Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner issued a dire warning on Monday following President Donald Trump's latest vitory in court.
On Monday, a three-judge panel on the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on a lower court order preventing Trump from deploying National Guard troops to Portland, Oregon, a city that officials in the administration have described as "war ravagged." the decision allows the administration to deploy troops.
Kirschner discussed the potential impact of the ruling on a new epsidoe of "The Legal Breakdown" with progressive YouTuber Brian Tyler Cohen. He predicted that the ruling would be appealed to the Supreme Court, which is where the fireworks might begin.
"My fear, what keeps me up at night is that the Supreme Court has seemed determined to let Donald Trump forever expand presidential power," Kirschner said. "In the ruling Trump v. United States, where they granted him absolute immunity against prosecution, they made him sort of a a complete king, a dictator in the eyes of the criminal law."
"I fear where they're going next when these cases make their way up to the Supreme Court is they will do the same thing for Donald Trump on the military front," he continued. "They will make him supreme leader, a dictator, you know, the military commander whose judgment may not be questioned."
"And if that's where the Supreme Court goes, then he becomes really a dictator for all purposes," he added. "He can't be touched by the criminal law and he can do whatever he d--- well pleases with military forces and with state national guard forces...America may be in the kind of tight spot that we're not going to be able to get out of."
