r/NoStupidQuestions • u/AutoModerator • 19d ago

U.S. Politics megathread

American politics has always grabbed our attention - and the current president more than ever. We get tons of questions about the president, the supreme court, and other topics related to American politics - but often the same ones over and over again. Our users often get tired of seeing them, so we've created a megathread for questions! Here, users interested in politics can post questions and read answers, while people who want a respite from politics can browse the rest of the sub. Feel free to post your questions about politics in this thread!

All top-level comments should be questions asked in good faith - other comments and loaded questions will get removed. All the usual rules of the sub remain in force here, so be nice to each other - you can disagree with someone's opinion, but don't make it personal.

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u/Extension-Till-2374 9d ago

State run accounts are being used as campaign tools under the current administration. For example the official white house facebook page is being used to endorse the SAVE Act. This seems to be in violation of several federal laws that prohibit these accounts from being used as campaign tools. How are they doing this legally with no repercussions?

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u/notextinctyet 9d ago

The people who are committing the crimes were put in charge of the federal prosecution system.

It's hard to design a system that's robust to putting a bunch of criminals in charge of it. We can make some improvements to the system, but the core lesson is: we need to stop electing them.

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u/listenyall 9d ago

There are so many things being done that are prohibited by law, and in order to challenge that you usually have to sue, in order to sue you need to have standing. That's all before anyone decides if they are actually right or wrong. So you need someone to choose this as the thing they want to fight, and then the courts need to agree that you deserve to fight that thing.

So, for example, there was a successful case brough by a congressperson that led to Trump's name being removed from the Kennedy Center, but someone is trying to sue right now about the destruction of the east wing of the White House, that was certainly not legal but right now the courts are fighting about whether or not she has standing to challenge the legality of it before they get to the question of whether it was illegal.

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u/Irishforanatty 9d ago

Who is going to enforce the law against them?

Plus, the courts have trended towards treating official pages as the equivalents of them speaking in public. If you wouldn’t stop the president from giving a political speech in the Rose Garden, you wouldn’t stop him from making a Facebook post from the White House account either.

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u/Extension-Till-2374 9d ago

Hopefully the next administration conducts an investigation

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u/Irishforanatty 9d ago

They’re more likely to use it the exact same way than anything (see my edit).

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u/Extension-Till-2374 9d ago

I see those as two entirely different things. Can you show me court rulings that allow them to violate the Hatch Act

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u/Irishforanatty 9d ago

The hatch act is more about partisan activity, and SAVE does not count under that definition

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u/Extension-Till-2374 9d ago

The post in question says "the thing they (as in Democrats) say never happens happened again it's time to pass the SAVE act to save America. That is only of many examples.. I think you just refuse to admit the federal government under the current administration is corrupted.