Dave Hayden 🏊Feb 24

A well-needed reality check on what's actually going on in the Supreme Court: https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/02/supreme-court-tariffs-partisanship/686117/

In short: No, the conservative majority isn't voting in lock step to make this president a king, they're actually working to reduce the power of the executive branch. The unfortunate bit is this only works if congress actually does its job..

What the Roberts Court Is Actually Trying to Accomplish

It’s not about Trump.

The Atlantic
Show threadLuke KaniesFeb 24
@dave I… am *very* skeptical of this take. They have been working toward a powerful president for years — as long as the president is a republican.
Show threadDave Hayden 🏊
@lkanies I admit I wouldn't have been so quick to post the article if I'd bothered to read the author's wikipedia page first.. but I do buy the argument that they're actually following the constitution here, that the president has full authority over the executive branch but that power has limits. I sure hope we see some tests of the president's "immunity from prosecution" after the midterms.
Feb 24 at 4:26amWeb
Show threadLuke KaniesFeb 24

@dave yeah. That, plus impeaching him literally every week.

I absolutely do not buy the argument he has full authority, or at least their definition of what that means. We’ve always limited a president’s ability to fire people at will, and also limited his ability to hire. The Supreme Court has gutted both of those long standing norms (plus the voting rights act, congress’s power of the purse, their ability to pass laws like the one that creates the epa, etc).

These people are partisan hacks who are no better than the people who did the dred Scott decision, and they deserve not one iota of respect or benefit of the doubt.

Show threadDave Hayden 🏊Feb 24

@lkanies my extremely optimistic take is that even if they're bulldozing decades of precedent at least they have a consistent legal theory and won't suddenly change their minds when the next president boots all the maga creeps, and just maybe congress will find a way to stabilize things so we're not reshuffling the entire government every administration.

Let me have this, it's all I got 😭

Show threadLuke KaniesFeb 24
@dave unfortunately I will absolutely take the other side of that bet. I am 100% confident democratic presidents will never have unitary power with this Supreme Court.