231 points
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Wouldn’t this mean a president has an obligation to kill his political opponents if they’re seen as a threat to the United States, and as an official act, it would be completely legal? Effectively making one man above the law.

Even if it’s not seen as an official act, you can’t charge the president while they’re in the office, and with that power and a loyal justice department, you could eliminate anyone who might try to argue the legality of your actions.

Good luck convincing anyone to bring a case against the guy who keeps making people disappear when they investigate him.

This + project 2025 & a trump presidency is the end of US democracy. I don’t even wanna start thinking about the impacts globally…

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75 points

Trump could now argue he, as sitting president, was threatened in his functioning by the new president elect, and it was an official act to block the transfer of power as long as the sitting president has concerns about the validity of the votes. (Ofcourse he always has those concerns)

And now with the coming elections he will claim the same and as a bonus he officially and in the open has the republicans refuse to certify a losing vote because that also threatens his position and impedes his functioning.

If the lower courts now claim his acts were not official he will just appeal that back to the Supreme Court, thereby still delaying any closure of the case well after the elections.

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35 points

Biden should just pass an official law that SCOTUS must be evenly split between major parties.

This couldn’t be illegal to do anymore, as Biden will be immune, as it’ll be an official act.

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30 points

Biden can’t pass laws, Congress does that.

https://youtu.be/SZ8psP4S6BQ

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54 points

Are you saying it might be a crime for a President to unilaterally invent a new law and make the federal government enforce it? Well, you see…

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44 points

You are confusing the United States that existed until this decision with the United States that exists after this decision. As long as it’s an official act, the president can now do whatever it wants. If the supremes court objects, the president and threaten or assassinate the justices as long as it’s an official act. The President is now effectively a king. Read Sotomayor’s dissent in this decision. She explicitly states this.

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25 points

No, he can just order members of Congress to be executed until they pass the law he wants.

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-4 points

That’s…not how it works. Like where your heart is, but this makes no sense.

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20 points

That’s not how it worked. Past tense!

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8 points

We all know it’s not how it works, but that’s precisely what Trump et al will try to do. This is just malicious compliance.

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7 points

Yes.

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221 points

Sotomayor’s written dissent explicitly says that this decision makes the US President a king that and can now act with impunity. This is effectively the end of the republic as described by the constitution.

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92 points

Ok, so biden can officially order the assassination of the right wing supreme court justices and Trump, then appoint replacement judges and lobby congress for a constitutional amendment permanently stripping presidents of their absolute immunity. Since his orders would have occurred while he had immunity, he’d be in the clear, he’d have illustrated the flaw in the ruling, removed a dangerous individual, and prevented future abuses. Win.

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48 points

He won’t. Too honourable.

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36 points

The Democrats’ achilles heel.

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17 points

Summon Genocide Joe where he’s actually needed.

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8 points

He won’t, but honor has nothing to do with it. He’s a democrat and therefore unwilling to wield power he’s been given.

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5 points

Yep, it’s an “official act”.

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2 points

He could just dissolve the supreme court, it would be a little easier. I doubt the (current) military would actually carry out any sort of assassination. The military leadership are selected and it is instilled in them to pledge loyalty to the nation, not the president.

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1 point

When haven’t presidents been able to order assassinations?

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45 points

Biden can be the first President since Washington to give back the power to We the People. He needs some official acts that return the power back to We the People. If they’re considered crimes by the right wing fascists, don’t worry. It would take too long to investigate, prosecute, and hold him accountable. His old age is also a super power!

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21 points

Biden definitely needs to make a move here, but I don’t see that working. There’s a difference between “the POTUS is immune from criminal liability”, and “the POTUS has the power to alter the government as they choose”, at least, there is for a President that isn’t going to enforce their changes with violence, which Biden hasn’t shown any sign of being.

Perhaps there’s a way to swing this new legal freedom in a way that does something like that, I’m not smart enough to figure that out. I do at least know that, if this isn’t addressed A fucking SAP, then the US is in some serious trouble.

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8 points

Everything’s possible through the magic of drone strikes. “Oh, I can’t do that, can I? Well, I’ll just call up the ol’ reaper team and see what they think. You’re going to miss the impeachment hearing, btw, and so will everyone else if they know what’s good for them”

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6 points

That all sounds very complicated, there is a much simpler way, in an official act of course, to deal with traitors:

Title 18 §2381. Treason

Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, …

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13 points

What a power move that could be.

