Judge finds cause to hold Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating deportation order
Judge finds cause to hold Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating deportation order
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Judge finds cause to hold Trump administration in criminal contempt for violating deportation order
Ah but you forget Donny's infamous "who gonna stop me?" loophole.
I'll believe it when I see it.
Didn't the supreme Court rule that laws don't apply to a sitting president?
The President, yes. The rest of the administration, no.
Does that also apply to the people surrounding him? I mean, he'll likely just pardon anyone, but still...
Ah; but they didn’t say that laws don’t apply to a sitting administration.
So don’t impeach Trump again. But jail everyone who followed his orders.
Not exactly.
So if they rule that something isn't an official act, or outside of the president's constitutional powers, they can still find it illegal. It means that the courts can effectively "pardon" the president if they rule that he was acting within the scope of his official responsibility, but it doesn't mean that they gave their ability to prosecute if they choose to.
Whether the president has the power to "self-pardon," effectively giving him total immunity to the law, is another angle, but that has not been tested in court.
Of course, Trump could simply choose to ignore the courts the same way Andrew Jackson did and it's not clear that anything would happen to him, at least while he's in office and is commander in chief.