The ruling even barred courts from trying to "inquire into the president's motives."
  • Veneroso@lemmy.world
    3·
    4 months ago

    So let’s say, hypothetically.

    The president thought that people shouldn’t eat chocolate ice cream. It’s anti-american.

    And “for the good of the country” anyone who eats chocolate ice cream has to be isolated from the rest of society.

    That’s not an official act. It’s not really on the periphery of official acts.

    But because definitionally, anything that, at the president’s sole discretion, is “in the best interest of the United States” is now argued as an official act.

    Biden likes vanilla ice cream.
    But he isn’t going to detain you for unamerican activities if you prefer chocolate ice cream.

    Choose freedom! Choose chocolate ice cream!

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
      9·
      4 months ago

      You don’t understand the ruling.

      It is not giving POTUS any additional authority. It grants POTUS immunity from criminal prosecution of a crime related to an official act.

      Biden could personally slap the ice cream cone out of your hand and get away with it, if a court ruled it to be an official act. No one else is immune from crime committed on his behalf.

      This was tailored to Trump’s insurrection charges. If SCOTUS granted POTUS more executive privilege, Biden would just overrule SCOTUS and exempt felons from presidential candidacy.