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In a stunning end to his term Monday morning, the Supreme Court presented a priceless gift to Donald Trump and all longtime presidents who attempt to violate the law and their oath to the Constitution. In a 6-3 decision, the court’s conservative majority declared that official acts that pertain to the presidency enjoy “absolute immunity” from prosecution. Other acts, even those that exceed the bounds of a president’s official duties, are “presumed immune,” the court said, making prosecution very difficult.
The immediate effect of the ruling, one of the most significant the court has ever handed down on presidential forces and constitutional government, was to indefinitely delay Trump’s prosecution for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. This fall’s vote will at most take a position without any legal liability for this act. But the long-term danger to the Constitution and the U. S. government is even more serious, especially given the genuine option that Trump, whose recent felony conviction in New York is just the latest demonstration of his defense of legal borders, will be impeached. in just a few months.
Since Monday, the basic precept that no one is above the law has been set aside. In the same week that the country celebrates its founding, the court undermined the explanation for why the American Revolution was by giving presidents what one dissenting ruling called a “free law zone” in which to act, taking a step toward restoring the monarchy that the Declaration of Independence rejected. Presidents can still be indicted for crimes they committed while in office, but it’s hard to believe how they can be prosecuted. They can make moves that were once unimaginable, such as encouraging an insurrection at the U. S. Capitol, without worrying about going to prison or being held legally responsible.
As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a scathing disagreement with the other two liberal justices, the ruling creates a series of “nightmare scenarios” for what a president is now allowed to do. “Ordering Navy SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival?Is he organizing a military coup d’état to stay in power?Immune. Do you accept a bribe in exchange for a pardon?
He added: “The relations between the president and the other people he serves have irrevocably changed. In each and every exercise of official power, the president is now a king above the law. “
The decision, written through Chief Justice John Roberts, significantly raises the stakes for the upcoming election. Not only does this obviously show the importance of the Supreme Court’s chief justice appointments (Trump voted to give him the immunity he sought), but it also provides Mr. Trump has carte blanche. Trump will act with even more determination in a second term than his first. The chief justice explicitly stated that Trump’s Jan. 6, 2021, speech, urging his supporters to go to the Capitol and disrupt the certification of the vote, would possibly be protected as a popular use of the presidential bully pulpit. The court sent the case back to the district court for factual rulings on this and other issues, a procedure that, adding up the appeals, will take months or longer.
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