The USSC and MAGA legal experts have adopted the concept of a unitary executive (UE). Constitutional power for the UE comes from a single sentence in the constitution called the vesting clause: The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United States. Republican USSC judges and MAGA dogma, e.g., Project 2025, take that to mean there is no limit on the power a president has over the executive branch.
MAGA's staggering but deadly hypocrisy about the US Constitution is pretty simple. when interpreting the constitution, MAGA legal dogma very broadly interprets language that gives the president and the USSC power, but it very narrowly interprets language that gives power to the people or congress.
Slate and others report that in an unsigned, two-sentence USSC shadow docket decision in Department of State v. AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition, our Republican MAGA court transferred vast power from congress to our MAGA president. In essence, Trump now has line-item veto power over congressional spending laws via pocket recission.** This decision guts congress' core power. In its only two sentences, the USSC said (1) the plaintiffs probably lacked standing to bring the lawsuit in the 1st place, and (2) "the asserted harms to the Executive's conduct of foreign affairs appear to outweigh the potential harm faced by respondents".
** MAGA's pocket recission in three steps: (1) Trump withhold funds congress mandated, (2) within 45 days before fiscal year end he submits a rescission request to Congress, (3) congress lets the spending expire because, in its usual incompetence or active acquiescence to Trump, it fails or refuses to reject Trump's recission by the deadline, which was Sept. 30.
It is now up to congressional Republicans to go to court and get this USSC decision overturned, which they may or may not choose to do, assuming they even can. Congress may not have either the power or the political courage to go to federal courts to get this reversed.** They probably won't do that because it would make Trump angry and vengeful. Almost all experts see what Trump has done here as illegal. However, since the USSC quietly sanctioned the illegality by shadow docket, the final outcome is unclear. This is very likely a delay tactic to push a final court decision until after the 2026 mid-term elections.
** To get its power back, congress has to prove that Trump's recission "completely nullified" its vote to pass the law. Trump only whacked a part of the law, not all of it. Therefore, congress just might be SOL on keeping it own core spending power intact. Trump has vast veto power, but not quite absolute. All he has to do is keep some aspects of a law intact so the USSC can allow Trump to have line-item veto power, while hiding behind an argument of incomplete nullification. This is a brilliant, subtle MAGA legal strategy to establish an American dictatorship with Trump as dictator/kleptocrat-in-chief.
Regardless of how this ultimately plays out, the main point is clear: The USSC, MAGA elites and Trump are all fully behind the idea of giving unfettered UE power to Trump. That makes him a de facto dictator-kleptocrat and the USSC and MAGA elites dictator-kleptocrat supporters.
Note: There are more legal subtleties in this awful story, but that would make this post more complicated and probably TL/DR. But, for the wonks who want to wade through more or all the Qs&As with Pxy this post is based on 👍, here's a link to most of the whole fascinating, terrifying shebang (and this for my SOL comment above). For verbatim fact and nuance checking, I had Pxy comment on most of what I wrote. What I write here is accurate and not vast hyperbole, manipulation or lies.
Qs: Is this post TL/DR and/or TC/DR? Is this not as important as this post says it is?
TC = too complicated because the legal stuff is too complicated or otherwise
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