Newsletter: The Trump show is finally hitting the courtroom buzz saw. Is the system working?

Good morning. I’m Paul Thornton, and it is Saturday, Oct. 7, 2023. It’s hot, and they’ll be playing baseball at Dodger Stadium today. Let’s look back at the week in Opinion.

Dizzying as the spectacle may be, there’s something oddly comforting about watching a billionaire former president show up to court to cling to his fraudulently gotten wealth and defend himself against 91 charges across four criminal cases. Amid the whirlwind of a major party preparing to nominate someone who behaves more like a cult leader than a statesman, there is this island of calm, populated mostly by public servants and ordinary citizens, working in courtrooms to bring a dangerous ex-president to justice. The system is working — yes, more slowly than some would like, but working in extraordinary circumstances nonetheless.

Perhaps this is why I find it so reassuring to read Harry Litman’s most recent column on Donald Trump’s criminal case in Georgia. The former U.S. attorney and deputy assistant attorney general provides what’s essentially a procedural update on efforts by the former president and his fellow defendants to move that case into federal courts, seen as a tactic to improve their odds by changing the jury pool. Curiously, Trump’s latest filing declared he would not be seeking to move out of state court in Fulton County, contradicting earlier statements by his attorneys. Litman explores the speculation over Trump’s change of heart and zeroes in on a depressing possibility: The ex-president and his attorneys prefer their odds with the state judge — a white former member of the Federalist Society appointed by a Republican governor — over the Black judge appointed by former President Obama who would oversee their petition for removal.

Concerning, yes, but like I said: The system grinds on, even under extraordinary stress. If you cherish the rule of law, this has to provide hope.

Kevin McCarthy played with MAGA fire — and got burned. A system that definitely isn’t working is the one Rep. McCarthy set up earlier this year to win the House speakership, which Republicans on the far right just took from him. The Times’ editorial board doesn’t expect the chaos to subside anytime soon: “What might be called the Nihilist Caucus in the Republican conference has been empowered by its coup against McCarthy. If these hard-liners exercise a veto over the selection of McCarthy’s successor, they could put the next speaker on an even tighter leash than the one they fastened around McCarthy’s neck.”

People think drug use causes homelessness. It’s usually the other way around. Ryan D. Assaf, a postdoctoral researcher on homelessness, says new evidence shows that half of all unhoused people have not used any drugs in the last six months, and many of those who are using started doing so after becoming homeless. “Regardless of an individual’s drug use, policymakers and advocates should prioritize getting people experiencing homelessness into safe, secure and stable housing,” Assaf says.

Anti-gay attitudes in school pushed him into addiction. He says LGBTQ+ lessons in the classrooms could have prevented that. Taron Sargsyan immigrated to the U.S. from Armenia with his family as a child and attended school in the Glendale Unified School District, one of the biggest targets in the backlash to teaching LGBTQ+ themes to students. As a teenager he felt invisible and desperate for acceptance, something that he found later while attending USC. But that yearning for acceptance drove him to addiction; now, in this episode of “Hear Me Out,” Sargsyan says he hopes LGBTQ+ students today can be spared the pain he felt.

It’s time for Dodger baseball, and what a season it’s been. Playoff baseball is stressful: After 162 games of the day-in, day-out grind, the hopes of every fan in every city risk being dashed by even the slightest of losing streaks. The refrain this time of year often goes like this: Whatever happened in the regular season doesn’t matter. Fair enough, but before Dodger fans embark on the collective freakout known as October baseball, I explain why we’d do well to savor our team’s extraordinary, 100-win effort in a season that many commentators predicted would disappoint us.

Trump is running despite the 14th Amendment. He’s not the first insurrectionist to do so. Section 3 of the Constitution’s 14th Amendment prohibits anyone who’s taken an oath of office and engaged in insurrection from serving as an officer of the United States. University of Pennsylvania law professor Kermit Roosevelt looks back at the history of Reconstruction after the Civil War to see what happens when we fail to enforce constitutional protections against those who subvert democracy.

More from this week in opinion

From our columnists

• Jonah Goldberg: In the Matt Gaetz vs. Kevin McCarthy battle, the GOP’s stupidity and hypocrisy are showing
• Jackie Calmes: McCarthy flopped, Gaetz mutinied, but blame the chaos on the entire Republican Party
• Jean Guerrero: Should men pay on dates as reparations for the gender wage gap?

From the Op-Ed desk

• What’s wilder than Hasan Minhaj’s tales? The FBI surveillance my Muslim community actually did endure
• Don’t think it can happen here? The U.S. government once burned books it didn’t like
• Why no one should believe reports of Armenians’ “voluntary” exodus from Artsakh

From the Editorial Board

• Again? Another L.A. council member accused of ethical violations
• L.A.’s broken government needs change. Voters shouldn’t have to wait until 2032 to get it
• If L.A. air quality officials go soft on toxic railroad pollution, are the ports next?

Letters to the Editor

• The far right hates Kevin McCarthy. That doesn’t make him “weak”
• Message to “moderate” Republicans: Make Hakeem Jeffries speaker
• Readers give mixed reviews of Laphonza Butler’s appointment to the Senate