Trump got immunity; nation got an imperial presidency

In a sweeping decision that constitutionalizes the modern reality of the imperial presidency, the US Supreme Court has established near-total criminal immunity for Donald Trump’s official acts while he was president. It’s an outcome that would have astonished the nation’s founders, who feared precisely that if the chief executive amassed too much power, the republic would turn into an empire.

The conservative majority in the 6-3 decision left a little bit of room to prosecute Trump for unofficial or private acts committed while in office. But it defined such acts narrowly and said lower courts couldn’t examine Trump’s motives when determining whether a given act was official or not. The result will mean that most, maybe all the federal criminal charges against Trump for conduct related to Jan. 6 will get dismissed. And none has any realistic chance of going to trial before the presidential election in November.

In dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by the other two liberal justices, condemned the decision in the harshest terms. “In every use of official power,” she wrote,” the president is now a king above the law.”

To the contrary, as Sotomayor pointed out in her dissent, the Constitution specifically anticipates criminal prosecution of a president, noting that after impeachment, a president removed by the Senate “shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.”

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-trump-got-immunity-nation-got-an-imperial-presidency/