Trump Celebrates Supreme Court’s Huge January 6 Ruling

Trump took to Truth Social Friday afternoon to celebrate the news that the Supreme Court rejected a statute used for one charge against Capitol rioter Joseph Fischer, declaring the 6–3 ruling a “BIG WIN!” and “Big News!” His victory lap appears tied to how the court’s decision helps his own federal election interference case, or how it helps other January 6 rioters—but either way, his celebrations may be short-lived.

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that a statute federal prosecutors were using to charge January 6 rioters wasn’t applicable due to the order in which the relevant subsection of the statute appears. Dissenting against the decision, conservative justice Amy Coney Barrett noted the ruling was based on textual backflips to justify the decision.

Half of the charges in Trump’s federal election interference case are based on the statute the Supreme Court just reinterpreted, with Friday’s decision giving a leg up to the already-convicted felon. But that win may have a steep downside if his interference case ever goes to trial: According to Slate, the Supreme Court’s decision on Friday confirmed that submitting false evidence in an official proceeding does violate federal law. Trump is accused of helping to orchestrate a scheme where his allies submitted fraudulent elector letters on his behalf to win the 2020 election.

The Supreme Court’s ruling may also affect cases against more than 300 Capitol rioters charged with obstruction—but they’re not getting off scot-free. Rioters have faced charges of trespassing, assault on an officer, and seditious conspiracy. In Fischer’s case, his obstruction charge is just one of several that includes civil disorder, impeding police officers, entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly conduct and demonstrating in a Capitol building. Fischer’s case has been sent back to lower courts to determine if the obstruction charge is still valid.

In response to the Supreme Court decision, Attorney General Merrick Garland released a statement noting that no one involved in the January 6 Capitol riot has been charged with only the obstruction statute.

“The vast majority of the more than 1,400 defendants charged for their illegal actions on January 6 will not be affected by this decision,” Garland wrote. “There are no cases in which the Department charged a January 6 defendant only with the offense at issue in Fischer.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass began the week by suggesting that her city consider a new mask ban for protesters, and ended it by testing positive for Covid-19.

After protesters clashed outside a synagogue in Pico-Robertson, which held an event for a company known for selling high-end properties in Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank, Democratic leaders quickly denounced the chaos and began working on ways to make everything a lot less safe for protesters.

President Joe Biden called it “dangerous, unconscionable, antisemitic, and un-American,” but said nothing about the auctioning of stolen Palestinian land in Israeli settlements, which the international community has widely agreed is illegal. “Americans have a right to peaceful protest. But blocking access to a house of worship—and engaging in violence—is never acceptable,” he wrote.

The incident came on the heels of other large protests across the country, which had left Governor Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams eyeing the reinstatement of a mask ban for protesters, both saying they felt the anonymity masking provides had emboldened protesters to commit violence. Meanwhile, the city is undergoing a renewed wave of Covid-19, which neither politician deigned to consider.

Bass appeared to have taken her lead from those two: At a press conference with local Jewish leaders Monday, the mayor said she would seek “several points of clarity” from the city’s attorney “around what are the parameters with protests: when permits are needed, whether or not people should be masked, and establishing clear lines of demarcation between what is legal and what is not.”

Although she did not offer a specific proposal, she pushed that the city ought to review “the idea of people wearing masks at protests.”

California has also seen a recent surge of Covid-19 cases, and a study in June found that viral levels of Covid-19 in the state’s wastewater had crossed a point of “high activity.”

Only a few days later, her office announced that she tested positive for Covid-19 and will be attending her meetings remotely, a luxury that many workers in this country are no longer afforded.

Bass’s ironic diagnosis is undercut by the fact that for many, especially immunocompromised people, Covid-19 still presents real dangers and carries long-lasting health risks. As the federal government has neglected to keep restrictions for the benefit of the worst-off, states and local governments have been granted the power to keep their citizens safe, and are across the board dropping the ball.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked for comment Friday morning about her response to voluminous calls from panicked Democrats for Biden to be replaced on the Democratic ticket following Thursday night’s abysmal debate performance—and she refused to answer.

Reporters for CBS asked Pelosi, “What do you say to Democrats who feel that there should be another nominee after the president’s debate performance last night?” Pelosi evaded the question entirely, saying “I’ll make a statement about this, but not right now.”

