is the blog of an Orthodox Christian and is published under the spiritual patronage of St. John of San Francisco. Topics likely to be discussed include matters relating to Orthodoxy as well as other religious confessions, politics, economics, social issues, current events or anything else which interests me. © 2006-2025
Monday, July 01, 2024
The Supreme Court Ruling
I'm a constitutional conservative and this was a very bad decision with no foundation in originalism. The Founders would be appalled. I expected a finding for some immunity, but that it would be very narrowly defined. The old academic "what if..." someone plants a nuclear bomb in a city and only he knows where it is. He is taking the 5th. Can the POTUS authorize torture? Yes, of course. But that is a much more extreme version of the old debate about whether it's OK to run a red light if you are rushing someone to the hospital with life threatening injuries.
Any claim of immunity for a crime should be examined on a case-by-case basis and tested with the question; would failing to break the law result in grave harm to the country or substantial loss of life, and this being so obvious and self-evident that the president might be rightly regarded as derelict in their duty if they failed to act?
This decision goes way too far.
Feats of ann Imperial Presidency, limited government, originalism, and judicial constraint are like tax cuts and balanced budgets - only important when Democrats are in power.
ReplyDelete