Justice Sonia Sotomayor, who wrote a stinging dissent that was joined by the other liberal justices, warned that a future president could order US forces to kill a rival and get away with it.
“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,” Sotomayor wrote. “Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”
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Chief Justice Roberts wrote that in some circumstances, presidents must know that they have immunity from criminal prosecution; otherwise, their ability to do their jobs could be affected.
Roberts continues that future judges also cannot find that a president’s action is unofficial “merely because it allegedly violates a generally applicable law.”
In taking its time to craft this ruling, justices have essentially handed Trump another victory for his delay tactics.
Conservative justices, including the Trump-appointed Neil Gorsuch, stressed that the case before them was of far more importance than just the facts of what the former president is accused of doing after the 2020 election.
“The most powerful person in the world with the greatest amount of authority could go into office knowing there would be no potential penalty for committing crimes,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said during oral arguments.
Democratic lawmakers had pressed Alito to step aside after The New York Times reported that a flag had been flown upside down at Alito’s Virginia home following the 2020 election, an established sign of distress that at the time was viewed as a symbol of solidarity for Trump’s false claims the election was stolen.
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