Justice

 

With Fear For Our Democracy

After slow walking the immunity claim case for 67 days to protect now convicted felon Trump the Supreme Court has issued a muddled decision.  In a clearly politically partisan 6-3 decision the Republicans on the Court kicked the can down the road and refused to clearly uphold that no one, including presidents, are above the law.  Future courts will be required to split hairs when determining presidential immunity.

Justice Sotomayor put it succinctly in her dissent:

"Looking beyond the fate of this particular prosecution, the long-term consequences of today’s decision are stark," she wrote. "The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding. 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."

"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. Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trappings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today."

"Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done," Sotomayor wrote. "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. 

"Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law," she later added. "Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide will not provide a backstop."

"With fear for our democracy, I dissent," Sotomayor concluded. 

America now has an Imperial Supreme Court protecting an Imperial presidency that does and will have a long lasting impact in creating a monarchy form of government.  

With fear for our democracy.