The Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday clearly stated that the president has immunity for official acts only. After the hearing, the usual media suspects on the left erupted into hysterics.
MSNBC’s “legal analysts” as well as CNN’s Jake Tapper seemed to be fixated on an idea that was pushed by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in her dissent, that a President could now be immune from prosecution for ordering a SEAL Team 6 hit on a rival political figure, because, in Sotomayor’s opinion, that would theoretically be considered “official” act of a president.
The squad leader Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY, was so angry that she announced that she would be soon filing articles of impeachment. She declared that “it is up to Congress to defend our nation against this authoritarian captivity.”
Sotomayor’s dissent received a lot of airtime. Some treated it as gospel truth, while others described it only half-jokingly as an audition to join MSNBC. Here are some 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.”
She added, “Even if the nightmare scenarios don’t come to pass, which I hope they do not, the damage will have been done.” “The relationship between President Obama and the people he serves is irrevocably changed.” The President has become a king over the law in every way he exercises his official powers.
Bill Barr, the U.S. attorney general for two years during Trump’s presidency, said this in response to a Fox News interview on Monday:
“The worst, and the only example I can think of, is his idea to use SEAL Team 6, to kill an opponent. It makes no sense at all.” Barr told Fox News that the president is authorized to defend the nation against foreign enemies and armed conflicts.
He has the authority to direct the justice system to deal with criminals in the country. “He doesn’t have the authority to assassinate anyone,” he said. “So whether he used the SEAL team, or a hit man on a contract, it does not matter. It doesn’t mean that he was acting in his authority. All these horror stories are fake.
Watch:
WATCH: Former Attorney General Bill Barr rips apart liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissent in Trump v. United States:
“The worst example I think, the one that makes no sense whatsoever, is the idea he can use SEAL Team Six to kill a political opponent. The president has the… pic.twitter.com/gv2qY7LTiH
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) July 1, 2024
I don’t know if I am a lawyer or if I stayed at a Holiday Inn Express, but I do know that ordering an assassination on a political rival would not be considered an “official act.” It’s a good thing.
Click here to read the complete ruling.
