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Comment by nine_zeros | Hacker News Reader

"Lies" is a standard operating procedure under this administration.

The court should just call the bluff by passing an order "Every CBP official and their hierarchy up to the President will be fined $1 million/day until the tariffs have been refunded."

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SCOTUS has already given the President complete immunity for anything done as part of an "official act", so that's not going to fly (even if it should).

That's only for crimes, isn't it? Ans it doesn't apply to anyone who isn't the president.

> And it doesn't apply to anyone who isn't the president.

They have a cool loophole for it. President can pardon those who commit crimes he asks them to commit. See what he did for thousands of insurrectionists and a lot of his friends who bribed him.

The strangest "The President is not King but we give home this power of a King" section in the Constitution.

It isn't strange per se. The Chief executor by definition has discretion. The thing that's gone haywire now is that discretion is being used in a repugnant manner to most actually sane people.

>The thing that's gone haywire now is that discretion is being used in a repugnant manner to most actually sane people.

This was probably expected. What wasn't expected is that voters would put the people doing this back into office AFTER they had done it.

> What wasn't expected is that voters would put the people doing this back into office AFTER they had done it.

Through this entire experience, the greatest revelation for me has been this:

There is a very large number of massively stupid people who live among us. Much more so than most of us expected.

It's one of several "checks and balances" whereby one branch can override another branch, in this case the executive can override the judicial. Congress (the legislative) can override the executive too, by firing the President if they feel he's breaking too many laws (or indeed for any reason they want). It's a wonder they haven't chosen to. It indicates Congress approves of what the President is doing.

I think this is sort of final proof that electing a king for four years with more or less total power as the presidential system outlines is fundamentally a shit system.

This is just a new (and primarily conservative) interpretation of the system (the so-called "unitary executive" theory).

There's a different interpretation where the existing laws constrain the executive, there is no "unitary executive", and the result is a highly constrained presidency. E.g. Biden attempting to use explicit language written by Congress to do something and being told he could not do so by the judiciary (for "reasons").

Isn't it only immunity as long as Congress is controlled by the same party so that no impeachment/conviction? Otherwise, Congress technically still has that ability. That's also what Trump was screaming the whole time that Congress is the only way to hold POTUS accountable.

> That's also what Trump was screaming the whole time that Congress is the only way to hold POTUS accountable.

And this is just wrong - anyone can see that every branch must be held accountable by other branches. This supreme court has done more damage to America than most historical supreme courts.

SCOTUS didn't say that Congress couldn't impeach. As I understand it, SCOTUS said that POTUS couldn't be prosecuted as a civilian for things he did as POTUS. This puts an asterisk on the "no man above the law", as they are saying that if POTUS does something impeachable but Congress doesn't impeach/convict, then there's no other recourse for holding POTUS accountable. Trump is taking advantage of that for everything that it's worth.

Scotus removed the ability of the JUDICIARY to hold criminal convictions against the president.

The JUDICIARY is the branch that lost power, not Congress.

Somebody really has it out for you killing your comments

I see what you're saying. As much as I dislike it, it makes sense if you agree with the Project 2025 view of the power of POTUS. Clearly the majority of SCOUTS does with that ruling. I don't agree with it as I don't think the founding fathers would have ever wanted POTUS to have that much protection, but I'm of no significance so what I do or don't agree with is just some guy on the internet yelling at clouds.

But the important thing is that Trump has restored gender integrity in girls' high school sports, he has bombed 7 countries instead of 5 like Biden did, and he has been deporting... uh, well, about the same number of undocumented people as Biden.

I guess that's three important things, not just one, but you get the idea.

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