In the aftermath of Monday’s Supreme Court presidential immunity ruling, the Usual Suspects on the left and in the media (but I repeat myself) launched into full-blown hysterics even though the ruling clearly noted that a president had immunity with regard to official acts but not unofficial ones.
MSNBC “legal analysts” and CNN’s Jake Tapper, for instance, seemed fixated on the idea – pushed by Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor in her dissent – that a president now could be immune from prosecution if he ordered a hit on a political rival using SEAL Team 6, because in Sotomayor’s view that theoretically would be considered an “official act” of a president.
Squad leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) was so incensed that she announced she would soon be filing articles of impeachment, declaring that “It is up to Congress to defend our nation from this authoritarian capture.”
READ MORE: AOC’s Reaction to Presidential Immunity Ruling Shows Just How Constitutionally Ignorant She Is
Sotomayor’s dissent has gotten a lot of airtime, with some treating it as the gospel truth while others have only half-jokingly described it as an audition for an MSNBC gig. Here are the money quotes:
“When [a president] uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution,” she writes. “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.”
[…]
“Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done,” she added. “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.”
Bill Barr, who was the U.S. Attorney General for two years under Trump, had this to say in response during a Fox News appearance Monday:
“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,” Barr said Monday on Fox News.
[…]
“He has the authority to direct the justice system against criminals at home. He doesn’t have authority to go and assassinate people,” he added. “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.”
I mean, I’m not a lawyer nor did I stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night, but I am smart enough to know that ordering a hit on a political opponent would not be considered an “official act.” Good grief.
To read the full ruling, click here.
