July 3rd, 2024

For Immediate Release Contact: Iota Phi Theta Communications Director

A Supremely Wrong Supreme Court

6-3 Ruling on Presidential Immunity Offends Democratic Principles

(Baltimore, MD) – In a 6-3 decision that threatens to upend democratic rule, the conservative bloc on the United States Supreme Court has cast aside history, the Constitution, and the rule of law by declaring a President is immune from prosecution for ‘official acts.’ Though the high Court did reserve judgement for a lower court to determine what constitutes ‘unofficial acts,’ the ruling sets aside the collective wisdom of the nation’s Founding Fathers and their determination that the presidency is not a monarchy or above the rule of law. The Roberts Court has now granted the President carte blanche authority to commit acts, however heinous, without fear of our legal system holding them criminally accountable. The Supreme Court has declared the President above the law. The nation’s citizens should be alarmed and our global allies on watch.

This ruling comes at a time when a party’s presidential candidate, a former president, has openly declared his embrace of dictatorship, publicly ridiculed the nation’s primary law enforcement agency, and disdain for the rule of law. The conservative majority of the Supreme Court has now enabled despotic rule in a way that those gathered in Philadelphia in 1787 could not have imagined.

Practically speaking, the Court’s ruling gives a President the power to suppress critics by deadly force, imprison political opponents, and use deadly force at will under the guise of an ‘official act’ related to the powers of the presidency and the execution of presidential authority. It sets in motion a presidency with no boundaries.

This Supreme Court is evidence that elections matter and they have far-reaching consequences. The stacking of the Court with right-wing ideologues has resulted in the loss of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, eliminated a woman’s right to choose reproductive healthcare, the obliteration of the line between church and state, and the use of public tax dollars for religious oriented schools, and has now made the President, this and future presidents, a monarch answerable to no one. This is unacceptable and should be an affront to every American citizen.

What is necessary now is congressional action to overturn the Court’s decision. This can only happen if voters establish a proper majority in Congress that will act with integrity and put the nation’s interest ahead of the lust for power. It is our job as voters to bring that Congress into reality by going to the polls with conviction on November 5 and electing candidates and incumbents with integrity and a belief in our democratic institutions. We encourage all Iotas, our affiliated Sweethearts, and friends in the Divine Nine to turn out and vote with conviction on Election Day.