Is the President Above the Law?

The US can be a democracy under law. Or it can be an empire. It can't be both.

I just put out this news release via accuracy.org below. Also, on Monday I questioned the State Department about Trump stating that it was Israel that was refusing a peaceful outcome in Gaza, see below.

Is the President Above the Law?  

On Monday, following the Supreme Court decision Trump v. United States, President Biden said from the White House: "No one is above the law, not even the president of the United States." 

UN whistleblower Craig Mokhiber wrote: "U.S. presidents have always been above the law. Their victims span the globe, in the Philippines, Vietnam, Iraq, Chile, Palestine and beyond. Yesterday’s Supreme Court ruling extends that impunity to the victimization of the American people at home. The crimes of empire always come home."

["The crimes of empire always come home" is indeed true. That's what happened in Watergate. The Nixon White House was furious about leaks regarding the Vietnam War. So they set up "the plumbers" to plug the leaks. They broke into Daniel Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office to try to get dirt on him. The same apparatus would then be used against the DNC in the Watergate building.]

FRANCIS BOYLE, fboyle@illinois.edu
    Boyle is professor of law at the University of Illinois. His books include Tackling America's Toughest Questions. He said today: "This is a terrible decision, but liberals like Laurence Tribe deriding it are complete hypocrites. It's like in Casablanca, they are shocked, shocked that gambling is going on. Successive Democratic administrations have pushed for the expansion of illegal presidential powers. For example, allowing Obama to use drones to assassinate U.S. citizens." Boyle has long warned of the power of the Federalist Society and has been advocating "counterpacking" the Supreme Court. 

    State Department whistleblower Josh Paul and others have argued that the Biden administration is in violation of several U.S. laws by continuing to arm Israel, including the Foreign Assistance Act, the Arms Export Control Act, the Genocide Convention Implementation Act and the Leahy Law, which prohibits funding militaries engaging in gross human rights abuses. The Guardian is reporting: "Freed Gaza hospital head accuses Israel of repeated torture." 

    But U.S. courts have typically avoided finding that U.S. foreign policy is illegal. Earlier this year, in a case brought by the Center for Constitutional Rights and other groups charging Biden administration officials with complicity in Israel's genocide, AP reported: "U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White said he didn’t have jurisdiction over the matter, but he still offered harsh criticism of the administration and said Israel’s actions may amount to genocide." Spain recently became the first European country to join South Africa's Genocide Convention case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. 

    The late Stanley Kutler, author of The Wars of Watergate, stated on an IPA news release in 2005 that in the past when committing constitutional overreach, the executive branch had “seemed to stake its constitutional authority on a claim that the President had succeeded to the sovereign powers of George III.”

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Getting questions in at the State Department is always a challenge. On Monday I was able to inject myself into the questioning regarding the CNN “debate” the piece I’d written on the issue. The State Department claimed they were not concerned that they are isolated in claiming that Hamas and not Israel is the impediment to peace in Gaza.

Transcript via State Dept. —

HUSSEINI: Yeah, on – I had another question, but tagging onto the debate question, is it some concern in this building that not just a lot of the international community but even president – former President Trump said that no, Israel is the one that’s ensuring that the war – that the attack in Gaza continues there? Is there some concern that there’s going to be a broader consensus contrary to the claims of the – of the State Department, the administration that Hamas is the holdup here?

PATEL: I’m not sure I – I’m not sure I fully understand your question, Sam. What exactly are you asking?

HUSSEINI: Well, that there was some substance in the debate, and —

PATEL: As there tend to be in presidential debates.

HUSSEINI: And – yeah, and Trump – and Biden depicted Hamas as the lone holdout for preventing a stop to the fighting, and Trump said no, actually, Israel is the holdout. And then he quickly added that – that it should continue to kill Palestinians. So although he took a very militaristic perspective, he actually acknowledged the underlying truth shared by a great deal of the international community that, in fact, it is Israel that is holding up a stop to the conflict.

PATEL: So —

HUSSEINI: Is that – that must be a concern to you.

PATEL: It is not. Any person on any particular debate stage is of course entitled to whatever opinion they want. When it comes to the current ongoing conflict in Gaza, we remain incredibly committed of continuing to work with partners in Qatar, partners in Egypt, partners in Israel to see what can be done to close the gap as it relates to the ceasefire proposal that the President laid out a number of weeks ago. We continue to believe that that is the best path forward to get hostages released, to get a surge of humanitarian aid into Gaza, and as well as to get us onto a path of diplomacy to have greater conversations for peace and stability in the region.

I want to come back to Kylie real quick because —

QUESTION: The Biden —