832
submitted 3 days ago by btaf45@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world
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[-] suction@lemmy.world 15 points 2 days ago

So...couldn't now Biden have Trump killed or maybe just his brain fried and get away with it?

[-] inclementimmigrant@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago

Democrats don't have the f'ing stones to do anything with this ruling.

They'll just yell "High Ground" and expect idiot Americans to give them the win.

[-] Glytch@lemmy.world 17 points 2 days ago

If he uses government resources for it, yes.

[-] suction@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

Well what is he waiting for?

[-] Tilgare@lemmy.world 13 points 2 days ago

“I know I will respect the limits of the presidential powers I’ve had for three-and-a-half years, but any president – including Donald Trump – will now be free to ignore the law,” Biden said.

Source: CNN

[-] suction@lemmy.world 6 points 1 day ago

Imagine how fun it would be though if he gave the order anyway

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[-] zfr 4 points 1 day ago

bidens too weak for that

[-] cjk@discuss.tchncs.de 29 points 2 days ago

Considering that an ex-president who invaded a country under a proven false pretext and in violation of international law and has a million Iraqi civilians on his conscience is still painting his little pictures in Texas, perhaps the Supreme Court decision is not as big a break as some seem to think?

[-] ealoe@ani.social 22 points 2 days ago

One could at least argue that the Iraq invasion was within what was generally understood to be the role of the president at the time, specifically leading the military as its commander in chief. No one expected throwing a coup to be within the normal role of the president, but apparently that's also covered according to this decision.

[-] roguetrick@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

Would've been covered even under qualified immunity. Absolute immunity allows you to break laws you know you're breaking.

[-] EatATaco@lemm.ee 136 points 3 days ago

People are getting this all wrong.

They haven't crowned the POTUS as king. They were very clear that non-official acts are not covered. They've crowned themselves, the ones who get to determine what is and what is not an "official act" the kings.

[-] massacre@lemmy.world 93 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Did you read the fucking dissent? That's a sitting SC Justice saying that quote, not some arm chair IANAL basement dweller:

“When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution. 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,” Sotomayor wrote.

If one of the dissenting justices thinks it likely, we better pay attention. The whole "They were very clear that non-official acts are not covered." is a pillar built on sinking sand - what defines non-official becomes subjective real fast. Biden could assassinate every conservative justice on SCOTUS and get his own in there to make it all legal. Threats of the same to any in congress who won't play ball.

And if someone can't imagine Biden doing it (I can't), I'm thinking that there are quite a few citizens who believe Trump abso-fucking-lutely would pull that shit. With a majority on SCOTUS already he could just start going after political rivals and keep SCOTUS themselves in check with threats of the same. If SCOTUS has done anything they've painted themselves in a corner and only Congress can unfuck us with impeachment (as unlikely as that seems!)

[-] Zaktor@sopuli.xyz 29 points 2 days ago

I read their point as being "because official acts are not defined and they're the ultimate deciders, the Court can provide or withhold this immunity at will". Turns out killing Republicans is not an official act and killing Democrats is.

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[-] beebarfbadger@lemmy.world 12 points 2 days ago

and only Congress can unfuck us with impeachment

Yeah, how's that been working out so far?

[-] massacre@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago

As well as one might imagine!

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[-] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 36 points 3 days ago

Strong incentive to not step down if you can just keep being a crook. Watch how quick the republicans start to argue over what is “official” and what isn’t depending on who is president.

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[-] Zachariah@lemmy.world 185 points 3 days ago

Can the current king please decree that we’re a democracy?

[-] xantoxis@lemmy.world 140 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

He can do that by officially assassinating the conservative SC justices, nominating new ones, and then having armed marines inside the senate comittees to ensure they are confirmed immediately.

There's probably a few more steps, but this would get us back on track. He would have to be willing to give up his powers at a certain point, which means installing the legal apparatus (in the form of government officials) with the will to strip those powers.

[-] Fester@lemm.ee 146 points 3 days ago

Justice: “Don’t kill me, it’s illegal!”

Assassin: “I’m on orders from the president.”

Justice: “Oh, well, go ahead then.”

[-] SkybreakerEngineer@lemmy.world 60 points 3 days ago

Ah yes, the classic play in which you acquire unchecked power, exercise it to get rid of all your political rivals, then somehow use it to restore democracy. Occurs once in an anime about giant robots and psychic powers, and never in history.

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[-] problematicPanther@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

What's most worrying is that this hasn't happened yet. Once Trump gets elected, it's all over, folks. Time to pack it in.

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[-] EnderMB@lemmy.world 32 points 2 days ago

Not American, so excuse the silly question.

What is stopping the President from dissolving the Supreme Court?

[-] banana_lama@lemm.ee 52 points 2 days ago

It's not within his powers to do so. But he could have the secret service assassinate them. Pardon the perpetrators and then assign whomever he wants the position with threats against the lives of the senate and congress as a whole for all who would vote against assigning this person. Elimate them and have the vote.

