CLAIM: Extremist elements of the left have essentially argued that the president can now order the assassination of Americans and political opponents following the Supreme Court’s ruling on Monday.
VERDICT: False. The Supreme Court’s ruling does not grant the president authority to commit crimes, with precedent going back to former President Barack Obama.
As Breitbart News reported, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of “former President Donald Trump on Monday, holding in a 6-3 decision that presidents are covered by limited immunity from criminal prosecutions for actions taken while in office.”
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion for the conservative wing of the court, which said that “under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power entitles a former President to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority.”
“And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts,” it added.
Under that framework, members of the hard left have charged that the Supreme Court essentially ruled the president has carte blanche authority to kill whomever he wants while in office so long as it falls under “official” duties. Writing for The Nation, Elie Mystal reasoned that a “president can go on a four-to-eight year crime spree and then retire from public life, never to be held accountable”:
Presidents can murder, rape, steal, and pretty much do whatever they want, so long as they argue that murdering, raping, or stealing is part of the official job of the president of the United States. There is no crime that pierces the veil of absolute immunity.
And there is essentially nothing we can do to change it. The courts created qualified immunity for public officials, but it can be undone by state or federal legislatures if they pass a law removing that protection. Not so with absolute presidential immunity. The court here says that absolute immunity is required by the separation of powers inherent in the Constitution, meaning that Congress cannot take it away. Congress, according to the Supreme Court, does not have the power to pass legislation saying “the president can be prosecuted for crimes.” Impeachment, and only impeachment, is the only way to punish presidents, and, somewhat obviously, impeachment does nothing to a president who is already no longer in office.
Mike Berry, executive director for America First Policy Institute’s (AFPI) Center for Litigation, told Breitbart News that none of these arguments hold water, citing a precedent set by former President Barack Obama:
Here is what Elie Mystal, Marc Elias, and Justice Sotomayor are either unaware of, or more likely ignoring. In 2011, the Obama Administration ordered the targeted killing of suspected terrorist Anwar al-Aulaqi, an American citizen living in Yemen. That same drone strike also killed two other U.S. citizens, including a 16-year-old boy who was not suspected of any crimes or hostile acts. The boy’s grandfather sued the Obama Administration, who argued in defense that its actions were entirely lawful because officials determined Anwar al-Aulaqi posed a grave threat to national security. Nobody so much as suggested that President Obama should be prosecuted for assassinating/murdering US citizens.
And I think we know what the immunity arguments would have been had he been charged.
To those who would say that the president can now order Seal Team 6 to execute a political rival, a question posed during oral arguments at the Supreme Court, Mike Berry noted in a brief that he co-authored a president could not order military personnel to commit murder.
“A President of the United States enjoys broad authority to direct the military with very few limitations. But one such limitation is that the President’s orders may not contravene the Constitution or the laws of the United States. Accordingly, the President has no authority to order the military to assassinate a political rival,” said the brief. “Furthermore, the military is required not to carry out such an unlawful, non-military order, if given. Indeed, any military officer who carried out or issued such an order would be committing the gravest of crimes — murder.”
“Whether or not a President has the immunity claimed by Petitioner in this case—a question amici do not address in this brief—a President cannot order the military to assassinate a political rival and have that order carried out,” it added.
The case is Trump v. United States, No. 23-939 in the Supreme Court of the United States.
Paul Roland Bois directed the award-winning Christian tech thriller, EXEMPLUM, which has a 100% Rotten Tomatoes critic rating and can be viewed for FREE on YouTube or Tubi. “Better than Killers of the Flower Moon,” wrote Mark Judge. “You haven’t seen a story like this before,” wrote Christian Toto. A high-quality, ad-free rental can also be streamed on Google Play, Vimeo on Demand, or YouTube Movies. Follow him on X @prolandfilms or Instagram @prolandfilms.