Originally published at: Supreme Court Gives Trump Immunity For Official Acts, Threatening Jan. 6 Prosecution - TPM – Talking Points Memo
In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court Monday ruled that presidents get “presumptive immunity” for official acts they took as president. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, added that “there is no immunity for unofficial acts.” The three liberal justices dissented. Justice Amy Coney Barrett only joined the majority in part, and also…
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Un-fucking-real…
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Just exactly what was the official act on January 6? Not sending the national guard?
By the way this decision is utterly unAmerican. It is precisely what we fought a revolution to stop.
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Conservative court RULES “thou shalt not touch a Republican”.
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Define “official act.”
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OK/Fine!
Then I hope Biden sends the 82nd to smoke tRump out of wherever he is right now and drop him off in Gitmo
Becuz immunity!
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No ruling on what’s official/unofficial, that bit got kicked back down for the judge to rule on.
Definitely makes for more delays, but there wasn’t any call here in what’s coming through on insta-analysis (so, subject to change once people have gone through the whole of it) that says that anything he did around J6 was “official”.
This coulda been a lot worse.
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Does President Biden get the same presumption?
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Yep
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The corrupted court has coronated King Trump.
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That is the problem. Official act can be just about anything.
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I think I see how this con is gonna work. SCOTUS sends it back to Judge Chutkan to rule on whether Trump’s indictments are for “official acts.” Judge Chutkan say, “Motherf–er, you can’t ‘officially’ overthrow the godamn govt, what the f–k is wrong with you.” Trump’s lawyers appeal her ruling to SCOTUS…
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He should but he won’t. Only Republicans can be king.
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I presume DC lets through some charges, trump appeals SC stays the case b/c Trump is president.
Fun times ahead
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Hasn’t this been the standard anyway? Not spelled out, but what was the operative rule. (Obama killed OBL from the Oval and nobody batted an eye)
Jack Smith can assert and Judge Chutkan can find that none of the J6 activities of Trump, and his role in the fake electors scheme, are within the scope of official duties. It is Trump the candidate trying to overthrow an election.
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Scotus agrees to hear it… in 2029
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“It is good to be king”.
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Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein all did stuff officially. I thought our United States was better than that. Clearly, the Congress does not operate as an impartial juror. So where are the brakes???
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There now has to be a hearing (that should be as public as possible) that goes over each and every one of Trump’s “acts” leading up to and on January 6 to determine which of these were official or not. That should at least remind people of what exactly he did.
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I would argue that Presidents should get presumptive immunity for official acts* and that, moreover, this presumptive immunity does not help trump one bit. There was nothing “official” about what trump did on January 6. You know it, I know it, the SupCt justices know it, and Judge Chutkan knows it. Shit, even trump knows it.
*An example of an “official act” might be bombing a foreign adversary without express authorization of Congress. The President has emergency powers and powers under the War Powers Act and Presidents should not have to worry about being prosecuted for such action. If it is “unofficial” and without justification (say, for example, the attack is motivated by personal animus or it’s a first strike without provocation), the SupCt’s decision allows for a President to be prosecuted in that case.
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