What does that even mean if it's impossible to prosecute the President? What does that even mean?
If the president air strikes people and uses drone strikes using whatever system congress has said that makes that "okay" then he cannot be prosecuted for murder while authorizing and ultimately conducting drone strikes (in most circumstances).
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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killings_of_Aaron_Danielson_an...
Intimidating the court into ruling in your favor with guns to their heads is an official act until the court says it isn't official, but the court can't say it isn't offical, because they've got guns to their heads.
That this system fails to work when it's axioms are ignored (i.e. in the stated case of a coup) cannot be construed as a failure of common law or an indictment on its 950+ years of success. Such act would be a failure of the Executive solely.
The founder's stated intent for resolving such a situation is why we have the 2nd amendment.
Many disputes about presidential actions are about what the constitution allows.
The majority said In dividing official from unofficial conduct, courts may not inquire into the President’s motives. Nor may courts deem an action unofficial merely because it allegedly violates a generally applicable law.[1]
[1] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
Since imprisoning the president would obviously intrude on the functions of the Executive branch, it really looks like the majority opinion is that no president may be prosecuted for any "official act".
> In dividing official from unofficial conduct, courts may not inquire into the President’s motives. Such a “highly intrusive” inquiry would risk exposing even the most obvious instances of official conduct to judicial examination on the mere allegation of improper purpose. Fitzgerald, 457 U. S., at 756. Nor may courts deem an action unofficial merely because it allegedly violates a generally applicable law. Otherwise, Presidents would be subject to trial on “every allegation that an action was unlawful,” depriving immunity of its intended effect.
When it comes to it, this exact thing will be covered by immunity because of how things work.
Meaning, if the president shoots a random bystander on the street they can be charged with murder. If the president orders a military strike as part of an official operation and done through proper channels, they can't be charged if it later turns out the intel was bad or the strike went wrong in some way.
What if the President signs an Executive Order directing himself to shoot someone in the street?
Think of it like the police. An off duty cop is not acting under official powers. Even on duty, a cop is limited in what and how they are supposed to do their job and crossing outside those bounds technically makes them personally liable. I wouldn't begin to say we are any good at actually holding police accountable when they act outside their official duties, but that's a whole separate can of worms.
Or, if the President uses his powers to assassinate a governor -- again, explicitly not an official act, as the president has no authority over state elections.
If anyone bothered to read the constitution, it clearly lays out the sorts of things that could be construed as official, and the sorts of things that are not. The President does not have unlimited authority. His scope of authority is rather small, even if several important things fall under it. Part of the problem is the pervasive idea in American electoral politics that the president has some sort of power to 'promise' various laws and such. It's so silly since no President can possibly do that.
Not true, it depends on how he does it. If he hacks someone to death with a sword, that's not an official act, and it doesn't matter why he does it. But if he orders Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival, that is an official act. This example is specifically stated in the dissenting opinion.
One of the key things about a dissent, is that it's not the opinion of the court, but just that judge.
In general, one would hope Seal Team 6 would not follow such an act as they owe allegiance to our system of laws before any presidential order.
6 members of the Supreme Court said Distinguishing the President’s official actions from his unofficial ones can be difficult.[1]
[1] https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
Technically, the murder is illegal, but the pardon is legal because it's 'part of his official duties'.
There are any number of ways this can be abused.
You are clutching pearls over something that is already allowed. Like I said, Congress can impeach a president who does this if they don't like it.
Moreover, a president can't pardon state level offenses anyway, and I would imagine the murder would have to take place in a state. The state could simply retry the case. States have much more discretion in the sorts of things they can criminalize.
Cleary, clearly this was a partisan decision. They can't just say "We Have a King Now", so they dressed up just enough of a reasonable interpretation to be able to kill this particular prosecution, while allowing themselves wiggle room to prosecute the kings they don't like. They aren't really trying to uncork executive abuse, they really hope it doesn't happen. But they want Trump not to be prosecuted, and put their fingers on the scale with what they hope is just enough pressure. We'll see.
On the one hand: if you are president and you authorize the nuclear bombings of Nagasaki and Hiroshima to get Japan to surrender without further loss of American life, you won't later be prosecuted for war crimes when your political rival comes into power.
On the other hand, if you are president and you murder a Japanese person you see on the street when going for a stroll outside the white house, you can be prosecuted for that.
I mean, it's still really bad, but a few slivers less bad than you say :P
