This week, the Supreme Court announced its ruling in the presidential immunity case, and boy, did the left side of the aisle blow up.
This would include the liberal justices who made outrageous claims that are not true.
Talking Points…
- Liberal justices go off the rails
- Misinformation floods the internet and news
- Analysis
I am paraphrasing here, but the court ruled that any sitting president has broad immunity for official acts as president. We knew this was the case before we ever headed into this case, and I wrote about it extensively. In fact, this decision came down just as I had predicted, ruling that sitting presidents have immunity for official acts, but not for acts that would fall outside the realm of their job duties. Then they kicked the case back to the lower courts to define the acts committed by Trump to decide if they were official acts of a president or a private citizen. That is almost verbatim what I have been predicting would happen here.
However, that did not stop the sensationalism by the left, including the liberal justices on the bench. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Elena Kagan went off the rails with some of their claims in their dissenting opinions. For example, Sotomayor stated:
"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."
That is fearmongering, at best, and utterly disgraceful for a justice of the Supreme Court to twist the facts like that. There is no way, and I mean NO WAY, any court would ever consider the assassination of a political rival as an official act of the president. Not to mention, the order would never be carried out by the military, period. Nor would the military leaders support a military coup to take over the government and turn the presidency into a dictatorship. That dissent is both despicable and shameful.
Harvard Law professor emeritus Laurence Tribe misrepresented the ruling as giving Trump “absolute immunity,” which it does not. Again, this is only immunity for official acts as president, not some rogue official who wants to take over the country like a dictator. He stated:
“I agree with Speaker Pelosi and Justice Sotomayor, this is a devastating blow to our system of government. In fact, probably the most eloquent and elaborate dissent, which I haven’t seen quoted in the press much.
“It’s that of Justice Brown Jackson who said that it is a five alarm fire for self-government under democracy and the reason is that the court was really flying the flag of the Constitution upside down.”
But some on the right were just as bad. Sadly, that started with Jonathan Turley, who I deeply respect, but he seemed to fall into the same trap as the left, claiming this was a huge win for Trump. This literally changed nothing in the Trump case, not a thing. Turley stated:
“Well, this is along the lines of what many of us anticipated — that the court did not go with absolute immunity on everything. But did say that there’s absolute immunity when it comes to court constitutional powers. We’re still going through the opinion to see if there’s any assistance on where that line is to be drawn. This case is going to have to go back to the district court, which is going to have to try to sort of thread this needle to determine what in the case would not fall under these protections.
“But this is obviously a win for President Trump in the sense that the special counsel was already arguing, as well as the lower court, that there was very little immunity here to be concerned with. The counsel for the government was assuring the court they didn’t have much to be concerned with here in terms of any changes in the status of the case. That’s clearly not what won the day. The court is saying we do need lines here drawn to protect presidents so they have some breathing room.”
If you can believe it, the only reasonable person in all of this was former Attorney General William Barr, who called all of these reports “horror stories.” Barr stated:
“The worst example I think, the one that makes no sense whatsoever, is the idea he can use SEAL Team 6 to kill a political opponent. The president has the authority to defend the country against foreign enemies, armed conflict and so forth.
“He has the authority to direct the justice system against criminals at home. He doesn’t have authority to go and assassinate people. So, whether he uses the SEAL team or a private hit man, it doesn’t matter; it doesn’t make it a carrying out of his authority. So, all these horror stories really are false.”
As I had stated in previous reports, and Barr agreed, the case now goes back to the lower courts to analyze the alleged crimes by Trump, then the case can go back to the Supreme Court for a better ruling, where, as Chief Justice Roberts and Barr stated, the court can write a “timeless opinion” that will cover all situations in the future “that will be good for the country over the long haul.”
Again, and to be clear, this was NOT a win for Trump, and anyone who says so is misinterpreting this decision. Trump has already filed to have the New York fraud case verdict overturned based on this ruling, and he will lose that motion because this ruling clearly has nothing to do with what Trump the candidate and private citizen did. I still believe Trump will win that case on appeal, but this ruling DOES NOT HELP him in that case.
The only way Trump would benefit from this ruling is if the lower courts decided that the Stop the Steal rally was the act of a president protecting election integrity. I can guarantee that no court will see it that way. It was a campaign rally, plain and simple. And I know many of you will not like what you just read, but my job here is to tell you the facts, not cater to what people want to hear. Right now, Bill Barr is the only one who got this right.
