At a crucial crossroads for American democracy, the Supreme Court slow walks Trump’s immunity issue
With the Supreme Court granting certiorari to Donald Trump on his immunity claims regarding the January 6th trial in Washington, we have reached a historic moment. The high court will now review the lower court ruling that a former president isn’t immune from prosecution for crimes he committed in office. but not until April. If the court agrees with Trumphim, it could lead America down a dark road.
Yes, broadly exposing the president to lawsuits or prosecutions for the thousands of judgment calls a president makes in the line of duty would cripple the presidency. But no one prosecuting Trump claims presidents should be broadly exposed to liability for their official decisions. Instead, the issue is framed by the Supreme Court’s 1982 decision in Nixon v. Fitzgerald. It held that the president is immune from damages liability “for acts within ‘the outer perimeter’ of his official responsibility.” The court has never extended that limitation to the president’s responsibility for a crime. Moreover, the court has never suggested that a president who commits a crime unconnected to his official duties enjoys any immunity at all.
It’s important to remember that they’d be giving Biden carte blanche to do whatever he wants, because he’ll still be in office when the ruling is made. Not that he’d actually have the balls to use the power they had given him, but if they grant blanket immunity to presidents then there’s nothing stopping Biden from simply dropping a missile on the SCOTUS, cancelling the election, and declaring himself the new POTUS-for-life.
After all, what are they going to do? Prosecute him?
Yes. And be bald-faced hypocritical. They don’t give a shit about the rule of law. They only care about “winning”
Yes, they will.
Why do you believe a group that doesn’t follow the rule of law will start doing so after they’ve empowered their biggest enemy? It makes no sense.
Trump will likely gain immunity but the SCOTUS could declare it starts with the next president, or convict Biden of something else, citing an exception to immunity.
We can’t assume they’re going to start playing by the rules when they’re actively rewriting the rulebook as we speak.