Columns, Constitutional Law, Courts, Criminal law, Politics, Supreme Court

Insurrection-Lite: The Supreme Court Downsizes the “Insurrection” to Largely Trespassing

Below is my column in the Hill on the Supreme Court decision on Friday in Fischer v. U.S. to reject hundreds of charges in January 6th cases for the obstruction of legal proceedings. For many cases, that will leave relatively minor offenses like trespass or unlawful entry. It is only the latest blow to efforts to portray the riot as a massive conspiracy to overthrow the government. While portrayed by pundits and press in strictly ideological terms, it actually produced an interesting line up with Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson voting with the majority and Justice Amy Coney Barrett voting in dissent.

Here is the column:

The Supreme Court’s decision on Friday in Fischer v. U.S. struck down one of the most common charges against January 6 defendants. “Obstruction of an official proceeding” had been used in hundreds of cases, and those convictions are now invalid.

But the biggest impact of the decision may occur elsewhere.

For years, calling January 6 an “insurrection” has been a litmus test for press, pundits and politicians. Members of Congress such as Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.) claimed a conspiracy of “armed and organized insurrectionists.” The claim is legally absurd but politically advantageous.

It now seems like the insurrection increasingly looks more like a legal case of mass trespass and unlawful entry.

I have always believed that criminal charges were warranted for the riot of Jan. 6, 2021. But this week’s decision shows how the Justice Department has wrongly prosecuted hundreds of people for the obstruction crime. It was all part of what Justice Department official Michael Sherwin proudly declared in a television interview, that “our office wanted to ensure that there was shock and awe…it worked because we saw through media posts that people were afraid to come back to D.C. because they’re, like, ‘If we go there, we’re gonna get charged.’ …We wanted to take out those individuals that essentially were thumbing their noses at the public for what they did.”

The Fischer opinion will bring an end to a minority of cases that were based entirely on the charge under 1512(c)(2). The section had been enacted after the Enron scandal in 2001 with the collapse of an energy company accused of corporate fraud. It was designed to allow criminal charges for the destruction of evidence in the form of documents and records.

The Justice Department chose to interpret that provision to broadly include any obstruction of any legal proceeding, and then used it in hundreds of Jan. 6 cases. At least a quarter of the prosecutions included this charge. Most also included other charges, including trespass and unlawful entry. A small number involved serious offenses like violence against officers and an even smaller number involved charges for “seditious conspiracy.”

For most cases, the decision may require resentencing. Others with pending charges will go to trial without an obstruction claim.

One of those is former President Donald Trump. Special Counsel Jack Smith brought four charges in Washington, D.C.: obstruction of an official proceeding, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy against rights. The Fischer ruling means that half of the indictment would be dropped. Smith could be compelled to seek a superseding indictment.

The loss of the obstruction counts seemed to rip the wings off the plane that Smith has been trying to get off the ground before November. It was the obstruction theory that held the indictment together — the notion that Trump was directing his followers to stop the certification from occurring by charging the Congress.

The court rejected this theory and noted that that the “novel interpretation would criminalize a broad swath of prosaic conduct, exposing activists and lobbyists alike to decades in prison.” Smith has been here before. He was unanimously overturned by the Supreme Court in his conviction of Former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell. Notably, as with today, the court found his theory to be dangerously “boundless.”

Smith has made a trial before the election his highest priority. Judge Tanya Chutkan has been all-in on that effort with Smith, including accepting his obstruction interpretation. She may allow Smith to go forward on the two remaining counts, but that may depend on what occurs next when the Supreme Court issues its ruling on presidential immunity, including a possible remand to the trial court for further proceedings that could extend beyond the election.

The obstruction charges helped complete the insurrection narrative for many in the press and politics. I have long disagreed with that claim. As shown by polls, most citizens view January 6 as a protest that became a riot, not as an attempt to overthrow the government.

I was contributing to the coverage on January 6. I did not agree with then-President Trump’s claims to challenge the certification, and I criticized his speech while he was still giving it. But that speech was entirely protected, in my view, under the First Amendment. Importantly, it included a call to his supporters to remain peaceful.

The insurrection myth was used previously in court as Democratic secretaries of state sought to bar Trump from ballots under a meritless constitutional claim that was rejected unanimously by the Supreme Court.

Now the remaining charges are largely for trespass and unlawful entry into the Capitol. Yet, the myth will continue as a mantra in the media that this was an attempt to overthrow the government.

The disconnect is not simply with the cases. Biden continues to claim that “democracy is on the ballot,” and many have claimed that this will be our last election if Trump wins. This hyperbolic claim ignores the many safeguards in our constitutional system, the very safeguards that led to the certification of Biden’s victory in 2020.