“Currently, any act, no matter how illegal, is available to me without repercussions due to this Supreme Court decision. So I am going to fix that. I would like an amendment to be put forth explicitly stating as much, and also would like to have an amendment put in place to establish ethical rules for the Supreme Court and an enforcement method for it. Keep in mind, currently any action I consider part of my duties, including… removing… legislators who vote against Democracy itself, until I have enough of a majority of whoever is left t9 accomplish the same goal. Before that, though, I would like a voting reform to establish rules across the nation to maximize voter participation and remove gerrymandering and other systems to diminish the voting power of any group.”

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8 points

This is how the power could be used for good and to restore our democracy. King Joe needs to do this and then give up the power that Chief Justice Roberts and his corrupt cohorts gave him. He needs to move swiftly or even HYPER EXPEDITIOUSLY.

Accountability for these biased, compromised, and corrupt Justices needs to happen now. Special Ops need to deploy and execute ASAP.

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4 points

That’s a bingo!

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172 points

Well, fellow Americans. This experiment with democracy was fun while it lasted. Every significant goal of the founding fathers has been systematically thwarted by these Christofascists. We once again have a de-facto monarch.

The consequences of this decision will be dire, and unpredictable. Every law, every right, every freedom can now be undone by an official wave of the president’s hand. Rights to privacy? Gone. Due process? Gone. Bill of Rights? Gone.

No one—democrat or republican—should be happy about this. The right to bear arms is now on the chopping block right along with LGBTQ+ and abortion rights.

Hopefully I’m wrong. Hopefully I’m misreading the situation. But it sure sounds like every right that previously defined us as American people now hinges on the benevolence of our president. Americans can no longer brag about “American freedom.”

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28 points
*

And Europe’s next. Another far right puppet of Putin will be elected to run a European country in the next few weeks. Just shows that Europe follows the US in lockstep with a 5 year delay.

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7 points

The sad thing is that you’re completely correct.

It’s over. This is the beginning of the true end. The end has been in sight for a while now, but it was always over the horizon.

Now we can actually see it.

There is not a way for us to legally come back from this.

In retrospect, I guess that we should have seen it coming that the Supreme Court of lifelong, unelected officials would be our undoing.

It’s pretty sad that we’re all taking this lying down with all of our Second Amendment talk.

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143 points

Joe Biden is ABSOLUTELY IMMUNE if he decides to Assassinate a Supreme Court Justice according to the Supreme Court Justices!

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120 points

He doesn’t even have to assassinate 1 or 2. Thomas committed tax fraud on his RV deal and Alito probably did on his bribes. Joe Biden apparently has dictatorial powers over the IRS and DOJ. Start arresting people and when Trump supporters act up, use emergency powers to drone strike Mar-a-Lago. Those are all official acts.

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35 points

Biden doesn’t have the balls to do this. It would be cool as heck if he did.

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31 points

No. No, it would not. The cooler thing would be to deny SCOTUS in this. Their interpretation of this is far and away the wrong decision. Playing by the new rule only legitimizes it. Pull an Andrew Jackson, deny SCOTUS their ruling and continue as though nothing happened. Same with the end of Chevron deference and Roe.

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3 points

Maybe not. But Dark Brandon does…

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30 points
*

You know as well as I do that this ruling will only apply to Trump. They’ll have some other bullshit to come up with if Biden wants to do literally anything, but Trump will have absolute immunity.

Trump IS going to win and with this ruling we just created a king…

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7 points

Who’s gonna apply it?

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11 points

60% of the house and 51% of Congress

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29 points

But he won’t, and neither will any Dem presidents, which is what the right wing SCOTUS is counting on.

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12 points

Lord Trump the first won’t have such qualms…

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127 points

So Biden should just shoot Trump… Let the courts decide if it’s an official act or not, delay delay, appeal to the supreme Court like all these decisions will be, and Biden may have shrugged of this mortal coil by the time all that happens

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48 points
Removed by mod
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3 points

I’m pretty sure those are fake addresses

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6 points

They’re real addresses and cross streets. They’re where previous protests were held near justice residences.

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44 points

That’s no how this works. He is a democrat so by default unofficial. No matter if he orders a hit on Cheeto by Seal Team 6. /s

Democrats = unofficial MAGA/republicans = official.

This may become the 1933 of this century if november the wrong guy gets elected and fast forward to 1939.

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0 points
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