At a crucial crossroads for American democracy, the Supreme Court slow walks Trump’s immunity issue

With the Supreme Court granting certiorari to Donald Trump on his immunity claims regarding the January 6th trial in Washington, we have reached a historic moment. The high court will now review the lower court ruling that a former president isn’t immune from prosecution for crimes he committed in office. but not until April. If the court agrees with Trumphim, it could lead America down a dark road.

Yes, broadly exposing the president to lawsuits or prosecutions for the thousands of judgment calls a president makes in the line of duty would cripple the presidency. But no one prosecuting Trump claims presidents should be broadly exposed to liability for their official decisions. Instead, the issue is framed by the Supreme Court’s 1982 decision in Nixon v. Fitzgerald. It held that the president is immune from damages liability “for acts within ‘the outer perimeter’ of his official responsibility.” The court has never extended that limitation to the president’s responsibility for a crime. Moreover, the court has never suggested that a president who commits a crime unconnected to his official duties enjoys any immunity at all.

  • TankovayaDiviziya@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    I can’t fucking believe this is still even a debate.

    I might be reading into it too much, but I think even if the Supreme Court did the right thing and prosecute Donald Trump, the first spark has been struck towards the burning fascist fire in America. The AskHistorians podcast drew plenty of similarities and parallel between the prelude to fall of the Roman Republic and the rise of Trump and January 6 insurrection. There were many times when the Roman Republic was under threat even before Julius Caesar came into scene but had been mitigated. However, corruption by the elites had been getting worse and populist anger had been piling up until it could not be contained anymore and thus the decline of Roman Republic was inevitable. This seems to be the case with USA at the moment. Trump is a buffoon and could be prosecuted. But someday, someone more intelligent than him could erode American democracy for good. Trump only set the precedence and spark, and a calculating demagogue could learn from Trump’s mistakes…