On the first of July, 2024, the Supreme Court ruled that President Donald J. Trump was immune to multiple charges of interfering with elections, manipulation, and corruption. This was not a decision of whether he was guilty of such actions, they ruled he was immune. This is because he was the President of the United States at the time. In short, they decided that presidential immunity existed, and its coverage was immensely broad. For those of you who have read the Constitution of the United States, you might notice that presidential immunity is not mentioned. This was a decision that was not founded on the Constitution.
This is an article about that. The Judicial Branch made a completely constitutionally unfounded decision, and not one branch has the power to fight over it. In large part both their ability to do so and the lack of recourse present in other branches I believe is due to the vagueness of their role in the Constitution. The Congress article has 10 different sections present, the Executive branch while smaller has 4, one of which is longer than the entire article covering the judicial branch which has 3.
This is a problem waiting to happen. Whether or not you believe former President Trump is irrelevant to the vastness of this current issue. Whether you believe him to be a fascist psychotic pig or a great American hero, the issue lies in the fact he can’t be tried for those issues. The Judicial branch, as it sits, has essentially declared a new constitutional law. That is the issue, Checkov’s gun has been fired.
This isn’t a case of our Founding Fathers just not thinking about immunity either, in section 6 of Article 1, congress is given express (though limited) immunity while in office. The president is offered no immunity. For such a hotly debated document at the time, its highly improbable that they just forgot to add a feature for one person but remembered for others.
First issue with this is that with the ability to add new rules to the entire government unchecked is that the Supreme Justices are not voted by the people into their position. If that isn’t sorted, we have a functioning oligarchy of nine. Nine who can add rules that all the other branches must follow. Moreover, they’re in their positions for life. While impeachment is possible, it takes place after the fact. It’s not a preventative measure, its damage control. That normally wouldn’t be a problem, but it is when they’re making rules.
This leads to more issues besides the oligarchy as it stands. Whenever a Supreme Justice steps down then a lot more is at stake than just future decisions being slightly poised towards one political side. It’s a potential rewrite of every and any previous law and established foundations of the government. In short, instead of finding logical and reasonable people to fill the Judicial branch, it promotes an arms race to fill new justices with people who will help you politically.
All of this is beacuse the judicial branch is able to act like rule makers, not just rule interpreters. When rules are allowed to be interpreted so vaguely new additions can be added, you’ve just made more lawmen. The solution lies in calling people out for unlawful behavior, enforcing those laws, and being vigilant about them being followed.
While there is very little one or two people can do, we are far from hopeless. Keep it in your local representative’s conscience, address your concerns to them, and let them know that unlawful behavior isn’t being swept under the rug. Vote for honest and good people for your representatives, and don’t let their misactions be swept under the rug due to similarities in beliefs. Lies are easy, living right isn’t. If we do, we can make the world a much better place.
