They have provided some guardrails, and you could drive a Star Destroyer through them. Conferring with the DOJ, as an act within the perimeter of presidential authority, cannot be deemed criminal, regardless of the nature of the conversation or the president’s purposes.
By this reasoning, did Nixon do anything wrong?
All these many years later, a Supreme Court heavily weighted by Trump appointees rules that Nixon was right: “It’s not illegal if the president does it”.
I’m now waiting for Trump to be re-elected and then declare himself president for life. As an “official act” that couldn’t be illegal, could it?
Did Nixon do his acts are part of official Presidential duties? And even if Nixon would be protected criminally- Congress could still impeach & remove him- which is what was gonna happen.
The ruling is not a shock. Bureaucrats, cops firefighters, etc all have somewhat similar protections and immunities. The President really has to be immune for Official acts while President. That does leave open- what is an Official act?
Mind you, trumps felony convictions stand. His document cases should stand- he kept the documents after leaving office.
Right. Is election interference an Official act? I do not think so.
Act of Congress. Of course the President has to have some legal protection of Official acts- just like every other government official does. But it needs to be limited.
Wrong thread.
This is my question as well.
That’s not true. Qualified immunity is about civil liability. Cops, firefighters etc can’t be sued for acts that occurred during the performance of their duties. They have no criminal immunity for crimes committed during the performance of their duties. Much different things.
I said- 'somewhat similar", not exactly the same.
It’s not within his authority to do so. So, he can’t make that happen, but I suspect such a declaration would not be prosecuted either. I’m not sure what crime would be associated with making absurd declarations.
You know, Biden’s 81 years old. It’s not like he’d spend much time in prison if SCOTUS changed its mind. Just sayin’… 
[And yes, that was intended as a joke. Hence the clown face.]
Is that an Official act? No, as it is already against Federal law.
From what I can tell is that the SCOTUS just jerked us around for months and made no real ruling. The POTUS cannot be held criminaly liable for any official act, that was always the case! And sent it back down to the lower courts to determine if an act was offical. It appears to me to be meaningless ruling that just wasted time, which I beleive was the intent.
What a disgrace our court system has become when judges are bought and sold.
I’ll take Sotomayor’s opinion over yours on legal matters.
An illegal Official Act is still an Official Act.
Just have him start executing Justices until the survivors agree that he should be arrested?
You should get right on the horn to Sotomayor and set her straight.
You know what’s funny, when I look up what an official act is in Google, I mostly get results about official ACT test scores.
So, maybe we are just misunderstanding what the SCOTUS meant.
This is why I thought the Supreme Court would come to a different decision. I reckoned on them having a sense of self preservation.
6 of them do not.
I’m afraid you’ll need to be more specific. I count two rapists, at least one of whom accepts bribes, and at least one insurrectionist.
…enemies, foreign and domestic…
Sounds official to me.