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The Unity Democratic Club condemns the United States Supreme Court’s shocking decision in Trump v. United States, which held that a former President is entitled to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for acts relating to his “core constitutional powers,” as well as presumptive immunity for all of his “official acts.”


The Court’s majority argues that this cloak of immunity is necessary to “safeguard the independence and effective functioning of the Executive Branch and to enable the President to carry out his constitutional duties without undue caution.” Unfortunately, in its eagerness to protect the Presidency from the non-existent threat of politically motivated prosecution (there has not been such a prosecution in our 235 years under the Constitution), the Court obliterates the bedrock constitutional principle that no man is above the law.


This unprecedented expansion of executive power is wholly inconsistent with the fundamental principle of the separation of powers that has served our nation so well. Instead, this Supreme Court wants a king.


The ramifications of this decision go far beyond the possibility that Donald Trump will avoid accountability for his actions on January 6, 2021.

As Justice Sotomayor warns in her dissent,

 

“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.”
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