> However, if the president is having is own feud with some guy he doesn't like and finds a way to get him drone struck, that would not be covered by immunity because he wasn't acting as president in that capacity in any legally recognized way.
Why not? US presidents have murdered US citizens abroad with drones. All he needs to do is claim he did it under national security. SCOTUS explicitly calls out that the presidents motives are immaterial for determining immunity or not.
And we have a way to deal with that. It's called impeachment and is the process by which one tries a sitting president for things that are part of his/her official powers. Impeachment is not a legal process but a political one. Congress can try a President for anything at any time, if they can muster enough votes for it. That's what the Supreme Court has said before -- Congress's motivations for impeachment are above any judicial oversight.
(1) before today, there was no solid answer to what immunity a president may have
(2) it's unclear whether 'January 6' is an 'official' act (or even Trump's act at all, as he was not involved, denounced the rioters immediately, and called for a peaceful assembly)
Said in an attempt to stop the election process, then followed by hours of suspicious silence in the ensuing assault, I think the intent is pretty clear.
Impeachment doesn't actually deal with it at all. It's basically impossible to impeach anyone with the way politics is polarized these days, plus the only result is that the president is removed. They don't actually face any consequences for their actions as the Supreme Court is saying they can't be prosecuted even after leaving office.
> It's basically impossible to impeach anyone with the way politics is polarized these days
That's because no president has committed any supposed crime of any importance.
Nixon probably did, but resigned anyway, and was then pardoned, so it doesn't really matter.
Clinton was a technicality, and never removed from office, and no one cares really. Lewinsky is a celebrity now.
Trump... well the first one was obviously political (many Presidents deny foreign aid, etc... it's part of foreign policy. Biden is famously on tape as admitting to doing the exact same thing) and the second one was on thin ice as Trump explicitly called for peace
He wasn't impeached for denying foreign aid, he was impeached for making the aid conditional on helping him personally in his campaign for re-election. A fairly obvious case of corruption.
"Using the powers of his high office, President Trump solicited the interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 United States Presidential election. He did so through a scheme or course of conduct that included soliciting the Government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations that would benefit his reelection, harm the election prospects of a political opponent, and influence the 2020 United States Presidential election to his advantage. President Trump also sought to pressure the Government of Ukraine to take these steps by conditioning official United States Government acts of significant value to Ukraine on its public announcement of the investigations."
I think that swapping a legal process guaranteeing my rights for a political process guaranteeing* my rights is a poor trade.
I thought the USA was a country of laws, not kings.
* actually guaranteeing that if the president is trampling my rights and a supermajority of congress don't like it, he'll be ejected from office, not anything to do with my protection or restitution.
> I thought the USA was a country of laws, not kings.
It is. The 'official' duties of presidents and the federal government are clearly laid out in the Constitution and subsequent laws. And moreover, the Presidents term expires at the end of four years, whether he believes it does or not. The concern-trolling over Jan 6 is something else. Even supposing the rioters had murderous intent and were going to hang people (they weren't... this was just a protest gone wrong)... trump would still cease to be president on January 20. No action needs to be taken to elect another one. The Presidency would fall to whomever is next in line and duly elected.
There is no way for a President to become a 'king'. The most years a President may serve is eight and at midnight on January 20 (or noon, I forget), no one listens to him anymore
> * actually guaranteeing that if the president is trampling my rights and a supermajority of congress don't like it, he'll be ejected from office, not anything to do with my protection or restitution.
Currently, the recourse you have if you believe the president is violating your rights is to file a civil action in a federal court. No action of congress is needed for you to do this. If your complaint is that SCOTUS, as the court of final appeal, may get your case wrong... indeed that is worrisome and indeed it's happened before, but if that's your complaint, then it has nothing to do with this case.
Wrong. Fitzgerald specifically shields the President from civil suits. The Court will not help you at all.
Your only recourse would be waiting until the President is out of office, then getting DoJ onboard to press criminal charges, with all the due process that entails. Fitzgerald explicitly provides no protection in the case of criminal litigation over and beyond that of an ordinary citizen for a former President.
We can all think of something one president or the other has done that we each believe should have led to their removal from office, yet it hasn't once happened through impeachment.
that sounds not totally crazy until you realize that you've just said that the president can kill all Congress members who think that killing Congress members is an impeachable offense
EDIT: to clarify: Any president up until now, and from now going forward, has the power to command his generals to murder every senator, justice, and governor. Of course, American soldiers take an oath to the constitution, so hopefully this wouldn't happen, but he could. Moreover, anyone can 'just' murder all living politicians and declare themselves king. This is hardly a theoretical scenario to concern oneself over.
Trump also very publicly ordered the extra-judicial execution of US citizen Michael Reinoehl, after which he murdered by US Marshals in Lacey, Washington. He brags about this all the time, even in the first presidential debate in 2020.
Why not? US presidents have murdered US citizens abroad with drones. All he needs to do is claim he did it under national security. SCOTUS explicitly calls out that the presidents motives are immaterial for determining immunity or not.