Justice Sotomayor says president ‚is now a king above the law‘ in dissent
The three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, all dissented from the majority opinion.
Writing in her dissent, Sotomayor said:
The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.
She warned of the “stark” long-term consequences of today’s decision, noting that the court had effectively created a “law free zone” around the president.
This new official-acts immunity now ‘lies about like a loaded weapon’ for any President that wishes to place his own interests, his own political survival, or his own financial gain, above the interests of the Nation.
Sotomayor continued:
The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. 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.
Key events
Richard Blumenthal, the Democratic senator for Connecticut, called the supreme court’s ruling a “cravenly political decision” and a “license for authoritarianism”.
Posting to X, he added:
My stomach turns with fear & anger that our democracy can be so endangered by an out-of-control Court. The members of Court’s conservative majority will now be rightly perceived by the American people as extreme & nakedly partisan hacks – politicians in robes.
To determine whether Donald Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the 2020 election results came under the protected auspices of his official duties, the supreme court remanded the case back to the presiding US district judge, Tanya Chutkan, who will have to review the indictment line by line.
The court left the bulk of the analysis up to Chutkan. But Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, found that Trump’s threat to fire the then acting attorney general for refusing to open investigations were protected, because the justice department is part of the executive branch.
Roberts similarly found that Trump’s effort to pressure his vice-president, Mike Pence, was probably protected, as the president discussing responsibilities with the vice-president was an instance of official conduct. The opinion said:
Trump is at least presumptively immune from prosecution for such conduct.
The final decision on the Pence question rested with Chutkan, wrote Roberts. The burden was on prosecutors to “rebut the presumption of immunity” and whether charging Trump would “pose any dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch”.
And on the matter of Trump’s remarks on January 6, Roberts wrote that they too were probably protected, since presidential addresses were an integral function of the office. But the opinion also allowed that in Trump’s case it may be more appropriate to categorize his speech as that of a candidate for office.
Chuck Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader, criticized the supreme court’s “disgraceful” decision, adding that the ruling “undermines SCOTUS’s credibility and suggests political influence trumps all in our courts today”.
Here’s some more reactions from Donald Trump’s allies to the supreme court’s immunity decision.
Jim Jordan, the Republican congressman for Ohio and chair of the House judiciary committee, called special counsel Jack Smith “hyper-partisan”, adding that he hoped “that the Left will stop its attacks on President Trump and uphold democratic norms”.
Marsha Blackburn, the Republican senator for Tennessee, said the ruling “rebukes Democrats’ blatant attempts to weaponize our legal system against Donald Trump”.
The Alabama senator Tommy Tuberville said the court had delivered a “crushing blow to Joe Biden’s 4-year witch hunt against President Trump”.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, the far-right Georgia congresswoman, has also welcomed the supreme court ruling.
Green, speaking to NBC News, said the court had made the “right decision” and called for special counsel Jack Smith’s investigation to be “defunded”.
Donald Trump Jr, the eldest son of Donald Trump, has praised the supreme court’s “solid” ruling in a post on X.
Justice Sotomayor says president ‚is now a king above the law‘ in dissent
The three liberal justices, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, all dissented from the majority opinion.
Writing in her dissent, Sotomayor said:
The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.
She warned of the “stark” long-term consequences of today’s decision, noting that the court had effectively created a “law free zone” around the president.
This new official-acts immunity now ‘lies about like a loaded weapon’ for any President that wishes to place his own interests, his own political survival, or his own financial gain, above the interests of the Nation.
Sotomayor continued:
The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world. 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.
The Biden campaign has responded to the supreme court’s ruling related to presidential immunity.
In a statement, a senior Biden campaign adviser said:
Today’s ruling doesn’t change the facts, so let’s be very clear about what happened on January 6: Donald Trump snapped after he lost the 2020 election and encouraged a mob to overthrow the results of a free and fair election. Trump is already running for president as a convicted felon for the very same reason he sat idly by while the mob violently attacked the Capitol: he thinks he’s above the law and is willing to do anything to gain and hold on to power for himself.
Since January 6, Trump has only grown more unhinged. He’s promising to be a dictator ‘on day one,’ calling for our Constitution to be ‘terminated’ so he can regain power, and promising a “bloodbath” if he loses. The American people already rejected Donald Trump’s self-obsessed quest for power once – Joe Biden will make sure they reject it for good in November.
The US supreme court has ruled that former presidents are entitled to some degree of immunity from criminal prosecution, dramatically reducing the likelihood that the federal criminal case against Donald Trump on charges he plotted to stop the transfer of power will proceed before the 2024 election.
The court’s conservative majority – which Trump helped create – found that presidents were protected from prosecution for official actions that extended to the “outer perimeter” of his office, but could face charges for conduct undertaken in a personal or private manner.
Trump is accused of overseeing a sprawling effort to subvert the 2020 election, including two counts of conspiring to obstruct the certification of the election results, conspiring to defraud the government and conspiring to disenfranchise voters.
Among the accusations: Trump spread false claims of election fraud, plotted to recruit fake slates of electors, pressured US justice department officials to open sham investigations into election fraud, and pressured his vice-president, Mike Pence, to obstruct Congress’s certification of Joe Biden’s win.
Trump says court ruling a ‚big win‘
Donald Trump posted on his Truth Social platform shortly after the court issued its decision on his immunity case, writing:
BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!
Court decision ‚makes a mockery of the principle‘ that ’no man is above the law‘, writes Sotomayor in dissent
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing in dissent, said the court’s decision in the Trump immunity case “makes a mockery of the principle … that no man is above the law”. She writes:
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.
The indictment “paints a stark portrait of a President desperate to stay in power”, she continued.
Because our Constitution does not shield a former President from answering for criminal and treasonous acts, I dissent.
Here’s how the supreme court voted in the Trump immunity case.
In a 6-3 ruling, the justices said that former presidents have absolute immunity from prosecution for their official acts and no immunity for unofficial acts.
Court finds presidents not entitled to immunity for unofficial acts
Chief Justice John Roberts, writing the court’s opinion, says:
This case poses a question of lasting significance: When may a former President be prosecuted for official acts taken during his Presidency? In answering that question, unlike the political branches and the public at large, the Court cannot afford to fixate exclusively, or even primarily, on present exigencies. Enduring separation of powers principles guide our decision in this case. The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official. The President is not above the law. But under our system of separated powers, the President may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for his official acts. That immunity applies equally to all occupants of the Oval Office.
Court finds presidents entitled to ‚absolute immunity‘ from prosecution for official acts
The supreme court holds that a former president has absolute immunity for his core constitutional powers. The decision fell along party lines, with six conservative justices ruling against three liberal ones.
But the court finds that former presidents are not entitled to immunity from prosecution for actions taken in a private capacity.
Writing the court’s opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts says:
Under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority. And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.
Title: Trump celebrates immunity case ruling; liberal supreme court judge says president now ‘a king above the law’
URL: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2024/jul/01/supreme-court-trump-immunity-claim-decision-updates
Source: the Guardian
Source URL:
Date: July 1, 2024 at 08:12PM
Feedly Board(s):