• Johnmannesca@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    All this murder crap is lame; why has nobody been parroting how the president can do other crimes, like tax fraud or lie under oath or buying drugs or literally anything but murder?

    • JesusSon@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Because the point is to scare you. “Breaking news president buys crack” is not as scary as “Breaking news president axe murders cabinet.”

      The ruling is not good, but it’s not Seal Team Six executes its political rival bad. It’s more likely to be President sells nuke secrets to Saudi Arabia under the new official “I Get to Sell Nuclear Secrets to Saudi Arabia Act” he just made up right now.

    • olutukko@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      literal killing if human beings is lame? we already know to white collar criminals are doing tax fraud and use drugs. old news.

    • stinerman@midwest.social
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      10 months ago

      The President can fire employees that refuse to have sex with him. Firing executive branch employees is well within the President’s power. If they don’t submit to him, he can fire them. Official act.

  • Jyek@sh.itjust.works
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    10 months ago

    The president can also now legally dissolve the Supreme Court and instate a new supreme Court who can then make the decision if it was an official act or not.

  • billbasher@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I heard a good argument that while these justices are appointed for life to be judges, it doesn’t specify which branch. Reappointment them to a lower court and appoint new justices. They voted for this let them reap the consequences. Outline enforceable ethics standards.

    • PorradaVFR@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The rules of the Senate, as undermined by McConnell and inexplicably tolerated by Schumer ensure it won’t happen.

      That co-equal branches thing was nice while we had it.

      • Pringles@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Just dismiss the senators as official business. What still stands in the way of a total power grab by a US president?

        As long as it’s official business and they keep it official by officially removing all obstacles, they are legally perfectly in the clear. IANAL obviously, but total power seems just a matter of being audacious enough to grab it now.

        • candybrie@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          The president can’t dismiss them. That’s adding executive power. They took away criminal liability. He’d need to kill/kidnap/imprison them. And who knows if they’d rule that as an official act. They didn’t actually outline what counts and what doesn’t. So maybe for Biden that wouldn’t count and for Trump it would.

    • CrystalRainwater@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      10 months ago

      I think the more viable option is just packing the court but biden would have to get two Republicans to flip and all Democrats to agree. It’s embarrassing he didn’t do it when the Democrats had Senate in 2020

  • Resol van Lemmy@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Welcome back to another episode of “Where’s Humanity Going to Shit Next?”, where we tackle the depressing consequences of the actions of the human race to our beloved planet Earth. This episode we visit the US once again, where the president decides he now has the power to kill you himself if he feels like it.

    Join us next time to see where humanity is really gonna shit next.

  • anticolonialist@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    You would think that somebody that called themselves a journalist would actually have journalistic integrity. Nothing the ‘journalist’ claimed was in the SCOTUS ruling. SCOTUS ruled that the president has immunity for many of his presidential actions and none for personal actions such as going on a murder streak

    • Chozo@fedia.io
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      10 months ago

      SCOTUS ruled that the president has immunity for many of his presidential actions and none for personal actions such as going on a murder streak

      Right, that’s literally the point. All a malfeasant president would need to do is declare that assassinating political rivals is an official presidential action. If the president argues that it’s an official act of their office and not of their own personhood, there’s little room to hold them accountable for it.

      It may seem like an absolutely ridiculous argument, and that’s because it is. What constitutes an “official” presidential action was left intentionally un-defined by the court, so that such ridiculous arguments could be treated as legitimate if the immunity is challenged.

    • Ranvier@sopuli.xyz
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      10 months ago

      Under this ruling the president has absolute immunity for their use of any powers granted by the constitution, and that includes use of the military, pardon powers, and appointing and firing of executive department officials.

      The whole “official” vs “non official” acts things only comes into play for powers not explicitly granted by the constitution. And even then the president gets presumptive immunity.

      Go read the actual ruling and the dissents and stop spreading misinformation. The journalist and the headline is accurate.

      https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf

      • Akuden@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        That’s not true. Criminal acts are not protected, nor can they be made in an official capacity. Furthermore, the ruling says the court that determines official acts is the trails court. Not the supreme Court. Stop spreading misinformation.

        • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          What’s a criminal act when your highest court gives you a free pass? Laws mean nothing if they are not enforced.

