Today Is The Other Date Which Will Live In Infamy
July 1, 2024, is the other date which will now “live in infamy”. That it is this close to celebrating our national day of independence leaves us little to celebrate. Today, the Republican justices of the Supreme Court determined that a President is above the rule of law, and any motive for breaking the law is inconsequential.
In “Trump v United States”, three reasonable justices of the Supreme Court, Ketanji Brown Jackson, Elena Kagan, and Sonia Sotomayor, understood the obvious perils of granting the former President “presidential immunity” from criminal prosecution and voted against the majority.
The following is an excerpt from Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion.
“Looking beyond the fate of this particular prosecution, the long-term consequences of today’s decision are stark. 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.
"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. 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. 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.
"The majority’s single-minded fixation on the President’s need for boldness and dispatch ignores the countervailing need for accountability and restraint. The Framers were not so single-minded. 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.”
To read the full opinion of the court, click here.
Slipstream
So much for "No one is above the law." It's now "No one, except the President of the United States, his family, friends, worshipers, co-conspirators, and anyone else he chooses is above the law." This will be marked as one of the worst days for democracy in our history... or maybe it won't. History books citing it as such will most certainly be banned to "protect us" from the ugly truth.
Btw, your graphic sadly says it all.
Evangel
Another very sad day for America and our Constitution which has been our guiding light since our founders put this ship of state to sail.
The terrorist chant, "Death to America" is being fulfilled full tilt, only it's a coup d'état from within, peaceful but sinister, with no way out.
The conservative justices are our own Trojan Horse who will continue to strike down any and all constitutional laws that are deemed antithetical to their planned theocracy.
Slipstream
It's rage-making and heartbreaking...