Summary
Merrick Garland’s failure to swiftly prosecute Trump for inciting the January 6th insurrection allowed Trump to run for president again in 2024.
Garland’s slow-walking of the investigation undermined the seriousness of Trump’s actions and normalized him as a Republican front-runner.
Garland’s inaction contributed to the current state of the republic, where Trump is poised to return to the White House.
The idea that there can be no special cases that demand high priority, even when the case is itself about an attack on the republic, is the failure of blind institutionalism. The public also has a right to know that trials will resolve in a timely manner, especially when the trials are about attacks against the People themselves.
“Justice takes time, let Mueller/Garland/Smith work” was the mantra of failure. There was a fetishization of a higher path, where the machinations of law take as long as they need to, with no deadlines or pressing public questions, but instead of leading to a purer and incontrovertible justice, it led to no justice at all.
Garland (and Biden as the one who appointed him) have a very direct responsibility for the loss of degradation of the American republic. Even should Trump’s term just pass as a bad four years, long-term damage has been done through this failure.
Special cases cut both ways. Judge Cannon and the SCOTUS would agree with you that Trump was a special case, thus delaying the case further.
Judge Chutkan insisted on treating Trump like any other defendant. I think she had the right approach.
Yes, and they were willing to say that and put it into practice. Guess which side was successful? The feigned indifference to any sort of larger picture by people like Chutkan and Garland contributed to this result.