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Holly Idelson, a policy advocate with the non-partisan group Protect Democracy, said education and public awareness will be critical to defuse the potential for a “crisis atmosphere” in the circumstance of a presidential candidate’s death or withdrawal.
“Yes, there are unprecedented scenarios that could arise, and yes, there may be genuine questions about how to apply the law, but in many cases there is law to apply,” she said. “We should focus our efforts on promoting regular order rather than undue alarm.”
These are basic guidelines within the justice system that are set up to ensure that when someone is accused of a crime, they have the right to a trial of their peers, said Kristy Parker, a former federal prosecutor now with the nonpartisan advocacy group Protect Democracy.
“Other presidents have violated laws and tried to get away with it,” Parker said. “But this is a person who is overtly attacking the system itself.”
On Wednesday, Marjorie Taylor Greene announced she plans to force a vote on ousting Speaker Mike Johnson next week.
It’s the latest development in an ongoing shakeup that began last October, when a House speaker was removed for the first time in congressional history. While her efforts seem likely to fail, the question of how long any speaker will last and how possible it is for the House to function amidst all the circular infighting lingers.
Historically, the Legislature has not passed election reform in a presidential election year, especially in the period after the primary and before the general election, said Kyler Miller, a policy advocate with the nonpartisan group Protect Democracy and a former aide to a Democratic state senator.
“But also I don’t think there is the political will to enact any change, whether that would be helpful or not,” Miller said. “We’ll see. Weird things happen in June.”
“Plaintiffs have been attempting to schedule depositions of the defendants for months. On the same day TGP filed for bankruptcy, we had just given notice for the depositions of [Gateway Pundit co-founders] Jim and Joe Hoft to be taken in May,” said Brittany Williams, a lawyer for the non-profit group Protect Democracy, which is representing Freeman and Moss.
A wild, pivotal week for our democracy.
We saw the first-ever criminal trial of a former president — and yet, somehow, it wasn’t the most important news story. No, that was the Supreme Court’s hearing yesterday on whether Donald Trump — and the presidency in general — is above the law (either expressly through criminal immunity or by default through procedural delays).
“The Supreme Court may be inclined to split hairs, but Donald Trump is not,” Deana El-Mallawany, the counsel for the bipartisan group Protect Democracy, told me after the hearing. “The arguments today made clear that Trump seeks absolute unchecked power. Trying to rein in an imperial vision of presidential power like that with an opinion that draws fine lines would be akin to trying to hold water with a net.”
Today the Supreme Court heard oral argument on former President Trump’s claim that he’s absolutely immune from criminal prosecution.
Although Trump has successfully stymied the federal election interference case for months by raising this defense, both the district court and the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals quickly and unanimously ruled that presidents have never been understood to be above the law and have no immunity from criminal prosecution. A clear cross-ideological majority of legal commentators, including Protect Democracy, agreed with those decisions and called for the Supreme Court to affirm them quickly.
And here we are again.
Last week, the House of Representatives passed a set of foreign aid bills that included aid for Ukraine over the objections of the right wing of the Republican Party. Now, because of that bipartisan victory, members of his own party are threatening to remove Mike Johnson from the speakership. The infighting is only getting worse.
Defeating authoritarianism is going to take all of us. Everyone and every institution has a role to play. Together, we can protect democracy.
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