In the first Federalist Paper, Alexander Hamilton warned that a great risk to liberty comes from those who start out as "demagogues" and end up as "tyrants." He nevertheless judged the risk worth taking to establish a constitutional republic.

He can be forgiven for taking that chance. Back in 1787, there was no obvious suspect on the horizon about to overturn the new republic — certainly not George Washington, the inevitable choice for the new nation's first president.

Today's justices of the U.S. Supreme Court cannot be let off so easily. A potential tyrant has arisen who possesses the "dangerous ambition" that Hamilton feared and that "lurks behind the specious mask of zeal for the rights of the people."

When the current radical, right-wing majority of the Supreme Court protects Donald Trump, they know full well what they are doing and do it anyway. Their holdings too often send a clear message: To hell with American democracy.

Donald Trump has been found guilty of felony fraud by a New York jury. Another New York jury found that he sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll in a New York department store and then lied about it. In an infamous conversation taped in 2005, Trump admitted to such behavior when he said he routinely grabbed women by the private parts. Over two dozen women have accused him of sexual misconduct.

This is the man Hamilton warned against.

In the 2024 decision in Trump v. United States, a 6-3 majority of the Supreme Court fabricated a right to immunity for the president "from criminal prosecution for conduct within his exclusive sphere of constitutional authority." Trump was thereby protected from criminal prosecution stemming from the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Donald Trump, who tried to blackmail Ukraine into investigating Hunter Biden and who tried to bully the Georgia secretary of state into conjuring up nonexistent votes, is hardly an exemplar of presidential integrity. In the Trump case, Justice Sonia Sotomayor notes that the majority in the case "invents an atextual, ahistorical, and unjustifiable immunity that puts the President above the law." She goes on to point out that if a president "orders the Navy's Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival," he would be "immune" from criminal prosecution.

The 14th Amendment prohibits anyone from taking federal or state office who "shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion" against the United States, or "given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof." Colorado courts found Trump had done just that in the attack on the Capitol. In March of 2024, a five-member majority of the U.S. Supreme Court waved its wand, and, poof, there was a new rule saying Congress had to pass a law to enable the amendment's provision. O lucky man, Trump kept his place on the Colorado ballot.

Trumpian corruption abounds. Filings indicate that Trump's annual income tripled to at least $2.2 billion in his first year back in office. It's not clear how much of this might have come from foreign sources. Last September, Trump himself joined a call with the president of Kazakhstan to help secure a mining concession that directly benefited a Trump Tower firm. Trump's two sons had invested in the company six days before the deal was formally signed. His administration had already preliminarily approved up to $1.6 billion in federal financing for the company. Qatar's royal family gifted a Boeing 747 to be used by Trump as an interim Air Force One that's slated to move to his control after leaving office. The Constitution bars the president from accepting a "present of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State." Moreover, Trump's family firm World Liberty has sold its cryptocurrency overseas, "establishing a new avenue for foreign businesses to try to curry favor with Mr. Trump," according to a New York Times investigation.

In Trump v. Slaughter, a 6-3 majority of the Court overturned a precedent of almost a century to give Trump full authority to fire members of the Federal Trade Commission at will, signaling an open season on other historically independent watchdogs such as the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Election Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.

An ominous hint on how Trump appointees may use their unchecked power came when FCC Chair Brendan Carr took exception to comments made by late night host Jimmy Kimmel. He warned that "these companies can find ways to take action on Kimmel" or face "additional work for the FCC ahead." ABC pulled Kimmel's show hours later. To hell with the First Amendment.

During a bitter British constitutional crisis of the early 1900s, a member of the Conservative Party led by Arthur Balfour defended the House of Lords as the "watchdog of the constitution." The future Prime Minister David Lloyd George reportedly retorted that the House of Lords was no watchdog but instead was "Mr. Balfour's poodle. It fetches and carries for him. It barks for him. It bites anybody that he sets it on to."

What is the current Supreme Court but Mr. Trump's poodle? Occasionally disobedient, but generally ready to yip and yap in his defense?

A renaissance man, Keith Raffel has served as the senior counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, started a successful internet software company, and had six books published including five novels and a collection of his columns. He currently spends the academic year as a resident scholar at Harvard. You can learn more about him at keithraffel.com. To read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at creators.com.

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