US Supreme Court Makes the President a King
I have been warning that the United States has been moving toward an authoritarian, fascist takeover by politicians linked with extremist Christian Nationalism. America dodged a bullet in 2021 when Donald Trump was prevented from his attempt to overthrow the federal government of the United States of America.
Today, an attack from Christian Nationalist totalitarianism against American democracy has struck its target and delivered a grave injury.
It is still possible for our democracy to survive this attack, but there can be no mistaking that a full assault by Christian Nationalist fascists against our democracy has now begun in earnest.
As of today, I am no longer merely warning of a future takeover of the United States by Christian Nationalist fascists. As of today, I am describing that takeover.
The Christian Nationalist fascist takeover of the United States has begun.
In her dissent against the majority decision, US Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote:
In its purest form, the concept of immunity boils down to a maxim, “the King can do no wrong”, a notion that was firmly rejected at the birth of our Republic.
The majority holds that the President, unlike anyone else in our country, is comparatively free to engage in criminal acts in furtherance of his official duty. This point bears emphasizing. Immunity can issue for Presidents under the majority’s model even for unquestionably and intentionally egregious criminal behavior… Ultimately, the majority’s model simply sets the criminal law to one side when it comes to crimes allegedly committed by the President… The starting presumption is that the criminal law does not apply to Presidents, no matter how obviously illegal, harmful, or unacceptable a President’s official behavior might be.
The President can commit crimes in the course of his job even under circumstances in which no one thinks he has any excuse. The law simply does not apply to him.
It is certainly true that a scheme of government like ours no doubt at times feels the lack of power to act with complete, all-embracing, swiftly moving authority. But any American who has studied history knows that our government was designed to have such restrictions. Our Constitution’s separation of power was adopted by the Convention of 1787, not to promote efficiency but to preclude the exercise of arbitrary power. The purpose was, not to avoid friction, but to save the people from autocracy.
The majority incentivizes all future Presidents to cross the line of criminality in office.
It suggests that the unofficial criminal acts of the President are the only ones worthy of prosecution. Quite to the contrary, it is when the President commits crimes using his unparalleled official powers that the risks of abuse and autocracy will be most dire.
From this day forward, Presidents of tomorrow will be free to exercise the Commander-in-Chief powers, the foreign-affairs powers, and all the vast law enforcement powers enshrined in Article II however they please, including in ways that Congress has deemed criminal and that have potentially grave consequences for the rights and liberties of Americans.
The seeds of absolute power of Presidents have been planted, and without a doubt, absolute power corrupts absolutely.
US Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote:
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… In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law… With fear for our democracy, I dissent.