Sorry if this is not the proper community for this question. Please let me know if I should post this question elsewhere.
So like, I’m not trying to be hyperbolic or jump on some conspiracy theory crap, but this seems like very troubling news to me. My entire life, I’ve been under the impression that no one is technically/officially above the law in the US, especially the president. I thought that was a hard consensus among Americans regardless of party. Now, SCOTUS just made the POTUS immune to criminal liability.
The president can personally violate any law without legal consequences. They also already have the ability to pardon anyone else for federal violations. The POTUS can literally threaten anyone now. They can assassinate anyone. They can order anyone to assassinate anyone, then pardon them. It may even grant complete immunity from state laws because if anyone tries to hold the POTUS accountable, then they can be assassinated too. This is some Putin-level dictator stuff.
I feel like this is unbelievable and acknowledge that I may be wayyy off. Am I misunderstanding something?? Do I need to calm down?
Despite the alarm, it’s nothing new though. International diplomats cite immunity to prosecution to get out of paying for speeding tickets on a daily basis.
This may not be new for other countries, but this is absolutely new to the US and a huge alarm.
International diplomats don’t often get immunity for treason.
No, but a president is higher in status than a diplomat, who in the US don’t have to face minor consequences either. I’m not saying this to support presidents being immune to the law (in fact, you could say it goes against campaign promises to claim you’ll be a civil governor and then be authoritarian), I’m just saying this has been on the drawing board for a while and was far from something that was just recently whipped out. Even state governors (and mayors as well) have gotten away with some awful things by swerving the powers that be, the governor of New York a few years ago systemically killed the elderly during covid and the main concern was not that but his affairs like was the case with Bill Clinton.