The greatest problem is that Biden’s line about democracy is not resonating with the public, despite the virtual echo chamber in the media. According to a new poll of swing-state voters from the Washington Post and the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University, over half of respondents view Biden as a threat to democracy and not its savior. Forty-four percent said that Trump would do a better job at protecting democracy compared to just 33 percent who believe Biden would be better for democracy.

Part of the problem is the array of court decisions finding that Biden has repeatedly violated the Constitution, including engaging in racial discrimination and attempting to rule by circumventing Congress.

Biden has also become the most anti-free speech president since John Adams, including the establishment of a massive censorship system described by one court as “Orwellian.” As I discuss in my new book, the Biden administration has brought together an unprecedented alliance of government, corporate and academic interests to target and silence those with opposing views.

These, combined with the weaponization of the legal system and his party’s efforts at ballot cleansing, hardly make Biden look like the defender of democracy to many citizens.

For those who have been found guilty under these unlawful charges, it is a bit late to convert the Justice Department’s “shock and awe” into a mere “aw shucks.” It can also seem just awful for many citizens who see the political rage of Jan. 6 replaced by a type of state rage. As a result, Fischer suggests for many that democracy may be on the ballot, but the threat is not exactly what the press and the pundits have suggested.

Jonathan Turley is the J.B. and Maurice C. Shapiro Professor of Public Interest Law at the George Washington University Law School and author of “The Indispensable Right: Free Speech in an Age of Rage.”

263 thoughts on “Insurrection-Lite: The Supreme Court Downsizes the “Insurrection” to Largely Trespassing”

  1. Jonathan: Greetings from sunny So Cal! We’re on vacation on the “left” coast. It’s 81 degrees today. We took a long walk along the strand in Manhattan Beach. I got to observe the young ladies in very “brief” bikinis playing volleyball in the sand. This evening we will visit our niece and her husband who have a houseboat in Marina-del-Rey. A barbeque on the back deck of the boat house with a beverage of my choice. It doesn’t get any better than this!

    Now about your column. As a result of the Fischer v. US decision some insurrectionists will have the “obstruction of an official proceeding” charge under 1512(c)(2) dropped. But among the 300 who faced that charge they face other serious charges–violently attacking and injuring Capitol police, destruction of property, etc. They were not engaged in just “trespass and unlawful entry” as you falsely claim. So the worst of the worst will be re-sentenced accordingly.

    And you are wrong in claiming Jack Smith will have to drop the 2 “obstruction counts”. You apparently didn’t read Chief Justice Roberts decision carefully. Section 1512(c)(2) can still be used for the destruction of documents by DJT. You forget about the “fake” elector scheme that was used to try to “destroy” the duly certified electors for Joe Biden and replace them with DJT’s electors. That’s destruction of documents in connection with an “official proceeding”–the counting of the official electors by Mike Pence. That was the whole point of DJT’s conspiracy and why he still has a whole lot to worry about. So, sorry, nice try but no cigar!

    1. That’s destruction of documents in connection with an “official proceeding”–

      Which documents were destroyed, draft dodger dennis?

      After Thursday night, DJT has nothing to worry about

      1. @DDC
        You mean when Nancy Pelosi ripped up a copy of Trump’s words during his state of the Union address?

    2. I note that Andrewp111 and Daniel early this morning made similar points about how Fischer would not appear to impact the Trump case. It would be great to hear from Professor Turley on their points.

  2. Just for S&G.
    A typical Biden Booster’s takeaway from the recent Presidential debate:
    “Remember, you aren’t voting for the vegetable, you are voting for the gardeners.”

        1. Nice! Interesting too that his fundraising is from H&H (Hamptons and Hollywood) millionaires and billionaires. These are the elite moneyed class totally out of touch with regular people, but wanting to rule them. Recipe for revolution, no? Not that I want one just saying it all seems familiar when one studies history. But with that said I do have nothing but contempt for these out of touch millionaires who would pay to prop up a thoroughly corrupt and decaying old corpse as the puppet of an oligarchy that seeks only its own wealth and power and hates the liberty and ideals that made America great, and I hope will make America great and proud again.

  3. The SCOTUS Ruling Turley Isn’t Writing About

    The Supreme Court on Friday upended a 40-year-old decision that made it easier for the federal government to regulate the environment, public health, workplace safety and consumer protections, delivering a far-reaching and potentially lucrative victory to business interests.

    The court’s six conservative justices overturned the 1984 decision colloquially known as Chevron, long a target of conservatives.
    The case was the conservative-dominated court’s clearest and boldest repudiation yet of what critics of regulation call the administrative state.