          • Akuden@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            The highest court didn’t give any president a free pass. If the president is carrying out a function of the constitution there is immunity. For everything else they enjoy no immunity. Like for instance breaking a law.

            • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
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              10 months ago

              And the courts bought by Trump and Co. will see to it that every criminal behavior is considered official and constitutional. You are a bit blind if you see this having any positive effect. The president, and anyone else for that matter, should have zero immunity. Immunity only invites abuse. Just look at qualified immunity for a great example of how it is a failed idea.

                • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  True, but your defense of it does give the appearance that you at the least do not mind it. You don’t seem to find it problematic, and to others that itself is also problematic. Please feel free to contradict me if I’m wrong, but from what you’ve said so far you really, as I mentioned, do seem to not see the issues or repercussions this will have.

        • takeda@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          The ruling doesn’t even allow unrelated trials to use evidence that might be from official presidential business. Trump just requested his conviction in NY to be overburdened based on this ruling. So how it would not protect criminal acts when you can see in your own eyes this being used to get away from criminal acts. The other trials are also in jeopardy.

          As for the “decision made by trials court” that is insignificant as SCOTUS can override them.

          • Akuden@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            You cannot commit criminal acts in an official capacity, full stop. It is not possible. The moment your actions are criminal you are no longer upholding the oath you have taken and the action is not official. Obviously.

            • gramathy@lemmy.ml
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              10 months ago

              “When the president does it, it is not illegal”

              This has been a long time coming and the presumption is that he is allowed to until that is somehow challenged.

              • Akuden@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Again, incorrect. Stop reading headlines and making decisions. Read the ruling. You are spreading misinformation.

                • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  Direct from the decision (page 31):

                  If official conduct for which the President is immune may be scrutinized to help secure his conviction, even on charges that purport to be based only on his unofficial conduct, the “intended effect” of immunity would be defeated.

                • Warl0k3@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  Oo, nice try turning this around on them. But nah, man, you’re refusing to acknowledge the ruling itself explicitly telling you you’re wrong. You’re not arguing in good faith. Go away.

        • TaterTurnipTulip@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Please tell me what capacity any court has to enforce a ruling against a sitting President. I’ll wait.

          As that bastard Andrew Jackson once (allegedly) said “John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it.”

      • maegul (he/they)@lemmy.ml
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        10 months ago

        Quoting from Sotomayer’s dissent (pp 29-30, paragraphing my own):

        This new official-acts immunity now “lies about like a loaded weapon” for any President that wishes to place his own interests, his own political survival, or his own financial gain, above the interests of the Nation. Kore- matsu v. United States, 323 U. S. 214, 246 (1944) (Jackson, J., dissenting).

        The President of the United States is the most powerful person in the country, and possibly the world.

        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 as- sassinate a political rival? Immune.

        Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune.

        Takes a bribe in ex- change for a pardon?

        Immune. Immune, immune, immune.


        They go on with an incisive critique of the majority’s reasoning:

        Let the President violate the law, let him exploit the trap- pings of his office for personal gain, let him use his official power for evil ends. Because if he knew that he may one day face liability for breaking the law, he might not be as bold and fearless as we would like him to be. That is the majority’s message today.

        • Billiam@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Sotomayor is behind the times.

          They’re not “bribes” anymore, they’re “donations” now.

    • vzq@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      10 months ago

      I would take this at face value except for the fact that the president is the commander in chief of the largest, best equipped, most lethal, official killing organization in the planet.

      Killing is, and has always been, a possible official act.

    • Anamnesis@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      The only remedy the current court’s ruling really allows is impeachment. It essentially means that (absent a later ruling specifying exactly what counts as a President’s “official acts,”) the President can do literally anything he wants and never suffer any consequences. Don’t agree that what he was doing was an official act? Impeach him or stfu. He’s not going to jail for breaking any law, ever.

      • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Who’s going to impeach him? They will file the articles of impeachment then get waxed that night on their way home.

  • paddirn@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    I mean, I wouldn’t mind the current President exercising this power over their political rivals, in the election, the House, the Senate, the Supreme Court, purely as a defensive measure to protect America. It sets a shitty precedence, but do we really want He Who Shall Not Be Named to set the precedence first?

