With the distinct possibility that Donald Trump will be the President of the United States again, today, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to essentially make the president a king. That was the warning from the dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor.
The Supreme Court ruled that a president, and a former president, have “absolute immunity” when it comes to “official acts.” That ruling does leave the door open for courts to define what is an “official act.”
Former President Donald Trump declared today’s ruling a “Big win for our Constitution and democracy” and said he was “Proud to be an American.”
The ruling today will impact cases related to the J6 riots when Trump supporters attempted to interfere with democracy and stop the certification of the win by Joe Biden.
Legal experts continue to pore over the High Court’s ruling today and the full ramifications are not yet fully understood, but this is clearly a major win for Trump. Many Americans will view this as a ruling that gives presidents the ability to do whatever they want while in office. Justice Sotomayor even presented the scenario of Donald Trump winning the election in November and ordering the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 to assassinate any political rivals. But a few legal minds have suggested that action would not ever be considered an “official act” of a president. Well, we will have to wait to see how far the new immunity granted to a president goes.
The ruling today definitely extinguishes the notion that “nobody is above the law” in America and I think this is a dark day in the history of this country. While there will be some restrictions on “absolute immunity,” the ruling does grant unprecedented protection to a president to do whatever he/she wants. The potential court cases that will result from this ruling will be limitless and many lawyers will certainly have job security.
Since Donald Trump has already shown he thinks he has the authority to do whatever he wants, I wonder if this will make many of the voters who are not right-wing radicals or MAGA adherents think twice about voting for Trump now that he will have “absolutel immunity” with any “official acts” while in office? I wonder if many voters who were planning to vote for Trump because they have deep concerns about President Biden’s age and mental stability will now reconsider fearing that the laws and the courts will not be able to stop him from doing anything - even things that work toward establishing more of an authoritative form of government?
The Supreme Court’s ruling today establishes a new type of president that is above the law. With the protection of immunity, a president can take action that would never have been considered possible in America and the damage may be done before the courts could rule that what was done was not protected by the new ruling.
Today’s ruling by the Supreme Court makes former President Trump’s brazen personality more of an issue than ever before. Vote cautiously!
