Presidential Immunity from Criminal Persecution

[Scholar]

My understanding is that as long as something could be considered an official act, the President is now completely immune from criminal persecution. This means that you have to prove that something is not an official act before you even are allowed to bring it to a court.

 

Additionally, if there is any threat that a criminal persecution could have any compromising effect on the executive function of the president whatsoever, it cannot be used or brought up in court.

 

Now, none of this has been tested yet but in principle the president is a king now, as what is an official act and what could be considered compromising to the President's executive function is so broad it could contain almost anything, including using the military or governmental agency that are under the president's control to execute or imprison political opponents.

 

This is also not something that was the case ever before, because prior to this the President was merely immune against civil lawsuits, not criminal ones. 

 

 

If Trump takes office he could very well destroy the US democracy, it seems he has already caused some significant and long-lasting damage from which it is not clear the US will be able to recuperat given the current informational landscape.

[DocWatts]

Let's just call it for what it is - a judicial coup against constitutional democracy. As LegalEagle pointed out in his vid on the topic, it's like the SCOTUS effectively amended the Constitution to gut the checks and balances against the Executive Branch of the US government. And short of a constitutional convention, we have little to no recourse on this ruling.

The decision is a coup against democracy because it gives any future president a rubber stamp to set themselves up as Putin style autocrat - able to break the law to keep themselves in power, with legal impunity.

This will go down as the worst decision in the history of the Supreme Court, alongside the Dred Scott ruling which decreed that black Americans were not US citizens and didn't have any rights, leading directly to the US civil war.

The salt in the wound is that 5 of the 6 justices responsible for this coup were themselves appointed by presidents who lost the popular vote.

My take? Looking like US democracy is probably fucked... Of course we still need to keep Trump out of the White House, but it's hard to see a way where this decision isn't going to be horribly abused by some future president, even if it's not Trump.

Edited July 8 by DocWatts

[ryandesreu]

King Biden imprisons the justices who voted for this and replaces them with sane human beings, or tomato cans, either one. 

[ryandesreu]

"Supreme Court Justices who ruled in a way that renders the Constitution unconstitutional have become enemies of a free and fair democracy." Should they be removed?

 

[Merkabah Star]

On 8/7/2024 at 8:58 PM, Scholar said:

My understanding is that as long as something could be considered an official act, the President is now completely immune from criminal persecution.

I was under the impression that it was always like that? 

US presidents have always been protected.