“With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”

This is the final sentence in Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s dissenting opinion on the recent Supreme Court case, Trump v. United States. It is a fitting name for a case that goes against the very idea this country was built on: that we must never again live under the rule of a king, and that leaders must be held accountable. 

On July 1, just days before America celebrated its breakaway from monarchy, the Supreme Court ruled that a former president has complete immunity from criminal prosecution for all actions that fall under his “conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,” and at least presumptive immunity for all remaining “official” actions. 

This case was brought to the court by President Donald Trump, who wished to be granted immunity for the charges against him relating to the storming of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The court gave him his wish on two of the charges, while the others were left up for the District Court to decide. 

A president committed crimes, and he will get off scot-free for at least two of them, because according to nine people in a country of more than 300 million, having held power means that he does not have to face the same consequences as the rest of us. 

The six justices who voted in favor of the ruling insist that this does not put the president above the law. They claim that they are only letting our leaders perform their official duties in peace, not giving them a free pass to break the law. They claim that they are only protecting the executive branch’s ability to lead without fear of prosecution. 

But what is an “official” duty? The court does not specify, leaving the very thing upon which this ruling is based up to the lower courts, and they do not even give a set of guidelines for the lower courts to work within. Does that not give the president an incredible amount of leeway? Does it not mean he could, with his now barely limited power, sway the court’s interpretation of officiality? 

Why should the president be able to lead without fear of prosecution? Without fear of justice? Without accountability to the people they serve? Why would not being able to break the law hinder their ability to uphold the law? That is his job, after all, whether or not the court remembers it. 

Whether or not you support him, the fact is that President Trump has, since his inauguration, attempted to exert an abnormal amount of power. He declared an emergency at the border in order to bypass a congressional denial of funding. He has flexed his authority with so many executive orders that many have found it difficult to keep up with all of them. One of these orders was an attempt to end the right of anyone born on U.S. soil to have automatic citizenship. This right is enshrined in the Constitution’s 14th Amendment.

Trump believed that his whims were above the Constitution, and he attempted to defy it.

So far, the lower courts have denied him from doing this. But the simple fact that he is willing to try, combined with the fact that he is essentially shielded from punishment, should set off alarm bells.

Some who support Trump see these actions not as a concerning exercise of power but as a simple correction to the wrongdoings of the Biden administration. They may see my attack on the immunity ruling as an attack on the man who provoked it. But it is not. This is a bipartisan issue. 

Even if you want Trump to be protected from prosecution because you believe he is being unfairly targeted, Trump isn’t the only person this ruling applies to. 

All former presidents have been given immunity for their actions while in office, and Democrats are more than able to take advantage of political loopholes as well. 

We have seen from former President Biden’s pardoning of his son Hunter that our leaders, regardless of their party, are willing to exploit their power. 

If you care about democracy, about justice, about preventing America from falling into the very tyranny it fought all those years ago in 1776, I beg you, care about the immunity ruling. 

It gives our leaders the ultimate power: the power to rule with impunity. The power to sit on a throne above the law, the broken remains of justice at their feet and a gaudy golden crown atop their head, a true American monarch. 

If you are looking to help fight this, you can contact our senators, Dick Durbin and Tammy Duckworth, and urge them to support the No Kings Act. A bill proposed by Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, it would be a first step to a constitutional amendment guaranteeing that no one is exempt from justice. You can also just raise awareness by talking about it with your family and friends. 

Don’t let the Oval Office become a throne room. Our founders were wrong about a whole lot, but they got one thing right.

No kings reign in America.