms.

Trump got nothing in the form of punishment. Two efforts to impeach him while president were rejected by the Republican-controlled U.S. Senate. He left office, but not before a vigorous attempt to overturn the election he lost, agreeing to a variety of plots that included fake state electors, fake allegations of voter fraud and one harried telephone call by Trump to Republican elections officials in Georgia, where he asked that they find him some 11,000 votes so that he could claim victory there.

Nothing has come of that yet, although Trump was indicted in Fulton County, Georgia (Atlanta) and is scheduled to eventually stand trial there on charges of violating federal racketeering laws (RICO). He recently completed testimony in his business fraud trial in New York, where he was found guilty but stood to a trial on how much that conviction will cost him dollars.

To date, he has paid little. A small fine here and there, nothing substantive.

That could soon change, although Trump continues on his quest of the presidency with almost a year left before the November 2024 General Election. A bump in the road has surfaced in Colorado, where the State Supreme Court kicked him off the ballot. That led to an immediate filing before the U.S. Supreme Court, where Colorado asked justices to affirm their ruling.

The High Court is expected to take on the case as early as January 4th, one day before Colorado certifies its ballots for the coming elections. It's iffy for Trump, we say, even as conservative legal minds insist the Supreme Court will side by Trump. They cite the fact that Trump has not been charged or convicted of anything.

Those with an opposing view say the Supreme Court will go against him, noting that states' matters belong to the state and adding that the conservative Court, troubled of late by ethics missteps, may side by Colorado as a way to reclaim some of its damaged credibility.

The latter is a weak assessment, but it's out there.

So, is Donald J. Trump above the law, or is "above the law" just another throwaway cliche for politicians to lob at constituents when they want to and to ignore when they have to?

So far, yes and yes.

There's this food for thought, however: That nagging "rule of law" thing. As we have learned it, the rule of law means that everyone must obey the law and that no one is above the law. The government and its leaders must obey the law, goes the Civics 101 line.

Section 1 of the 14th Amendment in the U.S. Constitution speaks to equal protection of the law. That is the equivalent, or implication, that no one is above the law. Not that all Americans are buying it in Trump's case. He has dead-serious supporters who are willing to look the other way on every attack he launches on America and its once-hallowed past.

The Constitution was written in 1787.

Trump has certainly been bashed about by the law since he left office three years ago. He often blames Democrats, the opposing political party, and no one else for his legal problems, and he always gets the quick, rallying support of his so-called rabid MAGA followers. They agree with him that his troubles are nothing but a witch hunt. The witch is Uncle Sam, however, and Uncle Sam has all the power.

It's a bit more than a run-of-the-mill witch hunt, however.

This is an openly racist/bigoted politician working the Constitution like he likely worked porn star Stormy Daniels in that infamous sexual affair. Lately, those around him have bravely said he does not believe in the U.S. Constitution, working it only when it suits him and roughing it up for his own survival - law and citizenship be damned.

Ominous Quote: "In our system of government, as this Court has often stated, no one is above the law. That principle applies, of course, to a President..." - Supreme Court Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh, 2020

I was going to say it's some conundrum, but it's more than that.

It's a filthy, stinking mess...ugly and dangerous...

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