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Culture War Roundup for the week of October 16, 2023

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He’s never getting locked up for the rest of his life. The state cases he can avoid by staying in a red state, and the federal cases he will - at worst - be pardoned by the next GOP president.

Trump's 77; life expectancy for 77-year-olds in the US is 9.3 years. "The rest of his life" is not likely to be that long.

The state cases he can avoid by staying in a red state, and the federal cases he will - at worst - be pardoned by the next GOP president.

I don't think that works.

At least since 1987, interstate extradition is not optional, and governors must cooperate with an extradition request so long as the paperwork is correct. And even were a red state governor willing to flip the bird to SCOTUS (or order his entire executive branch to pretend they can't find him under a lamppost), and willing to get jailed for contempt themselves when they receive an order from a court, the federal government has a pretty big branch capable of serving arrests and then finding out whether the arrests were 'right' or not later.

((I'm... also skeptical that a Republican President other than Trump pardons Trump.))

A red state will keep him and have him guarded by the state guard or state cops, and the US Marshalls aren’t going to start a civil war. That in turn will lead to a further standoff and years of legal issues.

Trivially, you need state guard or state cops willing to deal with Trump in person, and Trump not doing something stupid, and nothing Weird happening with the Secret Service.

More seriously, that's the sort of behavior that gets federal jurisdiction in the courts and a very quick contempt of court orders for the gov in question. If the US Marshalls don't want to do it, the courts have fun tools that don't involve them. (Fines per day?)