    • Llamalitmus@lemmy.ca
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      10 months ago

      “It sets a shitty precedence…” is a gross minimalization to attach to effectively making the US be a dictatorship. And saying you’re ok with a dictatorship because you happen to agree with the dictator is the kind of sentiment that cannot be left unchallenged/unexamined

  • hypnoton@discuss.online
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    10 months ago

    The pres can now assassinate a billionaire and take all their wealth for themselves as an official act, and be immune.

  • scripthook@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    any post saying that The President can assassinate anyone or any party opponent is nonsense. They won’t do it themselves and if they order it, considering it’s illegal the military won’t carry it out. We have safeguards in place. The left needs to simmer down.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        To do a “well, actually” I guess we didn’t really have an empire until well past the country’s founding. We were a mostly irrelevant backwater for some period of time.

        ETA: And as someone who freaking loves this country, I realize that saying a comment like the above is one that could probably get you into a fight two days from now, most especially, when all kinds of fetishistic performative military nonsense and uncritical screeds about this country are at peak ridiculousness (and I love July 4th in spite of these flaws). I consider myself a real patriot, but one that is unwilling to whitewash this country.

  • piecat@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Couldn’t Biden write an executive order that describes what is “official” vs “unofficial”?

  • TechNerdWizard42@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    The US has already extrajudicialy murdered a US citizen on purpose. The US under Obama sent a drone to murder a citizen without a trial.

    Precedent was publicly set then.

    The US 3 letter agencies have been doing this in secret for their entire time in power. But those are widely considered outside the law but necessary. Whatever that means.

    • CrystalRainwater@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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      10 months ago

      Agree but I feel like pointing that out is implying this somehow doesn’t make things worse which I feel like is missing the point. This removes the implicit threat of prosecution for anything the president does.

      Now no matter how much political will exists for the prosecution, the president is fully and unequivocally immune.

  • takeda@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    Sadly no. The way they turned it around was very clever.

    So they said that only official presidential business is immune, but were ambiguous what that actually means, so inevitably they made it so it would go through them to determine what is the official business.

    Second thing is that they picked up from their ass that Constitution also says that no official business can be used in any trial, even if it is unrelated. This not only jeopardizes all the indictments he had, it possibly will negate the New York trial.

    trump already submitted request to have it referred based on this SCOTUS ruling.

    This election might be the last free election we have. And even if trump loses it will still not be over.

    Please vote and make your friends and family vote. And not just for president but also for the Congress.

    • Jyek@sh.itjust.works
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      10 months ago

      So officially dissolve the Supreme Court and instate a new pack of judges and let those judges decide if it was an “Official Act” and thus totally legal.

      • ddh@lemmy.sdf.org
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        10 months ago

        Trump could kill anyone and they would determine that it was official business. On the other hand, Biden could have the Republican judges executed and replaced with sycophants who could rule that this also was an official act. It’s a bad ruling.

        • BrianTheeBiscuiteer@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          He can’t appoint justices without Senate approval. He only needs 50 Senators to approve though. The rest can be bombed for reasons that apparently don’t matter.

      • sik0fewl@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        Unless he signs an executive order. It doesn’t get much more official than that.

      • Jyek@sh.itjust.works
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        10 months ago

        The NY trial was unrelated to his presidential business anyways. It was about private property and fraud relating therein.

        • danc4498@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          But also, other states that have indicted him for Jan 6th activity are unaffected by this, regardless of how Trump could spin this.

    • everett@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      I also recommend everyone a book “On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons From the Twentieth Century”

      In case it makes a difference to someone, it’s a pretty short book.

    • jettrscga@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      How does one prove whether or not something is official business if official business can’t be used in any trial?

      • danc4498@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        The “unbiased” judge will define what is allowed in the trial or not. And the prosecutor can appeal that decision and hope the higher judge is not also bought and paid for by the criminal president.

        • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Until it eventually hits the Supreme Court and they decide what is and isn’t an official act based on what political party the President is affiliated with.

          • Lightor@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            I wonder how that would work if the act was against them. I mean he could assassinate the entire Supreme Court because of the war or drugs or whatever, and then who stops him?

    • Psychodelic@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Idk, one of the judges said this ruling made him a king. I’m going to take her word over your half-assed opinion. lol

      • takeda@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        For all intents and purposes does. Just SCOTUS made itself as a final check on what is an official act and what isn’t.