    Billions of dollars are potentially at stake in challenges that could be spawned by the high court’s ruling. The Biden administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer had warned such a move would be an “unwarranted shock to the legal system.”

    https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-chevron-regulations-environment-5173bc83d3961a7aaabe415ceaf8d665
    ………………………………..

    This decision has been a longtime work in progress by the Koch network of billionaires. But first they had to pack the court with Federalists. Leonard Leo was the facilitator who steered that project along.

    This precedent upturning decision opens the way for endless law suits challenging every new regulation. And that’s the whole idea, of course: ‘To strangle the regulatory agencies with waves of litigation’. Like the Dobbs and Bruen decisions, this should keep the courts busy for years and years to come.

    1. A ruling to mitigate perchance abort dictatorial progress and restore a republican form of government and civil rights under the constitution.

      Meanwhile Democrats release water incompatible with infrastructure thereby contaminating potable water with lead.

    3. Please cite Article 1, Section 8, for any enumerated power to regulate the “environment, public health, workplace safety and consumer protections,….”

      It’s not there; you say it is when it isn’t.
      ___________________________________________

      “That dudn’t make any sense.”

      – George W. Bush
      _____________________

      Article 1, Section 8, clearly enumerates to Congress the power to regulate the value of money, commerce among nations, States, and Indian tribes, and land and naval Forces.

      Does Congress also have the power to regulate the solar system, the galaxy, and the universe?

      Is there anything Congress does NOT have the power to regulate in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave?

    4. This is a typical reaction coming from the dumbed-down modern Left, which views the Supreme Court as yet another political branch of government. This type of comment does not focus on whether the textual interpretation of the Constitution was sound, but on political ramifications, as if Scotus’s job was to reduce litigation and support the work of the administrative state. As such, it entirely misses the point of the case that was just decided.

    5. REGARDING ABOVE

      This is Floyd turdrunner, pretending to be Peter Shill

      He is also Estovir and James and Waters and Hullbobby

      Do not read his stupid post

      1. REGARDING BELOW

        This is Floyd turdrunner, pretending to be Peter Shill

        He is also Estovir and James and Waters and Hullbobby

        Do not read his stupid post

        1. Wells sounded exactly like Floyd. As though the troll completely forgot which puppet he was writing.

          Wow, looks like you’re the one who forgot which troll, Peter. Who is Wells?

          Bwahahahahaha shit for brains.

  4. PUPPET WATCH – Sunday, June 30

    As of 1:30 pm Eastern Time, we are seeing less activity than yesterday. What’s more, the puppet posts are more dispersed today with no single puppet spearheading any drives.

    Wells is oddly absent today after a highly active week. Wells has been widely featured as the new lead puppet.

    But last night Wells was confronted by a real commenter. In that exchange, Wells exploded, like a cornered troll, and gave away the game. “Yes, we ‘are’ a troll farm”, Wells essentially thundered. Readers are advised to go back and study that confrontation.

    The hyperaggressive Floyd is also absent today after a highly active week. Last night, however, amid that confrontation, Wells sounded exactly like Floyd. As though the troll completely forgot which puppet he was writing.

    Here’s how our established puppets look today with total comments posted so far.

    Margot Ballhere: 1
    Catherine Cassidy: 3
    Charlette: 3
    E M: 1
    Estovir: 1
    GEB: 3
    Hullbobby: 5
    James: 1
    Lin 1
    Number 6: 4
    Skyraider 1717: 1
    Speakup: 1
    Traveler: 1
    Thinkthrough: 1
    Upstate Farmer: 4
    Guy Ventner: 1
    Whimsical Mama: 1

    Traveler, another ‘rising star’ of a puppet, hasn’t much to say today. Traveler is usually featured as sidekick to Wells.

    Today’s roster of Greek chorus morning puppets includes:

    Kevin T Kitty, Wendybar, garyesq2K2, prole, tommylotto, goldduggar, MRR, suzy1951, Peter R Craw, Fran McCaden, Jumbo OPKS, Ishabaka, andrelll.

    It’s funny how these morning Greek chorus names are mostly different each day. Yet they usually include a few conventional names with middle initials. Like today we have Kevin T Kitty and Peter R Craw. While yesterday we had Suzanne M Smith, Robert D Goldbach and John Howard Wilhelm.

    Whatever the names, these morning, Greek chorus bots are just sign holders for comments meant to be seen as one, overall message.

