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So does it mean now that in a civil or criminal proceeding defendants can open up by addressing the court with a long tirade about their innocence then clam up and refuse to entertain cross examination on account the 5th remains intact?
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It means that the federal government can make up and change the rules as they go, and that the rule of law is utterly, irrevocably dead in the United States of America. The precedent has been set. By the time the next president takes office, this sort of behaviour will be business as usual. Using federal office to ensure that your party retains federal office will be considered normal. Writing law by executive fiat will be considered normal. Usurping powers delegated to other branches will be considered normal. Foreign policy driven by personal whim will be considered normal.
In the very likely event that the democrats win the coming presidential election, they will have very quickly build complete and unassailable power. All the 'checks and balances' will still exist on the books, but will in reality be quaint anachronisms, merely symbolic gestures retained purely for historical merit. It'll be tradition to have a Congress, sort of like how technically the Queen of England is Canada's head of state, but like the Queen, Congress will have no actual power over government. In any case, even the nominal opposition will be controlled, as with the entire federal bureaucracy weaponized for electoral control, the democrats will be able to pick & choose which seats the republicans are permitted to win and which they aren't.
If the public complains of abuse, the democrats will investigate the democrats and declare that the democrats did nothing wrong.