The Trump immunity ruling is an admission the US is not a democracy
In a democracy, no one is above the law
In a 6-3 ruling, the Supreme Court of the United States has ended the fundamental principle of democracy that no one is above the law. If you are one of the people who’ve argued for a long time, the US is not a real democracy, you have the final argument you need.
In a bid to save Trump from further prosecution, the Supreme Court opened a can of worms that could have all kinds of consequences going forwards. It ruled that Trump, and other US presidents, have absolute immunity for official acts and presumptive immunity for acts that extend to the outer perimeter of their office. However, the court ruled that any non-official act could still be considered criminal.
What this means is that any violation of the law carried out by a sitting US president in his official duties cannot be prosecuted. In order to successfully prosecute a president, you need to show that their crimes were committed in a non-official capacity.
Say, for example, a president wants to supply the bombs to a genocide, or commit a genocide themselves, that would apparently be fine because they would be acting in their official capacity. The irony is that by pandering to Trump, the Supreme Court has made a ruling that arguably helps Biden more than him.
Trump is okay to stand for re-election, but he could still be prosecuted if a lower court decides he acted outside of his official capacity. A US president can call for the overrunning of a government building in Bolivia or Ukraine, and that’s okay because coups are part of a president’s official duties, but if a court decides he did the same at home, he could be in trouble. But probably not…
To give you an indication of how things might go, Chief Justice John Roberts has determined that Trump’s interactions with the justice department count as official acts. Same goes for his interactions with Pence. Basically, anything taking place within the executive branch counts as official and cannot be criminal, unless proven otherwise.
Among other things, Trump stands accused of plotting to recruit fake slates of electors to subvert “democracy” and absurdly, I’ve no idea if this would now count as part of his official duties. At this point, it probably depends on the political bias of the judges.
If Trump is guilty, then by all means, lock him up, but please, for the love of god, don’t pretend the Democrats are more… democratic. Some of us still remember when they argued in court that Hillary had a right to rig the primary against Bernie. The truth is the entire system is rigged and it’s being rigged even more so before our eyes.
Official acts that weren’t part of the charges, but could show Trump’s intent, can’t even be submitted as evidence now, so good luck trying to make a case. Justice Amy Coney Barrett even suggested the special counsel edit the indictment and bring a case on unambiguously private acts. Presumably, she means the lesser charges.
We are seeing the US justice system being manipulated in real time, and it could yet get even more farcical. For example, if Trump wins the election, he will appoint an attorney general who is loyal to him and get the charges for mishandling classified documents dropped. That sounds terrible until you remember Biden has already been let off for a similar crime.
Democrat voters will be completely blind to the reality that corrupting the system also favours Biden, of course. They will scream that voting for their guy is the only way to save democracy (someone is already selling t-shirts on Substack making this argument!), blissfully unaware the fascist establishment has been firmly behind their party.
Given a choice, the deep state would probably choose Democrats over Republicans because prior to Biden’s senile debate performance, the war machine seemed safer in their hands. Now the deep state does not know who it wants. First party to come up with a non-senile version of Biden will get their full support for the next four years and carte blanche to commit any war crime they like.
As much as I despise Trump, there is a much stronger case to lock Biden behind bars for the rest of his life, given his body count. Sadly, that would seem impossible, unless the ICC issues a warrant, Interpol makes the arrest and the Netherlands somehow staves off the Hague Invasion Act. I’m more likely to win the Lotto than for all that to happen.
It was always an unwritten rule that any crime committed for the empire, no matter how cruel and depraved, is permissible. Trump became a wanted man not because he was worse than other presidents, but because he showed the world what a US president really is. If only he could have kept the war machine going in a way that looked respectable, he would have been fine.
We just have to look at the Hague Invasion Act which basically says the US will invade the Hague or anywhere that US soldiers or officials are being kept prisoner. The US decided a long time ago international law does not apply to itself or Israel, but for a while, there was at least the pretence it respected international law.
After nine months protecting Israel from accountability for genocide, the empire is bearing its teeth. My worry is what comes next? Does the US try to end the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice? It sounds crazy, but if I’d said to you a year ago, it would ban TikTok to stop gen-Z mocking Israel’s atrocity propaganda, you would have laughed at me, and yet, here we are. I wouldn’t put anything past the US at this point.
America has long placed itself above the law in an international context.
This simply takes it a stage further by placing the despot above the law on the domestic scene.
If the US president cancels elections and appoints himself president for life, this is now still regarded as unconstitutional but not illegal, as the unconstitutional self-coup would be committed as part of regular performance of duties.
Then declaring the Supreme Court or Congress invalid wouldn't be illegal either. Unconstitutional, maybe, but who's left to say that now?
The Supreme Court has implicitly made itself irrelevant, as Sotomayor points out. A king doesn't need an independent court or parliament.
The checks and balances are looking pretty rickety right now.
The reality is our presidents have enjoyed broad immunity from the rule of law in modern history with the approval of Congress. If lying to the public was a felony, every President would be in prison.