    1. REGARDING ABOVE

      This is Floyd turdrunner, pretending to be Peter Shill

      He is also Estovir and James and Waters and Hullbobby

      We are glad to see that Peter is reading everyones posts

    2. Looked like “Wells” remained pretty calm and ripped the guy a new one. What debate were u watching, Biden?

  5. More fallout from the pro-wealth SCOTUS– overturning the Chevon decision. Robert Hubbell in his Substack post explains the significance:

    “You will be able to tell your grandchildren that you lived through a judicial revolution that rewrote the Constitution to suit the financial interests of corporate America and the social agenda of an extremist minority that fetishizes guns, hates government, and seeks to impose their narrow religious views on all Americans. The open question in 2024 and beyond is whether we will reverse that revolution. The first step is to understand the earth-shaking consequences of the Court’s ruling…

    The Roberts Court has anointed the judiciary as the ascendant branch of government. The person of the president—not the executive branch—is nearly omnipotent in Roberts’ schema. Congress has been neutered…

    The US economy is the largest in the world by a wide margin. That size is attributable in no small measure to (a) the orderly markets and business conditions created by federal regulations and (b) the comparatively corruption-free nature of the US economy (also attributable to federal regulations).

    Managing and maintaining the immense US economy is a monumental undertaking. We need regulations that control how and when fish stocks can be harvested, where medical waste can be stored, how thick concrete must be on bridge spans, what type and color of insulation must protect electrical wires, what temperature meat must be kept at when being transported across the country, and what type of information can be collected and stored in a retail transaction.

    Multiply those issues by a million, and you will have a vague sense of the complexity and scale of the US economy….

    Those millions of regulatory decisions demand broad and deep expertise by career professionals with advanced degrees and years of experience in their field of regulation. That expertise resides in the federal agencies housed in the executive branch under the president..Businesses hate federal regulation because they impose a trade-off: protecting the health and safety of Americans by reducing the maximum profits unrestrained businesses could earn in the short term in an unregulated economy.

    The so-called “administrative state” of federal agencies has been wildly successful. It is why all international airline pilots speak English when flying between countries across the globe. It is why the US dollar is the world’s currency. It is why the world’s science, technology, and innovation hubs are located in the US. It is why every Chinese corporation that goes public in China has the goal of transferring from the Chinese stock exchanges to the New York Stock Exchange, Nasdaq, and the Chicago Options Exchange as soon as possible…

    As Hubbell writes, Friday’s decision dramatically reduces the power of Congress by requiring that legislation be as specific as an instruction manual. Under Chevron, when Congress directed the Executive Branch to achieve a desired goal, agency personnel with deep expertise in the relevant area would determine how best to reach that goal. If a regulation was challenged, the Court could strike it down if evidence showed it was unreasonable, but absent such evidence, the courts deferred to the agency’s interpretation.

    Hubbell provides an example:

    If the Court requires Congress to specify the precise number of salmon that can be taken from the Klamath River each year rather than saying that the NOAA Fisheries Department shall establish fishing quotas to maintain healthy fish populations in inland waterways, Congress’s work will grind to a halt. Members of Congress have neither the time nor expertise to determine a healthy fish population for each inland waterway in the US. In the absence of “the administrative state,” Congress (or the courts) must serve as the regulators of the millions of daily transactions governed by federal regulations.

    In the future, when a business challenges a regulation, federal judges rather than agency experts will interpret and apply–or more likely, overturn– the regulation. We’ve seen the arrogance and fact-free behavior of recent, ideologically-driven judicial appointees.”

    Trump has offered to sell oil executives an opportunity draft an Executive Order rolling back regulations for the bargain price of $1 billion. A Jewish woman named Edelman has offered Trump $100 million in exchange for the United States supporting Israel’s take-over of the West Bank after having moved in 700,000 Israelis–a move that would guarantee future terrorist attacks both here in and in Israel because the West Bank belongs to Palestine. Israel’s invasion of the West Bank has been condemned by the United Nations. Trump would do this. Biden supports a 2-state solution that would allow the Palestinian people autonomy and self-direction. Trump wants power. His ego requires affirmation and attention. He will do anything to get what he wants.

    Yes, there’s a lot at stake for our future in November–not just retribution for Trump, but the future of our planet, our safety, the stability of our economy, our financial security and reputation, peace and stability in the Middle East, reproductive rights and religious freedom. For more information, read Project 2025

    1. Gigi, look at the confrontation between Benson and Wells late last night on yesterday’s column. Wells went off completely and essentially admitted to being a troll farm.

    2. The difference between “pro-wealth” and the alternative is that pro-wealth policies only get you more wealthy people whereas the alternative gets you many fewer wealthy people and a whole lot more impoverished people, see every democrat run $hithole in the nation.

      “There’s a lot at stake because your braindead candidate totem’s puppetmasters F’ed the nation royally.

  6. In the late 60’s and early 70’s we called them “Sit-ins.” Would JAN 6th, then, be a “Walk-in?”

  7. DoJ seems to be saying they are going to cook up other charges to keep them in there. It sounds like they are hostages for when Trump and Lady Justice bring the hangman.

