Editorial: What Constitution?
Credit: Getty Images.
It was just about a year ago that the Supreme Court’s conservative majority gave presidents such broad immunity from criminal prosecution as to render them virtually untouchable by the legal system — putting presidents in general, and Donald J. Trump in particular, above the law.
As if to celebrate the anniversary by doubling down on this dangerous expansion of executive power, the high court has effectively barred federal judges from stopping presidents from blatantly breaking the law — even the Constitution itself — beyond immediate cases in their own jurisdiction.
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In plain, practical terms: If a federal judge finds that the president is violating people’s rights in, say, Los Angeles, he can issue an injunction ordering him to stop doing it only there while the full case is heard. The administration would be free to violate those same rights everywhere else outside that judicial district.
And that’s the case even if judge after judge in district after district........
© Times Union
