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Without an independent judiciary, the land of the free would not be free.
For the preservation of our democracy, fair elections are vital, of course, but voters can make terrible choices (Exhibit A: the election of Donald Trump in 2016). Our elected representatives are important, but they can be corrupt, cowardly or just plain obtuse (Exhibit B: the current U.S. House majority). It is the judiciary that provides the essential check on abuses of power and poor governance.
That is a truth that most citizens of this country likely do not appreciate nearly enough. Folks on the left are perpetually outraged by the current conservative tilt of the U.S. Supreme Court, while folks on the right have been convinced that most judges, apart from that Republican-appointed majority on the highest court, are mere political apparatchiks in service to the so-called Deep State.
Tuesday’s ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., on former President Donald Trump’s claim to absolute immunity from legal consequences for his actions as president is an example of why independent courts — whatever their flaws — are so indispensable. The three judges — one appointed by a Republican president, two appointed by a Democrat — were unanimous in their opinion that no president of the United States is above the law.
Trump and his lawyers had made the preposterous argument that a president cannot be constrained by legalities or fear of eventual indictment for his actions. Trump himself raised the prospect that ex-presidents would all end up in jail because their opponents would always find grounds to prosecute them.
Those claims ignore the more than two centuries of history in which presidents have come and gone without retribution from political rivals, as well as the founding principle of the nation that established presidents are servants of the people, not dictators.
The appeals court declared that no president has the “unbounded authority to commit crimes.”
“We cannot accept that the office of the Presidency places former occupants above the law for all time thereafter,” the judges said.
In Trump, we had a president who showed scant respect for the law in his business dealings and brought that attitude to the Oval Office. He conceived of his role as something akin to a Mafia don. Trump believed he had the right to do anything he pleased and, when a majority of American voters rejected him in the 2020 election, he attempted to hold onto power by nefarious means.
Now, with the appeals court ruling — which is so powerful and obviously right that it is certain to be upheld by the conservative, but not clueless, Supreme Court — Trump will have to face a jury that will sit in judgment of the actions he took to subvert an election.
Trump will be found guilty, or he will be found innocent by that jury. He will not be coddled like a king. He will be judged as a citizen like any one of us in this free republic.
See more of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey
View other syndicated cartoonists at: st.news/cartoons
Editor’s note: Seattle Times Opinion no longer appends comment threads on David Horsey’s cartoons. Too many comments violated our community policies and reviewing the dozens that were flagged as inappropriate required too much of our limited staff time. You can comment via a Letter to the Editor. Please email us at letters@seattletimes.com and include your full name, address and telephone number for verification only. Letters are limited to 200 words.
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