People hold anti Trump signs in front of the US Supreme Court on July 1, 2024, in Washington, D.C. | Source: DREW ANGERER / Getty
The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on Monday to grant immunity for crimes that a president may commit not only makes a “mockery” of the Constitution and the American government but also paves the way for a potential abuse of such power to flout the law, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor dissented.
The decision has multiple implications for Donald Trump‘s existing federal indictment for allegedly trying to interfere with the lawful transfer of presidential power to Joe Biden by preventing the certification of his 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021. Chief among them is the likely delay of what was that case’s impending trial until after the 2024 election.
At issue is whether Trump may have violated a president’s “core” powers or if the allegations were part of his “official acts” as president. A lower court will be left to determine that answer at a later date.
Republicans hailed the decision a victory, but Sotomayor sounded the alarm about potential consequences in a dissent that was joined by fellow liberal Associate Supreme Court Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan.
“Today’s decision to grant former Presidents criminal immunity reshapes the institution of the Presidency,” Sotomayor wrote in her dissent. “It makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law.”
Sotomayor went on to say the decision “gives former President Trump all the immunity he asked for and more. Because our Constitution does not shield a former President from answering for criminal and treasonous acts, I dissent.”
Sotomayor had much more to say:
The President of the United States 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.
Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today.
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.
Biden’s presidential campaign said no Supreme Court decision can erase history.
“Today’s ruling doesn’t change the facts, so let’s be very clear about what happened on January 6: Donald Trump snapped after he lost the 2020 election and encouraged a mob to overthrow the results of a free and fair election. Trump is already running for president as a convicted felon for the very same reason he sat idly by while the mob violently attacked the Capitol: he thinks he’s above the law and is willing to do anything to gain and hold onto power for himself,” senior Biden campaign advisor said in a statement shared with NewsOne. “Since January 6, Trump has only grown more unhinged. He’s promising to be a dictator ‘on day one,’ calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain power, and promising a “bloodbath” if he loses. The American people already rejected Donald Trump’s self-obsessed quest for power once – Joe Biden will make sure they reject it for good in November.”
There is some irony in the Supreme Court’s decision in that it effectively annuls Trump’s consistent, unsubstantiated calls for Obama to be criminally prosecuted, including a Mother’s Day social media post claiming without proof that the first Black president of the United States committed “The biggest political crime in American history by far.”
So, even if that was true, after Monday’s Supreme Court decision, Obama would have enjoyed immunity in those alleged and unfounded cases.
Conversely, there is plenty of evidence of Trump committing crimes.
But as Trump’s legal team keeps successfully pushing for delays, and with Monday’s Supreme Court ruling, it is now very much unclear whether those cases will move forward soon, or at all.
This is America.
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