Right-Wing Supreme Court Rules Trump Has 'Absolute Immunity' for Official Acts | Common Dreams
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"In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law," warned Justice Sonia Sotomayor. "With fear for our democracy, I dissent."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17119069

“In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law,” warned Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”

  • just_another_person@lemmy.world
    43·
    6 months ago

    This is oversimplifying it. They did not define “official acts”, obviously, but goose and gander. Biden is now available to use these new powers, and should.

    • BertramDitore@lemmy.worldEnglish
      48·
      6 months ago

      In her dissent, Sotomayor made it pretty clear that that doesn’t matter.

      “When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution,” Sotomayor wrote. “Orders the Navy’s SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”

      “In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law,” the justice added.

      • just_another_person@lemmy.world
        20·
        6 months ago

        The dissent is not the prevailing ruling though. The other MAGA dip shits on the court just left the door open to anything for the next 6 months. All horrific derivatives of this timeline, sure. But they can’t stop the current administration apparently from doing the same shit without immunity until the next ruling. They’re just banking on the fact that Biden isn’t a gigantic piece of shit and will never pull the trigger on using any of these options.

        I guarantee his team is sitting in a room right now coming up with ideas.

        • BertramDitore@lemmy.worldEnglish
          26·
          6 months ago

          Yeah I hear you, but that door they left open is exactly why it doesn’t matter. By not defining official acts, they essentially gave themselves the authority to make that determination later, which means anything done as president can be considered official, as long as they say so. This was another power grab for them and any republicans who want to use it, but you can be sure the rules would be different for democrats.

          • fiercekitten@lemm.eeEnglish
            2·
            6 months ago

            That’s why the conservative SC justices would have to be declared enemy combatants, terrorists, or an emergency threat and be locked up. Now they cannot rule against the president. Or rush to pack the SC with friendly justices after removing the conservative ones, and lock up any members of congress who won’t approve the judges.

          • just_another_person@lemmy.world
            1·
            6 months ago

            Not until October, and they won’t have enough time to do anything to fast track a damn thing depending on what happens. If it happens bettnow and then, it happens.

        • logicbomb@lemmy.world
          15·
          6 months ago

          If Biden were to use his powers to force the 6 conservative Supreme Court Justices out, then there wouldn’t be anybody on the court who would disagree with the minority interpretation.

          • raspberriesareyummy@lemmy.world
            14·
            6 months ago

            This here. As a European I am extremely worried about what is coming in US politics. I really really hope Biden will make use of this with foolproof consequences.

            • fiercekitten@lemm.eeEnglish
              1·
              6 months ago

              He won’t. America is fucked. This corruption will have an effect on the entire world.

        • p5yk0t1km1r4ge@lemmy.world
          1·
          6 months ago

          I guarantee his team is sitting in a room right now coming up with ideas.

          No, they aren’t. Their plan is to yell really loudly about how unacceptable the ruling is. That’s it.

    • snooggums@midwest.socialEnglish
      32·
      6 months ago

      If Biden does the exact same thing as the orange turd, the packed courts will rule that Biden’s actions were not official but the angry orange’s were.

      The decision is entirely a power grab that will be abused by conservatives and not by anyone with morals. That is what these fascists are counting on.

        • snooggums@midwest.socialEnglish
          12·
          6 months ago

          Biden won’t abuse this power because he isn’t a complete trash person and SCOTUS knows it. They know that the only party that will abuse this power is the Republican party.

          So until this trash opinion is undone, every single election is an imminent threat to democracy.

          • logicbomb@lemmy.world
            3·
            6 months ago

            They should be terrified of what Trump would do to them with this power, though. History has shown time and time again that, just because Trump likes you today, that doesn’t mean he won’t fire you tomorrow. Or in this case, should I say “fire” you tomorrow.

            • Zaktor@sopuli.xyzEnglish
              2·
              6 months ago

              Leopards won’t eat their faces. Or if it seems like they will, they’ll just do what he wants. They may have tried to maintain appearances of doing law, just conservatively, during his presidency, but since then they’ve abandoned it and are just a kangaroo court. You don’t declare the president a king and precedent optional while still maintaining some pretense of justice. They think they’ve won and now is the time to put their plans into motion.