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Is the President Now Above the Law?
SCOTUS ruled the president has near-absolute immunity.
On July 1st, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that the president is immune from criminal prosecution for official actions. While this may seem to make sense or be innocuous on the surface, detractors have said the ruling is vague and allows presidents to operate above the law.
Justice Sotomayor said that a president could order Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival or use the military to stage a coup without consequences. In her dissent, she said “The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”
Justice Jackson added that it is now possible for the president to poison the Attorney General. She explained that if an action is deemed official, then the president might be “exempt from legal liability for murder, assault, theft, fraud, or any other reprehensible and outlawed criminal action.”
Are Sotomayor and Jackson correct? Does this SCOTUS decision protect the president to the point that he is above the law?
Quite possibly, but it’s complicated.
