The opinion of this writer is not the opinion of the Ridgeview News. We value the Constitution and therefore honor our Nation’s freedom of speech.
Yes, that‘s the title of the presidential immunity case – Trump versus the United States – the case Trump won. We, the people of the United States, lost badly.
We scoffed when Richard Nixon said, “If the president does it, that means that it’s not illegal.” We believed, “No one is above the law.” But according to our corrupt, partisan and lawless Republican Supreme Court majority, one person is – Trump.
The six conservatives on the Supreme Court invented for Trump a sweeping doctrine of presumptive immunity for all official acts, designed specifically to absolve Trump for all his crimesleading up to January 6 and any crimes he commits if he becomes president again.
Such presidential immunity is not supported by the Constitution,history, or precedent. The decision is sheer political power, partisan and unprincipled; it is not based on law.
Little noted and more frightening, the Court says the president enjoys absolute criminal immunity for acts that fall within his “conclusive and preclusive” authority. “Preclusive” executive power refers to acts not subject to any limitations by other branches of government. So, courts can’t stop him and Congress can’t thwart him.
Finally, the Court declined to give a test for what official actsare. Lower courts can guess, but only the Supreme Court can decide when a president’s acts are protected from prosecution. Even more power to the Court.
“A president might hesitate to “execute the duties of his office fearlessly and fairly” if he feared prosecution, the opinion says. Apparently, presidents just have to crime sometimes and shouldn’t let the law slow them down.
A president who believed his job was to work for the good of the American people would hesitate at the possibility that an official act might be criminal.
Donald Trump, on the other hand, has shown throughout his life that his purpose is to enrich and empower himself. This opinion frees him to follow his basest instincts with his mob boss tactics. The immunity decision enshrined the “office of the presidency,”but ignored and overlooked what the Court conservatives – and all of us – know about the man, Donald Trump, who has held the office, and may again.
Fear of prosecution didn’t make Donald Trump hesitate to do everything within his presidential power to overturn an electionand remain in power. He didn’t hesitate to threaten state officials with prison for not helping him, to pressure the Department of Justice to lie about their findings that the election was free and fair, to pressure his vice president to break the law, or to call a mob to Washington to “fight like hell” to keep Trump in power.
The 6-3 conservative super-majority of the Supreme Court (created by Trump) knew all that because it is spelled out in detail in the indictment they were supposed to be considering. Nevertheless, the Court deliberately created an imperial presidency for a man who has repeatedly declared his authoritarian plans for a second term.
If Trump is re-elected, he will have at least 2 Supreme Court nominations (Thomas and Alito will resign) and it’s reported that he’s looking for justices more loyal to Trump himself and less constrained by the law than those he chose the first time – justices too radically conservative for the Federalist Society.
In a second term, Trump has promised revenge and retribution on his enemies. He will “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country.” Those are the same names Trump calls Democrats. For Trump, all political opponents are enemies.
Trump’s political control of the Department of Justice is now legal. He can direct his loyal judges to issue arrest warrantsbased on Trump’s own allegations about all of his perceived enemies. That’s a lot of us. Not just the “Biden crime family,” Jack Smith and E. Jean Carroll, but all the news media, another“enemy of the people.” Democratic politicians, protestors, abortion providers. Lock them up!
Trump has promised to use the American military to police “Democrat cities” and to help national guards round up millions of undocumented immigrants, put them in camps and deport them. That’s illegal under the Posse Comitatus Act, but who now can say so? Only the Supreme Court has the power to stop him. How long would that take – and would they stop him?
Trump loves an old Republican plan to cancel agencies, laws, or programs he doesn’t like by refusing to spend the money Congress appropriates. Such “impoundment” is illegal thanks to a law Congress passed in 1974 after Nixon used the ploy. Trump says “too bad” because anything that interferes with the power of the presidency is unconstitutional. Did the Supreme Court just agree? They’ll tell us later. Meanwhile Trump plansto use impoundment to “crush the Deep State,” purging civil servants not loyal to Trump.
Could Trump declare all of Project 2025 law by executive orders? The Supreme Court has given him immense powers and only they can say no.
The immunity decision is infinitely dangerous because it is designed by a Supreme Court, currently acting as Trump cheerleaders, to give Trump’s authoritarian plans and vengeful instincts carte blanche.
Only the voters can stop 2024 from becoming 1984 and The Handmaid’s Tale. Don’t let the uproar about the Democratic ticket blind you to the dangers we face if Trump is elected. He.Must.Be.Stopped. Vote for Democratic candidates up and down the ballot.
