Baranyai: U.S. Supreme Court gives president supreme powers

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The U.S. Supreme Court term ended Monday with a bang that drowned out Canada Day fireworks, and left observers on both sides of the border in a state of concussive disorientation. To help navigate the dissonance, I have compiled some useful definitions.

Presumptive immunity: In Trump v. United States, the court delivered a “get out of jail free” card for any official act undertaken as president. The ruling effectively normalizes the breathtaking claim by former president Richard Nixon, post-Watergate: “When the president does it, that means it is not illegal.”

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Official act: In a tidy Catch-22, official presidential duties subject to immunity include all discussions with the justice department, which might otherwise have shed light on the president’s motives and whether he was in fact acting in an official capacity. “In every use of official power,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her dissent, “the President is now a king above the law.”

Unofficial act: An ill-defined category of presidential actions open to criminal indictment, which could include accepting a hypothetical bribe in return for a pardon (oops, that’s immune); ordering the assassination of a hypothetical political rival (scratch that, also immune); and pressuring Georgia to “find” 11,780 votes (kicked down to the District Court to decide). The Catch-22 is so broad, Trump’s lawyers are even taking a Hail Mary pass at having his 34 felony convictions overturned, delaying sentencing until September.

Extreme hypotheticals: Chief Justice John Roberts described examples of immunity in the dissenting opinion as “fear mongering on the basis of extreme hypotheticals”; however, in light of the former president’s repeated avowals he will lock up his political rivals, they could more accurately be described as “promises.” (See: Liz Cheney, Mike Pence, etc.)

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Originalism: A static interpretation of the constitution in strict accordance with the presumed intentions of the framers, rejecting the expansion of rights to keep up with more than 200 years of changing social values.

Judicial activism: Social and legislative change steered by court rulings, rather than legislators, frequently condemned by Republicans as “unelected and unaccountable,” until the scales tipped in their favour.

Precedent: A legal question previously settled by the highest court, or what Justice Neil Gorsuch formerly described as an “anchor of law.” Roe v. Wade was explicitly acknowledged as precedent during the individual confirmation hearings of then-nominees Gorsuch, Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito, before each of them joined the conservative supermajority in flipping the 50-year precedent on its head.

Supermajority: The voting bloc of six Republican-appointed justices who overturned Roe v. Wade and radically expanded presidential immunity. They’ve delivered a whole battery of 6-3 split decisions dragging the U.S. sharply backward, including: jailing unhoused people for sleeping outdoors; ending a ban on build-your-own-machine-gun bump stocks; legalizing anti-LGBTQ discrimination; abandoning affirmative action for college admissions (because systemic racism is over); also, upholding congressional maps redrawn to suppress Black voting; and limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to protect the environment.

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Environment: The fragile ecosystem that sustains all life on Earth.

Ethics: A code of conduct, heretofore assumed redundant, which would impel justices to disclose lavish gifts from industry executives with matters before the Court, and other conflicts of interest. Recently adopted by the Court, in the form of suggestions.

Conflict of interest: A situation arising when professional responsibilities – such as ruling on the Capitol Hill riots – are compromised by a lack of impartiality, which should result in the honourable justices’ recusal. (See: Ginny Thomas, Martha-Ann Alito.)

Impeachment: The last remaining viable mechanism to constrain the high crimes and misdemeanours of a vindictive president operating under a cloak of immunity (already twice deployed, with little effect).

write.robin@baranyai.ca

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