  8. AG Garland was a respected judge. What happened to him? Why would he sic someone as reckless as Jack Smith on a former President? Why would he allow the Hunter Biden sweetheart treatment to get so nauseatingly sweet that it finally stuck in whistleblowers’ and a Judge’s craws? We had parallel cases of illegally retaining classified documents. The whole country saw the disparate treatment of President Trump and President Biden.

    Maybe he is an intellectual and not a leader of men and women– and as a consequence, kooks in his department were able to run the show.

    They have caused terrible damage.

    1. Garland has been an instigator in all the corruption at the DOJ. He doesn’t get a pass so blame can shift to his underlings.

    1. Oldman– There is emerging evidence that the Covid shots may in some cases cause or accelerate dementia. Perhaps the occupant of the White House is another datum in that picture.

  10. The United States is becoming like El Salvador circa 1980 with a Leftist government, funded in part at the time by President Jimmy Carter. The Left made El Salvador the most dangerous country in the world. Archbishop Oscar Romero wrote Carter and begged him to stop funding his nation’s political leaders. Romero was assassinated shortly thereafter. When the people organized a public funeral for Abp. Romero, people were killed by snipers from the Leftist government. The world did nothing as did Carter, and El Salvador descended into a violent nation run by crime, corruption and people living in fear.

    Then along came Nayib Bukele in 2019, elected President, who made violent crime is number 1 priority. Bukele was recently reelected in Feb 2024 by the people of El Salvador with an election participation rate of 81%. Today El Salvador is ranked as one of the safest nations in the world, and the global Left hate him – a badge of honor.

    Professor Turley often decries the abuse of free speech and uses President John Adams as a cautionary tale. He, like Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were not perfect men. In fact, Madison had his own unfavorable history

    “Various historians have criticized Madison’s tenure as president.[321] In 1968, Henry Steele Commager and Richard B. Morris said the conventional view of Madison was of an “incapable President” who “mismanaged an unnecessary war”.[322] A 2006 poll of historians ranked Madison’s failure to prevent the War of 1812 as the sixth-worst mistake made by a sitting president.”
    – Wikipedia

    The methods of Bukele are now being adopted by other countries in Latin America, and he has become a much sought out speaker amongst conservative organizations like CPAC

    Biden Handler’s do not care about our human rights, our Constitutional Rights nor about Truth. Maybe Bukele has a better approach at how to handle those who disregard human life, truth and human rights.

    1. Napolean Duarte was in no way a leftist. El Salvador was owned by about 8 families and everyone else was a peasant, the FARC was the opposition party and were the communists. The LaGuardia was a right wing military that resembled the SS. Romero and the nuns were assisting the opposition in obtaining and hiding weapons. Witnessed it all.

      1. The American Founders considered the Constitution and Bill of Rights “Natural and God-given.”

        El Salvador is part of Nature and under God.

        Why is America hoarding?

      2. “Napolean Duarte was in no way a leftist. El Salvador was owned by about 8 families and everyone else was a peasant”

        LOL. What the heck do you think leftism in practice looks like? Hint: That. or look at any major US city.

        1. That’s not leftism, that’s an oligarchy or a dictatorship. Just like Samosa in Nicaragua at pretty much the same time. The leftists are the Socialists like Ortega, Fidel and Cuevara that swoop in to represent the masses with their BS lies of equality and redistribution of wealth. El Salvador at that time was NOT a leftist government, I was there and I assure you.

          1. “That’s not leftism, that’s an oligarchy or a dictatorship.”

            Again, that is exactly what leftism is in practice. That is its goal, its inevitable peak. The “we’re redistributing stuff and feeding everyone” is simply a lie to get the youth on board. Its goal is oligarchy/dictatorship.

      3. Napolean Duarte was in no way a leftist. El Salvador was owned by about 8 families and everyone else was a peasant, the FARC was the opposition party and were the communists

        Wrong country. FARC is in Colombia not El Salvador. Their name in spanish, from the abbreviation FARC, includes the name of the country they represent Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia

        The Leftist group in El Salvador was Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional (FMLN) and it supported José Napoleón Duarte Fuentes in 1980. Duarte helped organized a coup of the former military dictator President Carlos Humberto Romero Mena in 1979. After the 1979 coup, Duarte was President of the Revolutionary Government Junta from December 1980 – May 1982, and then was President of El Salvador from June 1984 to June 1989. FMLN became disenchanted with Duarte which is as fickle as the Left gets.

