Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor said on Saturday that she hopes the court’s decision granting former presidents broad criminal immunity will be overturned, saying her colleagues have done some “crazy things.”
Appearing for a civics education talk at George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate, the liberal justice also publicly commented for the first time on this week’s midterm contests, when Democrats swept control of both chambers of Congress.
The justice specifically singled out the court’s 6-3 decision along ideological lines that former presidents enjoy at least presumptive immunity for their official acts. At the time, the justice wrote that it made Trump and his successors a “king above the law.”
Impeach Clarence Thomas for his acceptance of bribes and gifts from Harlin Crow. As per: https://factually.co/fact-checks/justice/clarence-thomas-accepted-bribes-allegations-explained-2db13c
“…the question of whether gifts rose to bribery under federal law remains contested and legally unresolved in the public record”
Impeach him, but don’t sit a new one because it’s too close to the election
just the words ‘presidential immunity’ seem so unpatriotic and not american.
Blame the SCOTUS for turning an unofficial Justice Department Policy into a Constitutional Principle. The Justice Department is run by the President, after all. What guarantee do we have that any investigation would be fair?
The President’s bogus lawsuit against the IRS awarding him eleventy billion dollars and “settling” for a ban on auditing his finances is a perfect example. A judge threw that out, legitimately, because when the President sues an agency he is in charge of, there are no adverse parties, and any “settlement” is a sham. (That whole affair would be an impeachable offense if someone with a blue tie tried that.)
That wasn’t a criminal prosecution, but imagine if Todd Blanche tomorrow announced that he had “investigated” Trump’s crypto grift and found that it was entirely above board, nothing to see there, and we should all just stop talking about it. Would we believe him?
The policy of the DoJ not investigating the President was meant to protect the integrity of the DoJ, not the President.
It was always envisioned that a truly corrupt President could be investigated after the fact, by a DoJ that doesn’t report to him. I have no clue why the SCOTUS saw something stricter in the penumbra of the Constitution.
I’ve always wondered - why on earth is the Justice Dept. under the President? Like, I get that he’s supposed to Execute the legislative and Judicial decisions and laws. But there needs to be some serious tweaks to the powers of the president, regardless. I’d be in favor of getting rid of the position entirely. But that’s never going to happen.
I been a proponent of moving the US Marshall Service under the Judicial. Give them an enforcement mechanism that isn’t reliant on the Executive cooperating. Because they clearly aren’t following court orders currently.
That’s interesting. I like that, actually.
Three branches of government is too few
Are there examples of systems with more?
If a newly-elected Democratic president Officially Acted on some top Republicans and Justices first, then I imagine there would be an appetite for a legislative fix to the original misruling.
Can’t we like, just make it a law now? Supreme Court doesn’t make laws they are just supposed to enforce them.
The executive branch enforces laws, the judicial branch interprets them.
Do nine men interpret? Nine men, I nod.
No, sir, away! A papaya war is on!
The current conservative controlled court would strike it down as unconstitutional, probably on a shadow docket so they wouldn’t have to write up why.
Trump and/or 6 or so Senate Republicans would need to get on board to make this a law
Well on top of MAGA fatigue, I could see 6 Republicans voting for that under the premise that it’s “to ensure that we can prosecute any future democratic president for things like Hunter Biden’s laptop and yada yada yada”. It doesn’t need to make sense it just has to be framed as against democrats.
they can get the votes by showing six senators evidence of their crimes, and extorting them into choosing between voting and prison. I would prefer they go to prison, but IMHO correcting the serious harm this much presidential power causes is a worthwhile tradeoff.
Alternatively, the next dem president walks into the Senate with a shotgun and tests that immunity ruling.
I would love to see this happen but have little hope. I think Trump’s base support would have to completely crater for that many senators to cross him
