Caught by Aljazeera.com
The Supreme Court’s decision that US presidents have immunity for official activities gave former US President Donald Trump a significant legal victory.
For Donald Trump, the former US president and current Republican presidential candidate, Monday was a successful day in his never-ending battle to “make America great again.” In 2023, a federal grand jury accused Trump, the first former US head of state to be criminally charged and found guilty of a felony, of plotting to rig the 2020 election results that gave rise to Joe Biden’s Democratic presidential nomination.
However, the conservative supermajority on the US Supreme Court has now conveniently decided, 6-3, that presidents are practically above the law. This is a decision that has never been made in the 248-year history of the country.
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“The nature of presidential power entitles a former president to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,” the ruling’s wording reads. This falls under our constitutional framework of divided powers.
What a waste of checks and balances and other niceties!
The decision goes on to state that there is “no immunity for unofficial acts,” even though a former president is “entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts.” But where in the hell does one draw the line when it comes to differentiating between “official” and “unofficial” acts?
It turns out that the Supreme Court is also genuinely ignorant about the matter. The verdict appears to provide a lead-up to an explanation several pages later: “The President takes official action to carry out the duties of his office when he acts under “constitutional and legislative authority.” Thus, evaluating the president’s authority to take action is the first step in determining whether it is protected by immunity.
