aggiehawg said:
Quote:
Trump won't win on total and absolute immunity but they will find limited immunity.
Agree. the absolute immunity argument was always unpersuasive, as was the impeachment/judgment quasi double jeopardy argument.
OTOH, The Court will still be very mindful of separation of powers issues and it will be narrowly tailored. They may even try to go the route with Bush v. Gore and limit the opinions effect as precedent. But in terms of formulating a test when immunity will apply to official acts, further definitions of what constitutes an official act will take a lot of drafts being circulated around among the justices.
One other note and that is the Fischer case before the Court. That's a 1512(c) statute that is also the statute used for three of four of the Jan 6th charges. If Fischer tosses the use of 1512(c) as applied. Then most of the DC case against Trump is gone already. At that point, there's just an obstruction charge and a weak one at that.
I believe SCOTUS will say that Congress has the power to remove immunity via the impeachment process. This would be the most consistent with the originalist approach and look to the rationale for why the impeachment process was included in the constitution, which was to prevent POTUS from acting as a king and beholden to no one.
IBT certain other folks chime in the impeachment is political process only, as that is an idea / opinion / concept purveyed by modern pundits during the last couple 30 years or so.
I don't think its proper for SCOTUS to determine if immunity applies though I would be able to get comfortable with it, though it begs for a future total politization of that branch. For instance, Congress could pack the court in an attempt to influence the immunity review should SCOTUS think it under their powers to determine.
Easiest decision would be for SCOTUS to defer to the impeachment process and "clarify" that the impeachment process "removes" any claims to immunity regarding crimes / actions that a POTUS is impeached (including conviction).
After considering this for the past few years, any other path leads to a quagmire of what presidential duties / official actions are, when immunity applies, etc. The path I describe addresses the POTUS killing their opponent during the primary season via drone strike and also prevents the horse****ery we have seen the last 3 years from the Dems.
Just my opinion. The Founding Fathers just simply did not provide for abuse of the powers or impeachment and weaponization of the justice system for political purposes the way both parties have done, but in particular the Dems in regards to Trump.