• Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Who says he can’t? The Supreme Court just said that he’s immune from “official acts” without even defining what that would mean. Who determines what is and isn’t an official act? The President? The Supreme Court? Right now, as this ruling is worded, all bets are off. There’s nothing stopping a sitting President from just arbitrarily declaring someone as a threat to national security and having them picked off by ST6 as an “official act to prevent a terrorist attack against the United States”, then just having the details classified.

      Having something criminal declared as an “official act” is piss-easy, especially when you’re in charge of the branch making the decision and you have one of the other branches in your back pocket, possibly both.

    • blazera@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Trumps own legal team has described political assassinations as qualifying as an official act as president

        • blazera@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          It is! in the dissenting opinion in which Sotomayor explicitly describes this ruling as granting immunity for political assassinations

    • Butt Pirate@reddthat.com
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      5 months ago

      There’s some hyperbole in these threads for sure, but not a lot. The president can’t handwave away the bill of rights, because nothing in the constitution gives them that power.

      However, the president does have the authority as commander in chief of authorizing lethal force against individuals. If Biden authorized Seal Team 6 to execute Trump, that is in fact an official act that he has the authority to perform. Sure maybe it is technically not legal, but that doesn’t matter since the president has complete immunity from criminal law. The house could still draft articles of impeachment but the senate would be unable to remove the president because the president is immune to criminal proceedings.

      And if Trump wants to create an organization to round up and execute all the gays (and the Jews, of course), he has the power to do that; and with today’s ruling, he will never face consequences for doing so.

      Irreparable damage has been done to American democracy today.

        • potpotato@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          “Congress may not criminalize the president’s conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the executive branch under the Constitution” makes pretty much anything fair fucking game.

    • Riccosuave@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      The president can’t commit criminal acts and claim it was an official capacity, lol.

      What the fuck do you mean “lol”. That is PRECISELY what this ruling does. It removes criminal liability for anything that is done as an official act, which is entirely fucking subjective, and up to the interpretation of a corrupt, coopted judiciary. Get the fuck out of here with that bullshit.

        • Riccosuave@lemmy.world
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          5 months ago

          The stupidity of this statement truly strains belief given the actual verbiage in this ruling. May you suffer the full weight and consequences of that stupidity.

        • bamboo@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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          5 months ago

          A person of power cannot commit a crime and claim it was in official capacity, because the act itself is against the law and cannot be committed without consequence.

          This whole ruling is because of a person in power (Trump) who committed a crime (fake electors plot to overturn the 2020 election) and is claiming it as an official capacity of the office. That’s the whole point of the case which was appealed to the Supreme Court.

          So what consequence will Trump face for his crimes now based on this ruling?

    • djsoren19@yiffit.net
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      5 months ago

      You can organize a coup to overthrow the government and claim it’s an official act, there’s absolutely nothing stopping a president from claiming assassinations are an official act now. Hell, the commander in chief already organizes assassinations on foreign targets.

      The Democrats might not abuse this, but the Republicans will, and they have given themselves carte blanche to start killing political dissidents.

    • noride@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      But he can commit official acts that happen to be criminal. Semantics are fun!

    • Rakonat@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      Supreme court literally just said he could by saying Jan 6 was fine for President to incite

    • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      If they are traitors and terrorists, he may have to send them to Guantanamo.

    • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      While i agree with you, it’s a huge grey area. Like Biden could have trump assassinated and then claim that his constitutional duties require him to protect the cotus from enemies both foreign and domestic.

      Official act or not?

        • EatATaco@lemm.ee
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          5 months ago

          Please cite where in the ruling it says charges would be brought against him.

          • Mirshe@lemmy.world
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            5 months ago

            In fact, it would have to be the DoJ or Congress that did so - Biden could order the DoJ to stop, and arguably could have anyone in Congress killed or jailed without trial by stating that they presented a clear danger to democracy by trying to impeach him.