Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/07/01/supreme-court-rules-6-3-that-trump-has-absolute-immunity-from-prosecution.html
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Believable, but yet unbelievable.
I have no idea where we go from here.
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So Biden can officially have trump, a clear and present danger to Democracy, …eliminated…?
(“does ‘officially’ involve a skull signet ring and sealing wax?”) -sigh-
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Or at least officially disband, debar, blow up or whatever the Supreme Court.
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P.S. presumably, the lower court(s) decision that this or that is an unofficial act ends up back at SCOTUS again anyway (that is unless, as per above, Biden as part of his official duties fires 6/9 of the SCOTUS & incarcerates 45 under some provision of the Insurrection &/or Patriot Acts)
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He’s obviously not going to, though. This “what if” is a corrolary to the liberal tic of declaring “what a bunch of hypocrites!” about people who are pleased that you noticed.
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So Nixon could have gotten away with Watergate? If that’s the case, could that mean that Biden might be able to declassify foreign gathered/based intelligence on Trump? If so, holy shit.
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Let’s not go that far. He doesn’t need to kill them.
Instead he could just declare Trump, Thomas, Alito, and the MAGA Republicans in Congress as terrorists and ship them off to Gitmo. That’s well within the realm of the official responsibilities of the executive branch of the government, right? And if that means Congress doesn’t have quorum to bring articles of impeachment against him, well, that’s just how the Supreme Court said the government should work, isn’t it?
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He’s obviously not going to, though.
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ITT (and the whole internet): people fantasizing about Biden using this to do things that would never cross his mind.
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Yeah, but it’s understandable why people are going there.
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I always took separation of powers to ensure no branch is above the law or without scrutiny. Apparently it really means that neither congress or the courts are allowed to hold the president accountable for anything. It is going to take a long time to read through this decision, but 5 pages in it is worse than I imagined
Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts.
When the President exercises such authority, Congress cannot act on , and courts cannot examine, the President’s actions . It follows that an Act of Congress— either a specific one targeted at the President or a generally applicable one— may not criminalize the President’s actions within his exclusive constitutional power. Neither may the courts adjudicate a criminal prosecution that examines such Presidential actions. The Court thus concludes that the President is absolutely immune from criminal prosecution for conduct within his exclusive sphere of constitutional authority.
The indictment’s allegations that the requested investigations were shams or proposed for an improper purpose do not divest the President of exclusive authority over the investigative and prosecutorial functions of the Justice Department and its officials. Because the President cannot be prosecuted for conduct within his exclusive constitutional authority, Trump is absolutely immune from prosecution for the alleged conduct involving his discussions with Justice Department officials.
The indictment’s allegations that Trump attempted to pressure the Vice President to
take particular acts in connection with his role at the certification proceeding thus involve official conduct, and Trump is at least presumptively immune from prosecution for such conduct.
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Pretty much. A symptom of shock, maybe? This really does appear to be a gobsmacking abortion of justice.
I hope White House staff already have some sort of sober, actionable plan drawn up and ready to (somehow) deploy.
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Inciting an armed rebellion against the federal government is starting to feel pretty legal in America all of a sudden
I guess the theory the conservatives on the Court are working from is that when the next January 6 comes they personally will not be targeted, so ¯_(ツ)_/¯
As expected, the plan of the radicals on the Court was to delay a decision for many months—until July—then erect a test for presidential immunity that will take months or years to litigate and appeal, ensuring Trump can corruptly end the case against him if he’s elected this fall
The Supreme Court has made coup attempts non-justiciable, it really is that simple
It’s becoming very hard to argue we are still a democracy
Just to be clear, if President Biden orders Trump to be black-bagged and sent to Guantanamo Bay tonight, SCOTUS says that that action—which Biden could justify as an official act to protect Americans from active insurrection—will have to weave its way through the courts for years
If Trump wins, the DC and Florida cases are gone, so his only remaining case is in Georgia, which unless Fani Willis recuses today cannot go to trial until 2025, at which point if Trump were POTUS he would be able to fight jurisdiction in Georgia forever
Trump is above the law
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Nixon did get away with Watergate.
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That’s an apt turn of phrase.
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Yes, though the difference now seems to be that it would no longer require a pardon from a president’s successor.
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