The End of Trump’s Legislative Power: When the Supreme Court decides to punish anyone, the American people will know what they can do
In a stunning finale to its term on Monday morning, the Supreme Court delivered a gift of inestimable worth to Donald Trump and all future presidents who intend to violate the law and their oaths to the Constitution. The conservative majority said in their ruling that certain official acts of the presidency are not subject to prosecution. It is much harder to prosecute acts that reach the outer edges of a president’s official duties because they are presumptively immune.
“Today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what the president can do,” Biden said. The power of the office won’t be constrained by the law even though the Supreme Court of the United States is. The only limits will be self-imposed by the president alone.”
“Now the American people will have to do what the court should have been willing to do, but will not…render a judgment about Donald Trump’s behavior,” Biden said.
After his performance in last week’s debate, Biden took no questions and was under fire from his fellow Democrats. He spoke clearly and calmly during the statement.
He has held several events in order to assure his supporters that he is up to the job. Last Friday, a day after the debate, Biden held a rally in Raleigh, N.C., where he attempted to persuade supporters that he could still do the job. He spent the weekend doing damage control and telling donors that he understood their concern.
At the home of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, he told his supporters that he did not have a great night. “But I’m going to be fighting harder and going to need you with me to get it done.”
Innocence can be a nightmare for Trump, and it is best left to the district court to assess his actions in the U.S. Senate
As Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in a blistering dissent along with the other two liberal justices, the ruling creates a series of “nightmare scenarios” for what a president is now allowed to do. “Orders the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Is a coup planned to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe to get a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”
No one is above the law anymore, as of Monday. The court’s actions undermined the rationale for the American Revolution in the very week that the nation celebrates its founding, while taking a step toward restoring the monarchy that the Declaration of Independence rejected. Presidents can still be impeached for their crimes in office, but it is hard to see how they can ever be prosecuted. They can take once-unimaginable actions, like encouraging an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, with no fear of later going to jail or being held legally accountable.
A 1982 Supreme Court precedent states that the president’s actions are not immune from civil lawsuits if they occur in the “outer perimeter” of his official responsibilities.
That will entail significant delays, and the prospects for a trial before the election seem vanishingly remote. If Mr. Trump prevails at the polls, he could order the Justice Department to drop the charges.
The Supreme Court does not have to separate protected conduct from the rest, according to Chief Justice Roberts. “That analysis,” he wrote, “ultimately is best left to the lower courts to perform in the first instance.”
”We therefore remand to the district court to assess in the first instance, with appropriate input from the parties, whether a prosecution involving Trump’s alleged attempts to influence the vice president’s oversight of the certification proceeding in his capacity as president of the Senate would pose any dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the executive branch,” he wrote.
The 14th Amendment and Immunity: A Circuit Court Justice’s View of the Anomalous Pro-President Donald Trump Indictment
She gave examples: “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.”
The US has only one chief executive at a time, so that position does not give a lifelong pass to get out of jail, wrote the Federal District Court judge in Washington.
The court rejected the attempt to disqualify Mr. Trump from being on the ballot under the 14th Amendment, which bars people who engage in insurrection from holding office. The court ruled that states can’t exclude the presidential candidates from the ballot because it was covered by the provision.
The court decided on Friday that federal prosecutors were wrong to try some members of the pro- Trump mob under an obstruction law. Two of the four charges against Mr. Trump are based on that law.
The Supreme Court had been asked to intervene by the man after the appeals court ruled against him. The court decided to schedule arguments for almost two months later, on the last day of the term. Another two months have passed since then.
The immunity case has moved at a considerably slower pace. Jack Smith, the special counsel overseeing the prosecution wrote in December that it was necessary for the case to be heard by the justices immediately. He said only this court can resolve them.
At the argument, several of the conservative justices did not seem inclined to examine the details of the charges against Mr. Trump. They believe that the court could issue a ruling relating to presidential power generally.
The court was led by Chief Justice John Roberts. Dissenting were the three liberals, Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
He wrote that the courts hadn’t considered how to distinguish between official and unofficial acts, while chiding the lower courts for their fast decisions. The lower courts did not analyze the conduct alleged in the indictment to decide whether it should be classified as official or unofficial.
Trump could still request additional delays, as immunity questions are among the very few that may be appealed prior to trial.