        The LaGuardia (sic) was a right wing military that resembled the SS

        La Guardia simply means in Spanish “the Guard” as in National Guard, pawns of the political leaders of any persuasion. As Wiki states:

        During the administration of President José Napoleón Duarte, on June 1, 1984, created the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Defense and Public Security, according to Executive Order No. 1 of that same date, with the primary function of directing the actions of the National Guard, Treasury Police and National Police. Within this framework, the National Guard worked again with the original mission as assigned, which was as Rural Police.

        You stated:

        ….that resembled the SS

        The SS was Left Wing. Nazi is shorthand for National Socialism, decidedly left

        Romero and the nuns were assisting the opposition in obtaining and hiding weapons.

        Abp. Romero was assassinated in 1980, and was a member of Opus Dei, a Catholic religious organization, as anti-Left/Right wing, apolitical as they come. He was an archbishop. He didn’t have any nuns. Nuns belong to religious orders not (arch)dioceses which are run by (arch)bishops. Abp Romero and Leftists in general imprison, expel or murder Catholic prelates, e.g. Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, etc

        Witnessed it all.

        From the country of Colombia apparently or perhaps Columbia University in NYC, a left wing institution.

        1. A perfect summary of the situation. I was a Central American SME during the late 80’s for Uncle Sam.

        2. So you don’t think FARC, Cubans and the FLN were in El Salvador? Left wing means communist to me Iamgo, the Socialists/Communists were the guerillas trying to overthrow Duarte. The families ruling El Salvador at that time were not Communists, they were the landowners with their main assets in coffee Fincas. The opposition party to Duarte were the freaking Communists, I thought FARC but it maybe was FLN, it was spray painted all over but quite a while ago. The LaGuardia were Duartes federal guard, they were not Communists, it was their Army and ruled more akin to an elected dictatorship. The Catholic Church supported the peasants as they normally do and in doing so they got executed, just like some of the professors at the university by Right Wing Death Squads. What came afterDuarte and Civil war was chaos and TicTac Monsters.

    1. Michael Byrd is the fearless, manly, brave, and courageous hero who senselessly and unjustifiably murdered an unarmed, 5′ 2″, 115-pound, defenseless woman with not a harmless lower abdomen wound but a lethal head/neck shot. 

      Give Michael Byrd the Medal of Honor for not subduing but killing a weak and physically inferior female trespasser. 

      Be sure to prosecute Derek Chauvin for applying a restraint hold to a delirious and dangerous felon and drug addict who basically killed himself through his own destructive drug use and lifestyle; that restraint hold had been used 237 times previously, resulting in no deaths. 

    2. You need a life. She was a wanna be traitor who paid the price.

      If you can’t do the crime, don’t do the crime.

  12. It’s one thing to give prosecutors an abundant quiver to enable the pursuit of justice. But it’s an entirely tragic thing to provide such powers with no controlling consequences. Why should victims of injustice at the hands of a rogue prosecutor suffer consequences until reversed on appeal, but only have the ruling reversed and not also the consequences? Jack Smith is a repeat offender precisely because he is like so many others working for the state; unaccountable.

    1. Rigorous prosecution to the fullest extent against the perpetrators of egregious, partial, and malicious prosecution under color of law.

  13. To the owner/administrator/moderator of this site:
    FWIW, here is a page devoted to solutions for allowing users to filter results on WordPress sites:
    How to Let Users Filter Posts and Pages in WordPress (3 Methods)
    https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/how-to-let-users-filter-posts-and-pages-in-wordpress/
    There were many other hits from my search for WP content filtering methods, I just chose that one as an example. One good use for this technology would be to allow the reasonable commenters and viewers on this site to filter out posts by the POS sub-human that posts anonymously and insists on infesting each and every comment section with his worthless, annoying, insulting, incessant garbage. So, moderator, what about it? If you continue to refuse to do your job of policing abusive comments and commenters, will you at least give us the ability to do that? Or does allowing the garbage posts I mentioned in some way advance an agenda of yours (and/or John Turley’s) that conflicts with what a reasonable person would consider to be sound management for this type of site by a responsible moderator or administrator?

    1. Number 6,
      Great find!
      Please Darren install this SearchWP plugin!!!

  14. One of the people still supporting Biden said you aren’t electing a guy, you are electing a team.

    Yes, that’s what has been going on for awhile. Unfortunately, Biden’s team is packed with nuts, weirdos, and fanatics who are leading us into disaster.

    1. Young,
      Then the obvious question is who is this team? Which one of them are responsible for the Afghanistan mess? Which one is responsible for the wars? Which one is pushing the DEI crap, the trans crap?
      Who is in charge?
      No one voted for Jill Biden.

