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  • The Atlantic

    The Supreme Court Puts Trump Above the Law

    And gives him permission for a despotic second term.
    by Adam Serwer Jul 01, 2024 5 minutes
    Source: Illustration by The Atlantic. Sources: Al Drago / Bloomberg / Getty; Jabin Botsford / The Washington Post / Getty.

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    Near the top of their sweeping, lawless opinion in Trump v. United States, Donald Trump’s defenders on the Supreme Court repeat one of the most basic principles of American constitutional government: “The president is not above the law.” They then proceed to obliterate it.

    Although the pro-Trump justices attempt to nest the breadth of their opinion in legalese, their finding that the president cannot be prosecuted for “official acts,” and that much of Trump’s efforts to seize power fall under that rubric, means that the justices have essentially legalized a losing president refusing to step down, as Trump tried to do after the 2020 election.

    The Court’s opinion presents an absurd paradox that defeats the purpose of a constitutional democracy governed by the rule of law. It has

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