Newest Supreme Court Immunity Ruling Could Affect U.S. Foreign Policy

(VitalNews.org) – The United States Supreme Court has just made a ruling that would expand presidential immunity, and this has caused a stir among legal experts. Many fear what this could mean for foreign affairs and how it could extend outside the United States.

The ruling said that “official acts” a president takes, including beyond their “core constitutional functions” would receive immunity from prosecution. The biggest concern is that the U.S. President is head of the military, so they are fearful this immunity could expand in actions taken abroad.

Yale University’s professor of law and history, Samuel Moyn, said, “There was already a large consensus among conservative and liberal elites that a US president should never be restricted by international courts, outside of the country.”

“What was extraordinary about Monday’s ruling is that it seems to take that attitude and import it, to apply it to courts inside the country as well as outside,” Moyn continued.
This came not long after Donald Trump’s push for immunity in his current trials. “Trump asserts a far broader immunity than the limited one we have recognized,” the court majority said.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “From this day forward, Presidents of tomorrow will be free to exercise the Commander-in-Chief powers, the foreign-affairs powers, and all the vast law enforcement powers enshrined in the US Constitution however they please, including in ways that Congress has deemed criminal.”

Some people are worried about it pushing leaders into dictatorship. Assistant professor of government at American University, Chris Edelson, said, “Presidents like Bush and Obama weren’t dictators. But once you give unchecked power to one president, all presidents have that power. And down the line, you might have a president who does want to be a dictator.”

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