      1. Upstate: “Then the obvious question is who is this team?”

        That’s the question. We get brief peeks behind the curtain from time to time. The recently hired State Department DEI chief said America is a failed experiment. I’m sure she celebrates Juneteenth but likely will pass on the Fourth of July.

        As I said in an earlier post probably only the Chinese know who is running this country. Somebody offered that maybe the Chinese were.

        With this chaos I worry that there may be another Archduke incident in Sarajevo. If it happens we likely won’t recognize it at first even as the lock tumblers click into place and the Gates of Hell open. Maybe they are clicking now.

        1. Young — The Gates of Hell are open with Dante posed above, contemplating. One copy is outdoors in the Rodin Museum garden, in Paris. France that is, not Texas.

          3. David,

            Thanks! I have been to Paris several times and somehow missed this. It’s spectacular.

            1. Young, you are welcome.
              The othr copy in Paris is in the Museum of French Art but the outdoor copy @ the Rodin Museum is more impressive on a sunny day. But both museums are worthy of lengthy visits.

    2. Hear, hear!
      ______________

      “It’s the [Obama], stupid!”

      – James Carville

    3. The Biden Team is the Obama team. Nothing changed, where do Valerie Jarret and Obama reside? Samantha Powers and Cass Sunstein, Harris, Buttplug ? For God’s sake Gabbard has already told us who’s running this shit show. Now that they have no cover, they’re running away to hide as their conspiracy and corruption becomes more obvious even to the open mouth droolers!

      1. Traveler, is Obama pulling the strings or is some other entity pulling Obama’s strings to pull the strings of others? While I recognize some of Obama’s talents, I do not believe he has the intellect many attribute to him. In part, I believe him to be a creation of others who are far more powerful and have longer histories.

        1. S. Meyer– “I do not believe he [Obama] has the intellect many attribute to him. In part, I believe him to be a creation of others who are far more powerful and have longer histories.

          I think that is true. He is as glib as typical POC running a shell game on the street of a big city, but his pool of knowledge is surprisingly shallow. I recall his saying he had been to 57 states and had three more to go to. I couldn’t make that mistake if you shook me awake at 3:00 AM. Then he confused the date of Pearl Harbor with the day we bombed Hiroshima. Finally he kept pronouncing ‘Corps’ as in Marine Corps as ‘Corpse’. There are deeper problems with his understanding of the Constitution. He is bottled snake oil peddled by unknown actors.

          1. Young, snake oil is a good analogy. Obama is the salesman for the inventor.

    4. In a democracy, we should know who we are voting for, and who is governing the country. At this time, we do not know who is the real President of the USA. That fact by itself is enough to madate a vote against Biden.

  15. What did you think was going to happen when you threw out the Constitution in 1860? 

    Thankfully, the Supreme Court recently took out the total malicious corruption of Roe and Jan. 6.

    “We’ve Only Just Begun!” 

    America will never be America until the Supreme Court finally takes out “Crazy Abe” Lincoln’s “Reign of Terror” and the corollary principles of the Communist Manifesto and puts America squarely back on the Constitution and Bill of Rights. 

    Freedom and Self-Reliance.

    Not Favor and the Dole.

    Not the “Dictatorship of the Proletariat.”

  16. Never in my lifetime have I had such little faith in our government leadership and never in my lifetime has it been so desperately needed. Who is running this show? Certainly not the shell of a man we saw at the debate. That leaves some deep state intelligence officers or holdovers from the Obama Adminstration. None were elected and their loyalities are questionable to say the least. The international scene is exploding with Russia relaunching the nuclear arms race with medium range missiles in Europe, the dollar is under attack and here at home we’re suffering wave after wave of economic bad news coupled with a looming existential threat of AI. There is no hand we can trust at the wheel and the rocks look awfully close. I suggest we all get serious about this country on Independence Day. We either take the helm or the rocks will.

  17. Dear Prof Turley,

    That’s nice. A few more disgruntled, unarmed grandmas/pa’s can rest easy knowing the SCOTUS, at least, has their back .. . crying shame they punted on Murthy/Missouri just as the election heats up!

    Are you in ‘full panic mode’?

    You should be. It says right here in the NYT all the Democrats are in Full Panic Mode. (especially if you’re on Medicare or have a 6 handicap.)

    Join the crowd. Personally, I’ve been in full panic mode since the 2002 AUMF (Authorization Use of Military Force.). .. in case you were wondering.

    Couple of quick take-aways, just a few ‘initial’ reactions, to the Great debate ‘Debacle’ … “Democracy on the Line”!

    The great debate ‘debacle’, imo, was as much a reflection of the ‘media’, such as they are, as the Loony Tunes on Stage. Give me an untrammeled/unrequited hour alone with these 2 loons, and I will have them both committed to Belleview Hospital where they belong lickity-split.. . the criminally insane dept.

