The American Supreme Court’s protection of former President Donald Trump from criminal prosecution will undermine the rule of law and enable abuse of power in the United States of America (USA).
Legal experts hold this opinion after the top court with a majority vote yesterday ruled the former president has immunity from criminal action against his acts done during his time of presidency. The verdict on one hand gives new momentum to Trump’s desires for re-election and the other has diminished Biden’s hopes.
Trump in response to the apex court’s verdict said, “BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!” “The decision should end all of Crooked Joe Biden’s Witch Hunts against me.” President Joe Boden said, a “dangerous precedent” and doing a “terrible disservice” to the nation by making it “highly unlikely” that Trump would face another trial before polling day. “Now, the American people will have to do what the court should have been willing to do, but will not,” he added.
The Supreme Court’s ruling on the scope of presidential immunity will “transform” the US government, experts say, warning that the decision may undermine the rule of law in the country. This ruling may interrupt two of Trump’s criminal cases outside the presidential elections in November, as a lower court will first hear arguments over what constitutes an official action. After its instant effect, this decision will have a “remarkable” impact on presidential powers, said David Super, a law professor at Georgetown University.
Super said adding “Here, the court says the president is still subject to the law, but they’ve made that much, much narrower than it ever was before. These are certainly the kinds of powers that are much more familiar to dictators than they are to presidents of democratic countries.” The top court’s six justices stamped the ruling, while three opposed it. The approvers observed, “Unless official actions were shielded from legal repercussions, a president could face retribution from political opponents upon leaving office.” Chief Justice John Roberts explained there are limits to this immunity. “The President enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official,” he noted.
The Supreme Court gave specific examples of where Trump’s behavior in the election subversion case constituted official actions. For example, the court ruled that conversations between Trump and Justice Department officials are “absolutely immune” from prosecution. Meanwhile, the Federal prosecutors hold this opinion that Trump tried to inadequately impact the Justice Department to reverse his 2020 election loss. Trump, the prosecutors said, also used “the power and authority of the Justice Department to conduct sham election crime investigations”. Experts fear the Court may have endangered the independence of the Justice Department. Claire Finkelstein, a professor of law and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania said, “Real import of this decision is that it may allow future presidents to act with impunity. The long-term significance of this ruling should not be underestimated,” he said. “What it says is that, if Donald Trump becomes president again, he can use his official capacity to subvert the law, to shield himself from criminal liability, to distort justice in ways that favor himself,” he said.
Matt Dallek, a political historian and professor at George Washington University said the court’s decision is “appalling.” “The ruling is an assault on the constitutional limits to guard against abuses of power,” he said. Chris Edelson, assistant professor of government at the American University, said “In modern history, US presidents have exercised power without “meaningful” restrictions. “What’s different now is the court has now endorsed that, and we have a candidate for president who has made clear he will seek to rule as a dictator.” He also called the court’s verdict “radical.” “When Richard Nixon famously said in a 1977 TV interview that, when the president does something, that means it’s not illegal, this was seen as a breathtaking statement,” he said. “The court today has said that Nixon was actually right.”
It is important to note that the US Supreme Court is dominated by conservative justices, including three appointed by Trump. The former president is facing four sets of criminal charges, including two related to election subversion. Earlier this year, he was convicted in New York on charges of falsifying business documents to cover up hush-money payments made to a porn star ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
He is not the first president given this presidential immunity. In a case against former president Richard Nixon, the Court found that presidents were immune from civil damages as well. Several officials in the Ronald Reagan administration were also indicted in the Iran-Contra affair, which saw the US illegally sell weapons to Iran to fund a rebel group in Nicaragua. But Reagan, who denied knowledge of the complex transactions, never faced charges. More recently, Barack Obama’s administration refused to hunt legal charges against executive branch officials who authorized torture during George W Bush was in presidency.
The former president enjoys a narrow edge of about 1.4 points in opinion polls, according to the latest FiveThirtyEight average, despite his earlier felony conviction by a New York court. Trump also exceeds Biden in swing state voters that will decide November’s election, the poll results have revealed. The Biden campaign on Monday circulated its own internal polling note showing Trump a two-point lead in key states over the president.
Republican operatives insist that the impact of the Court’s immunity ruling still paled in comparison to the boost for Trump from Biden’s debate disaster. Bryan Lanza, a managing director at Mercury Public Affairs who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and his White House transition team, said the “Nothing will be a boon to Donald Trump’s campaign like Joe Biden’s debate performance last Thursday.
The court’s verdict nearly guarantees Trump will not face trial before the presidential election in November. “The calculation is not scary, but I think prevents any trial” before November,” Daniel Richman, a professor at Columbia Law School said. The Court’s ruling came after a presidential debate on Thursday that was widely seen as a tragedy for Biden, triggering chaos in his party and calls for him to step out of the contest. “Thursday, Friday and Monday have been the best of the Trump campaign,” said Republican party operative Ford O’Connell. “Thursday night was a political tremor. It has just given Trump more momentum.” Six months ago, Democrats, and some Republicans believed legal issues facing Trump would compromise him in the eyes of American and destroy his ability to affectively campaign.
(By Rana Kashif)