Pelosi’s remark—or rather, notable lack thereof—comes on the heels of another influential Democrat, Hakeem Jeffries, who also avoided giving a clear answer as to whether he thinks Biden should be replaced as the Democratic nominee, instead stating he plans to “stand behind the ticket.”

“I’m looking forward to hearing from President Biden,” Jeffries told AP’s Farnoush Amiri Friday morning. “And until he articulates a way forward in terms of his vision for America at this moment, I’m going to reserve comment about anything relative to where we are at this moment, other than to say I stand behind the ticket. I stand behind the Senate Democratic majority. And of course, we’re going to do everything that we need to do as House Democrats to win.”

CBS also asked Pelosi her thoughts on Biden’s debate performance, which she defended in contrast to Trump’s prolific debate lies: “Compared to a person who was lying the whole time?” Pelosi asked. “We saw integrity on one side and dishonesty on the other. That’s how I saw it.”

She then dove into pointing out the absurdity of Trump accusing her of being responsible for the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot, calling Trump a “fool” and saying, “He thinks I planned my own assassination? He’s sicker than I thought.”

What is a “Black job?” At Thursday’s presidential debate, Donald Trump claimed they were being taken away by immigrants—but no one knows what he’s talking about. 

 “The fact is that his big kill on the Black people is the millions of people that he’s allowed to come in through the border,” Trump said. “They’re taking Black jobs now—and it could be 18, it could be 19 and even 20 million people. They’re taking Black jobs, and they’re taking Hispanic jobs, and you haven’t seen it yet, but you’re gonna see something that’s going to be the worst in our history.” 

On Twitter, the comments immediately drew backlash, as well as some jokes.  

Black politicians were quick to point out what they do for a living.

Democratic National Committee Chair Jaime Harrison expressed incredulity Thursday night, but got into a more positive spirit Friday morning. 

BlackPAC, a 527 organization seeking to “harness the political power of Black Americans,” also added some humor to the conversation.

If the former president and convicted felon thinks that these remarks will help gain Black voters, his record undercuts his efforts, whether it’s his vow to fight “anti-white” racism, his pledge to “indemnify all police officers and law enforcement officials” if he’s reelected, or his attacks on Black prosecutors. 

Even before becoming president, Trump faced accusations of racism over the housing discrimination lawsuit he and his father faced in the 1970s. There was also his time on NBC’s The Apprentice where, behind the scenes, Trump allegedly dropped the n-word and refused to hire Kwame Jackson, the Black finalist on the show’s first season.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett broke ranks with the conservative majority on the Supreme Court Friday, leveraging strong words against her colleagues for their interpretation of Fischer v. United States. After the court ruled 6–3 that the Justice Department overstepped in charging hundreds of January 6 rioters with obstruction, the Trump-appointed conservative judge used her dissenting opinion to tear apart the decision that would narrow all future obstruction charges, including potentially Trump’s.

Noting that the court didn’t dispute the details of the case—namely that Congress’s joint session was an “official proceeding,” that the rioters delayed the proceeding, and that Joseph Fischer’s trespassing and brush-up with law enforcement during the ordeal was “part of a successful effort to forcibly halt the certification of the election results”—Barrett questioned why the court would question the “open and shut” obstruction case.

“Because it simply cannot believe that Congress meant what it said,” she wrote, continuing to explain that the legal code for charging Fischer was a “very broad provision” and that, “admittedly, events like January 6th were not its target. (Who could blame Congress for that failure of imagination?)

“But statutes often go further than the problem that inspired them, and under the rules of statutory interpretation, we stick to the text anyway,” Barrett wrote. “The Court, abandoning that approach, does textual backflips to find some way—any way—to narrow the reach of subsection (c)(2),” referring to part of the statute used to charge Fischer for his actions on January 6.

In doing so, the court “failed to respect the prerogatives of the political branches” to punish illegal conduct that occurred on January 6, according to Barrett.

The high court’s immunity decision is scheduled to be released on Monday. Given her strong words for the court on failing to recognize the obstruction case, Barrett does not seem like she’ll be saddling up in favor of Trump’s immunity argument anytime soon.