Trump is “absolutely” immune for “official acts” on Jan 6th, SCOTUS rules

some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org to politics @lemmy.world – 620 points –
Trump is “absolutely” immune for “official acts” on Jan 6th, SCOTUS rules
theverge.com
271

You are viewing a single comment

The big thing everyone is missing here is the ruling says the president cannot be prosecuted for actions that are constitutional. So this does not mean the end of democracy or whatever people are saying. The president can't stay in office after his term expires. The president cannot order his political opponents killed- in fact, the Supreme Court issued a statement on that just this year.

https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/23/23-939/303384/20240319133828340_AFPI%20Amici%20Brief%203.19.24.pdf

Amici curae aren't Supreme Court decisions. "Amici curae" means "friend of the court". It's an argument from third parties submitted for a pending case. The dissents by the actual Supreme Court justices explicitly reference the assassination potential.

That is true, thank you for explaining that to me. Although I read the dissent and what Sotomayor said was that the president would get their day in court to determine if those actions were constitutional, not that this ruling pre-approves them to do so. Meanwhile Roberts said these concerns are overblown... idk really, I don't like the ruling, it basically feels like an expansion of qualified immunity to the president, which makes things more difficult for prosecuters but not impossible.

Qualified immunity for someone who single handedly controls the most powerful military in the world. Fabulous idea.

Can’t wait for the gunning down of protestors. Gilead, here we come!

They're only pre-approved for explicit constitutional duties, but they're presumed immune for all others and their reasoning can't be questioned. "I believed they were an imminent national security threat and took the hard choice." It's like "I feared for my life" for gun nuts, but you can apply it to nearly anything because the president has expansive emergency responsibilities and the only way to prove he wasn't actually taking an action "officially" would be using his private communications, but any communications with "advisors" are precluded from being used.

And anything that makes it through that gauntlet to the Supreme Court rather than being dismissed earlier will be decided on ideological grounds.

You say that like it's a defined thing that will keep a president in check. SCOTUS rules on constitutionality. Are you really that confident that they'll keep Trump in line if he gets another term and starts really getting to work? The road to fascism isn't paved with goods intentions, it's paved with mealy mouthed, two faced decisions like this that give more and more leeway until it's too late to take back.

Yes, and that is very important and I did not know that, so thank you for clarifying.

That said, this supreme court interprets the constitution however they want. The court in its current form (as a whole) is not ethical, lawful, or legitimate. As soon as a republican takes the presidency, there is no stopping them.

They didn't rule this, that was a "friend of the court" briefing by outside interests.

Yeah well I guess we'll see what happens if the orange jackass gets reelected. I'm not holding my breath.

Everyone needs to vote against the draft dodging felon rapist that is Trump.

1 more...