OPINION: With fear for Democracy, I dissent

For people who love America and its founding ideals, July 1 was a difficult day. 

Just three days before Independence Day, conservative justices on the United States Supreme Court crushed the central premise of American democracy: that no one is above the law. 

In the case of Donald J. Trump v. The United States, Trump won and America lost. 

“This case poses a question of lasting significance,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the 6-3 majority.

A president of the United States now has “absolute immunity” from criminal prosecution as long as their alleged crime was done as an “official act.” The definition of such an act is squishy, to say the least.

Here’s what we do know.

Inciting a crowd to violence is immune from prosecution. 

Overturning election results is immune. 

Writing in dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor clarified that the ruling would allow a president to order SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival, organize a military coup to hold onto power or accept a bribe in exchange for a pardon.

“Even if these nightmare scenarios never play out, and I pray they never do, the damage has been done,” Sotomayor wrote. “The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably.”

These are profound changes to our fundamental law — tantamount to an amendment to the Constitution, as historian David Blight noted. 

Our nation’s founders were intimately aware of the perils of undiluted power. One of the defining features of a constitutional government is that all people, whatever their station or office, must be subject to the same laws. 

Thomas Paine said in Common Sense, “In absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be King … In America the law is king.”

In her dissent Sotomayor lamented, “In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.”

The American solution to dictatorship was an executive strong enough to be effective but checked enough to prevent tyranny. 

Unfortunately for us, the Supreme Court turned Paine’s observation on its head.

“Today’s Court … has replaced a presumption of equality before the law with a presumption that the President is above the law for all of his official acts,” Sotomayor added.

The solution to dictatorship now rests entirely on the electorate. Our Constitutional safeguards will not work without wise leadership and a citizenry willing to value it. 

As we know, elections have consequences. Although weakened by this ruling, leadership in the Legislative branch can still be a check on Executive power. 

Who we elect to the Legislature and to executive offices in Idaho also matters. We need to elect people of character who will defend the Constitution against unchecked and dictatorial Executive power. 

“Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom,” wrote Thomas Paine, “must undergo the fatigue of supporting it.”

That selfless work starts now.

Citizens must speak out. We have to bolster growing grassroots efforts to support candidates who respect the rule of law.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, the survival of our democracy depends on the character of the president and the electorate that supports him.

Absolute power corrupts absolutely. 

Writing her own dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said that America has "lost a substantial check on presidents who would use their official powers to commit crimes with impunity while in office."

We have heard in Trump's own words what he will do with this unfettered power if re-elected. Trump’s close friends and colleagues at the Heritage Foundation drafted “Project 2025” outlining horrifying plans.

Military force will be used against immigrant civilians. Women will be criminally prosecuted for having an abortion, regardless of the heartbreaking circumstances that created that situation. Pregnant women will also be logged into a national database as part of a government monitoring program. The Department of Justice will become the president’s personal weapon of mass destruction.

“The long-term consequences of today’s decision are stark,” Sotomayor said. “The Court effectively creates a law-free zone around the President, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the Founding.”

“Never in the history of our Republic has a President had reason to believe that he would be immune from criminal prosecution if he used the trappings of his office to violate the criminal law,” Sotomayor continued. “Moving forward, however, all former Presidents will be cloaked in such immunity. If the occupant of that office misuses official power for personal gain, the criminal law that the rest of us must abide by will not provide a backstop. With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”

So do we Justice Sotomayor. So do we.

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Evan Koch is chairman of the Kootenai County Democrats.