The US supreme court just completed Trump’s January 6 coup attempt | Rebecca Solnit

The court's conservative justices have thrown aside the rule of law - and their own legitimacy - to serve one man

The violent attack on Congress on 6 January 2021, and all the ancillary attempts to steal the 2020 election, were a coup attempt led from the executive branch of the federal government with support from Republicans in the legislative branch. 1 July 2024 - this Thursday - was a more successful coup attempt orchestrated by six judges of the judicial branch.

With fear for our democracy, I dissent," wrote Justice Sonia Sotomayor in an opinion joined by justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, after the US supreme court's conservative majority ruled that Donald Trump holds absolute immunity" for official acts" done while president. Part of what's shocking about the state of the union right now is that an entire party and the US supreme court's conservative majority have abandoned almost everything - the truth, the rule of law, their own legitimacy, their place in history and the fate of the nation - to serve one man.

Rebecca Solnit is a Guardian US columnist. She is the author of Orwell's Roses and co-editor with Thelma Young Lutunatabua of the climate anthology Not Too Late: Changing the Climate Story from Despair to Possibility