    That’s number #1.

    Sadly, I must admit, ‘genocide’ Joe was even worse when he had two brain cells rubbing together (see, again, Chairman Sen. Biden’s Peak insane ‘we must come to our milk’ rebuke of UN Weapons inspector Scott Ritter circa 2000 Iraq). If that’s possible. .. although Special Counsel Hur’s report seems to absolve him of all responsibility (now & in the future.) due to cognitive infirmaries (and jury ‘sympathy’, evidently?).
    (fyi disclaimer: I Have No Sympathy for ‘the Bidens’. .. none at all.)

    Which begs the question; who the fU(k is in charge around here? —> i.e. running the affairs of the most ‘powerful country in the world’?

    1. The SC says differently.
      You leftist cultists really need to face reality.
      Just like the debate.

      1. No. America was never “fundamentally transformed” legally or constitutionally. The communists (liberals, progressives, socialists, democrats, RINOs, AINOs) persist by lies and crime. Real President Donald J. Trump needs to pull a full Lincoln and start a war with Mexico, close the border, deport all illegal aliens since inception, allow in temporary workers, seize all power, forcibly impose martial law, suspend habeas corpus, smash printing presses, throw opponents in prison, comprehensively inexorably extirpate all principles of the Communist Manifesto, re-implement freedom and self-reliance, and repeal America back to the “manifest tenor” of the Constitution and Bill of Rights.  

    2. It was a protest against a rigged corrupt election. If you can’t see that by now there’s nothing left to say.

      1. Who ever heard of a coup in which the protesters want the current government to stay in power?

    3. The coup came from the Left and began the day Trump beat Hillary.
      Obama, Biden, Clapper, Brennan, Comey, Rice, Pelosi, Schumer, et al. All in on it.
      First they deployed a Russia collusion lie, then Impeachments 1 & 2.
      Then they stole the 2020 election, installed Biden, then setup the J6 Fedsurrection.
      Then DOJ labeled MAGA as #1 domestic terror threat, put targets on them, spying, surveillance, FBI raids, battering rams, shackles, belly chains, perp walks — the full force of a corrupt government brought down on Biden regime’s political enemies/dissidents starting with Trump, on down the line.
      Twitter files proved the massive Censorship crackdown, FBI/government silencing dissent by proxy.
      The coup is from inside the government, the intel community, the CIA, FBI, deep state, DNC operatives, etc.
      This is a Marxist Communist revolution, a takeover of the United States government. Wake up GOP.

      1. Actually the coup began the day Obama took office.
        Then he had eight years to imbed operatives, revolutionaries.
        Installed on the courts, within DOJ, all throughout every level of the government and judiciary.
        Trump beating Hillary saved the Supreme Court from a radical left takeover.
        It is our last line of defense. If the radicals and gangsters succeed in stealing another election to install Biden (or another puppet), they will, as their slogan says, “Finish the job.”

        Trump’s administration will continue dismantling the administrative, deep state leviathan — a process already begun with the Supreme Court ending Chevron deference.

        This is the way forward. The Democrat party is the party of big and bigger expansive government.
        Do not let them ‘Finish the job.”

        1. Obama
          I bet that douche is starting to figure out his days are numbered!

        2. All this is happening because Hillary “did not get her turn” at the helm.
          Buckle up because it’s going to get wild between now and January 2025.

      2. Hillary carried out the only true sedition, and even involved a hostile foreign power – Russia. She should be the first to swing.

          1. Im for life imprisonment with forfeiture of all wealth directed to paying down the National debt. Every last one of them!

        3. “At night, when I say my prayers, I do thank the Lord that I had a small part in defeating Hillary Clinton”

          Amen.

  19. Barrett has written a bizarre set of opinions lately, adopting a common law style approach to defining original public meaning in Rahimi, redefining and tightening the requirements to show standing in Murthy, DIGing and eliminating a stay for weak reasons in Moyle, and arguing for an unreasonably broad reading of a criminal statute in Fischer. She writes extremely well, but she seems more like a student in the front row with her hand up than an experienced judge deciding consequential matters. It’s hard to know where she is headed. At least she’s not as long-winded and banal as Kavanaugh.

    1. She’s a three name women’s activist, bad call in my opinion. She’s a liberal in disguise just like Pence.

  20. The wheels of justice are turning extremely slowly and that’s exactly how the political left likes it, they can abuse the law and weaponize the justice system against their political opponents and it will take many years for the cases to work their way through multiple courts before the damage can be corrected and by then the effects of their intentional political persecution are ingrained in society. The political left thrives on ideological and political persecution and the slow courts are enabling them, this is a massive problem for our society.

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