With its immunity ruling on Monday, the Supreme Court (SC) granted former President Donald Trump’s wish of all but guaranteeing that his criminal trial for trying to overturn the 2020 presidential election will not go to trial before the 2024 election in November, Zachary B. Wolf wrote in an analysis for CNN.
The opinion penned by Chief Justice John Roberts also granted presidents, in general, a definitive “absolute immunity” from prosecution for core official acts and said presidents should be presumed immune for a much more expansive list of acts. I Photo: DonkeyHotey Flickr
The opinion penned by Chief Justice John Roberts also granted presidents, in general, a definitive “absolute immunity” from prosecution for core official acts and said presidents should be presumed immune for a much more expansive list of acts.
In the view of the majority comprised of the six conservative justices on the court, the decision does not place presidents in general, and Trump in particular, above the law. But the three liberals dissented with a warning about how elevating a president will affect American democracy.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor blasted Roberts for quoting George Washington, who warned about factions in the US government but avoided Washington’s counsel against the courts making Presidents above the law, which indicates some dishonesty on the part of Roberts.
“The President of the US is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune… Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done. The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law,” Sotomayor concluded.
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