Welcome to Monarchy — Just in Time for Independence Day
Our revered patriots who risked their and their families’ lives and livelihoods to shake off the yoke of monarchy would be ashamed of us today.
Imagine the sacrifices American colonists made imperiling themselves for an idea that we, the people, could govern ourselves without requiring the absolute authority of a king or queen. It was a concept unheard of, unrealized, at the time. Many thought we wouldn’t be able to pull it off. Because we did, other countries began exploring their own democratic possibilities. Being the oldest constitutionally limited democratic republic in the world has inspired democracy to proliferate and thrive.
Our revered patriots who risked their and their families’ lives and livelihoods to shake off the yoke of monarchy with a bloody eight-year war against the most powerful military force at the time would be ashamed of us today after the almighty unelected lifetime-appointed black-robed monarchs on the United States Supreme Court (SCOTUS) declared that US presidents are absolutely immune from criminal prosecution for “official acts”.
Here is what Chief Justice John Roberts had to say:
We conclude that under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power requires that a former President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office. At least with respect to the President’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute. As for his remaining official actions, he is also entitled to immunity.
At the current stage of proceedings in this case, however, we need not and do not decide whether that immunity must be absolute, or instead whether a presumptive immunity is sufficient.
This means there is no longer accountability for any action, no matter how benign or malignant, a future president can make so long as it is couched within the nebulous parameters of “official act”.
Dissenting were, naturally, the three liberal (and rational) justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
Sotomayor fired back against the ruling:
Today’s decision to grant former presidents criminal immunity reshapes the institution of the presidency. It makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of government, that no man is above the law. Relying on little more than its own misguided wisdom about the need for “bold and unhesitating action” by the President…the Court gives former President Trump all the immunity he asked for and more. Because our Constitution does not shield a former president from answering for criminal and treasonous acts, I dissent.
She added:
The Court now confronts a question it has never had to answer in the nation’s history: Whether a former President enjoys immunity from federal criminal prosecution. The majority thinks he should, and so it invents an atextual, ahistorical, and unjustifiable immunity that puts the President above the law. The majority makes three moves that, in effect, completely insulate Presidents from criminal liability.
When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. 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… With fear for our democracy, I dissent.
Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson explained in her dissent:
To fully appreciate the profound change the majority has wrought, one must first acknowledge what it means to have immunity from criminal prosecution. Put simply, immunity is “exemption” from the duties and liabilities imposed by law.
In its purest form, the concept of immunity boils down to a maxim — “t]he King can do no wrong’”— a notion that was firmly “rejected at the birth of [our] Republic.” To say that someone is immune from criminal prosecution is to say that, like a King, he “is not under the coercive power of the law,” which “will not suppose him capable of committing a folly, much less a crime.”
Thus, being immune is not like having a defense under the law. Rather, it means that the law does not apply to the immunized person in the first place. Conferring immunity therefore ‘create[s] a privileged class free from liability for wrongs inflicted or injuries threatened.
Author and brilliant political commentator Thom Hartmann wrote in his piece “The Supreme Court’s Imperial Presidency is Now Here, Not Just Rhetorically but in Fact”:
The six Republicans on this Court have essentially declared that they and Trump are so far above the law that the entire concept this nation was founded on — that “no person is above the law” — is null and void.
All a future president must do if they want to commit a crime, as Justice Jackson’s dissent demonstrates, is to claim that no matter what they did, it’s merely an “official act.” Including, specifically, directing the Attorney General to commit crimes himself.
This is the sort of decision you’d get from a court in Putin’s Russia.
This is precisely what Trump and the MAGA-intoxicated GOP want: to turn us into the oligarchic kleptocracy of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, or Viktor Orban’s Hungary.
What this means is the twice-impeached convicted felon running for his old job isn’t going to be held accountable for trying to overthrow the government on January 6, 2021 to keep himself in power for at least another year. If he wins in November, he will most definitely appoint an attorney general to make any cases against him disappear. With absolute immunity, there will be nothing we can do about it. Any attempts at impeachment or prosecution will be toothless.
What this also means is the current president, Joe Biden, is similarly immune. He is now also “above the law”.
But don’t expect him to do anything that yesterday would have been extra-judicial. He’s too moral and principled for that.
Instead, now is the time to pack the Supreme Court. And since he is, as of this moment, immune from prosecution for official acts, he should fire the six right-wingers — Kavanaugh, Roberts, Thomas, Alito, Comey-Barrett, and Gorsuch — and replace them with nine — not six — progressive justices who will re-instate the Roe v. Wade decision, re-hear the Shelby County v. Holder decision, overturn the Citizens United decision, as well as the god-awful most recent decisions the Court made over the past few days.
Why not? What good is lifetime appointment to the federal bench when a president can simply violate the Constitution with impunity?
Perhaps the six right-wingers don’t realize (or care) that they too are now subjected to a president’s whims. If they think they are insulating themselves from Trump’s fascistic ideation, they are kidding themselves.
Congress has the constitutional authority to regulate the Court, and it needs to act NOW!
NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez intends to file articles of impeachment upon Congress’s return.
Let’s get this done!
In order to preserve the rule of law, we need a president who will appoint justices committed to upholding it. Trump is not that president. Joe Biden is.
Let’s get Democrats elected up and down the ballot so we can take back the House and expand our majority in the Senate.
Democracy is not a spectator sport.