[-] meliaesc@lemmy.world 9 points 2 days ago

What are the chances of Biden doing what's necessary for the country?

[-] OneWomanCreamTeam@sh.itjust.works 21 points 2 days ago

None. If cared about "what's necessary for the country" he would've stepped aside for better candidates in 2020.

[-] Corkyskog@sh.itjust.works 16 points 2 days ago

He did... then the DNC said "we don't like these people, please run Mr. Biden, we beg you!"

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[-] phoneymouse@lemmy.world 56 points 2 days ago

The next official act of president Biden should be to drone strike a terrorist at Mar-a-Lago

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[-] Rapidcreek@lemmy.world 99 points 3 days ago

Here's your bumper sticker..

No Kings, Vote Biden

[-] foggy@lemmy.world 53 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Well to be fair, it'd be King Biden.

Just a far less scary king who might even work to unking himself.

Or something idk.

This shits scary.

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[-] Furedadmins@lemmy.world 64 points 3 days ago

Biden should just have the justices arrested as an official act.

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[-] cosmicrookie@lemmy.world 27 points 2 days ago

Kings and royalty are nowadays mostly entertainment. The king function is now called a dictator

[-] PersnickityPenguin@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago

Well the president is still limited in what powers he has, he just now has absolute immunity from legal repercussions to his actions and decisions.

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[-] UltraGiGaGigantic@lemm.ee 25 points 2 days ago

We are a nation of cowards and fools.

If you'll excuse me, I'm off to circus.

[-] AuroraZzz@lemmy.world 59 points 3 days ago

What's the point of impeachment if the president is immune to everything anyways? This ruling makes no sense

[-] Thrashy@lemmy.world 31 points 3 days ago

The argument, such as it is, is that impeachment is the remedy for a Mad King Trump situation, rather than the courts. In fairness, this is not a completely unreasonable reading of the Constitution, but the framers' intent is almost completely irrelevant to the reality of our current political system. As originally written, the federal government was basically designed to be a vaguely-representative oligarchy, with states free to appoint senators and presidential electors however their legislatures saw fit -- the majority of states did not consistently hold a popular Presidential vote until the 1820s, for example. Impeachment by 2/3rds vote is not an unreasonable bar to set when it's assumed that everybody in government is going the part of the class and social structure, and the President acting as a class traitor would put all of Congress into uproar. The founders did not anticipate more direct democracy, the two-party system, or the vulnerability to demagoguery that those things would introduce into the system.

So here we are now, with a nakedly partisan Supreme Court majority holding that the only way to interpret the law is to ignore the world as it is and instead imagine things are still as they were at the end of the 18th century (mostly because that philosophy plays into the hands of the right wing) and pretending that a 2/3rds vote in the Senate is still a reasonable bar, when in fact the present political reality is that you will never peel 12+ sycophantic Senators away from a dangerous demagogue's camp for long enough for an impeachment process to succeed in removing him from power. Of course that's by design, but textualism and originalism paved the road to this ruling.

At this point I'm not even ironically suggesting that Biden should call their bluff and start offing prominent right wingers. The Roberts court is clearly working in the assumption that Democrats won't play dirty with the tools they're laying out for their incipient god-king, and it's looking increasingly like the only way to keep those tools out of their hands is to strike first.

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[-] homesweethomeMrL@lemmy.world 66 points 3 days ago

Well we’d better not miss then

[-] Th4tGuyII@fedia.io 63 points 3 days ago

Not that I would ever suggest it, but I bet the moment a president even attempted to abuse this official power against these six conservative traitors to democracy, they'd desperately try to walk this decision back - they only care for the potential of abuse when it negatively affects them

[-] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 50 points 3 days ago

They wouldn’t even need to actually abuse power at all.

Just order the secret service to take over their personal security details, and attach members of the seal teams to each detail…. “As advisors”.

It would be an implicit threat, sure, but also, a totally legal one, and they could hardly argue that “ensuring their safety and wellbeing” is not an official act,

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[-] Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world 57 points 3 days ago

SCOTUS has been trying to hump democracy to death since 2001. The fuckers have just about finally managed it, and we're all screwed.

[-] BoringHusband@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Trump, if he gets in again, can no longer do anything to Biden since he just gave the President absolute immunity.

[-] vga@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Biden's security after his presidency is probably not in the top #1000000 of the problems if Trump becomes a president.

What I don't get is what would stop Biden from ordering the assassinations of Trump and 1000 of his closest supporters if this gives total presidential immunity?

[-] hypnoton@discuss.online 6 points 1 day ago

That immunity is for every president including Trump. Hell yes Trump can assassinate Bidens and be immune from prosecution.

If it was immunity for Biden alone, then and only then would Biden be safe.

[-] GiddyGap@lemm.ee 37 points 3 days ago

I hope Biden will take this opportunity as the new king and show Republicans that this is a two-way street.

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this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2024
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