The Boston Globe: Trump called himself a king. The Supreme Court must correct him.

[Dennis Donovan]

The Boston Globe - (archived: https://archive.ph/pKwY0 ) Trump called himself a king. The Supreme Court must correct him.

It’s not only crucial for democracy, but it’s the only way for the court to stay consistent with its own rulings.

By The Editorial Board
Updated February 23, 2025, 4:00 a.m

As legal challenges to the actions of the Trump administration mount, President Trump declared in a social media post: “He who saves his Country does not violate any Law.”

The quote was not original — it has been attributed to the French dictator Napoleon Bonaparte.

But the laws and the Constitution of the United States were crafted to prohibit Napoleon’s form of authoritarian leadership. A key principle is that we are a government of the people with three distinct branches, each meant to serve as a check and balance to the other two.

Since its foundational ruling in Marbury v. Madison, in which the Supreme Court gave itself the power to review actions by Congress and the presidency and declare them unconstitutional when called for, the court has protected its power and that of Congress to rein in the executive branch. In fact, the current court majority under Chief Justice John Roberts has been particularly vocal in its disdain for executive-branch agencies exerting expansive power in a way that steps on the traditional roles of the legislature and the courts.

Now, Trump seeks to expand his power even further, and in ways the current court’s majority have already rejected. He is doing this in part through a misreading of last term’s ruling granting presidents immunity from criminal prosecution for actions taken within their core constitutional duties. Trump, through Department of Justice attorneys litigating on his behalf, argues that the immunity ruling gave him carte blanche.

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