This Independence Day, the Myth of 'American Freedom' Is More Absurd Than Ever
No longer is the phrase ‘no one is above the law’ an American reality.
This Independence Day, the Myth of ‘American Freedom’ Is More Absurd Than Ever
PUBLISHED 7/3/2024 by Danielle Campoamor
Days before the U.S. marks its independence from the British monarchy, the Supreme Court turned the presidency into an autocracy.
A group of protesters confronts a boat parade for the reelection of President Donald Trump on July 4, 2020, in Pittsburgh. (Jeff Swensen / Getty Images)
In a 6-3 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court just granted near-total immunity to Donald Trump, stating that a former president cannot be criminally prosecuted “for conduct within his exclusive sphere of Constitutional authority.” The supermajority of conservative judges also ruled that presidents also enjoy “at least a presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution” for acts “within the outer perimeter of his unofficial responsibility.” Presidents are not immune from prosecution for “unofficial acts.” “The damage has been done,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in her scathing dissent. “The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law.” In other words: Just days before the country will mark its independence from the British monarchy, the Supreme Court turned the U.S. presidency into an autocracy. The Fourth of July is officially a farce.
Of course, celebrating the “land of the free and the home of the brave” has always been an exercise in willful buffoonery—even before, but especially after, the overturn of Roe v. Wade, which for 50 years established the constitutional right to abortion care. Now, pregnant people across the country are forced to carry unwanted and unsafe pregnancies to term, risking their mental, physical and emotional health as well as their fertility, futures, and even their lives. Post-Roe, 14 states have enacted near-total abortion bans and an estimated 1 in 5 people are now forced to travel out of state for care. To even suggest that the U.S. is a bastion of freedom, when women are bleeding out at home, being turned away from emergency rooms and slipping into comas as doctors debate whether or not they can provide life-saving abortions isn’t just delusional—it’s an intentional fabrication.
Gay, trans and nonbinary youth are certainly not free to enjoy their unalienable right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” when Republican legislators are busy introducing a record-number of anti-LGBTQ+ laws. In a country that celebrates self-determination, conservative lawmakers have successfully criminalized gender-affirming care, banned teachers from referring to their students by their chosen (read: correct) names and pronouns, and demonized LGBTQ-friendly books in schools and community libraries. When entire LGBTQ+ families are fleeing their home states for fear their children will not be able to receive adequate health care, or will be targeted in their classrooms, or will face harassment and even violence at their local grocery store or park, there is no such thing as American liberty. When nearly half of LGBTQ+ youth have seriously considered suicide, are 43 percent more likely to be bullied at school and are even terrified to do something as simple as use a public bathroom, the truths this government has claimed to hold “self evident” are, in fact, bold-faced fallacies.
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Our only hope for a future democracy that truly does embody the very best, most aspirational aspects of a free United States is to uphold the other, arguably most important part of the Declaration of Independence:
“When a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and provide new Guards for their future security.”
It is time for a new guard—new leaders who will hold a corrupt, bribe-taking, insurrectionist flag-flying Supreme Court accountable by establishing hearings, issuing articles of impeachment and expanding the Court itself. It is time for progressive lawmakers to do more than ask for our votes, send out campaign emails and issue stern statements—they must reshape a government that has been poisoned by white supremacy, misogyny and Christian nationalism, or get out of the way so the next generation can. Perhaps then, and only then—when everyone has the right to control their own bodies, raise their families free from the threat of gun violence, and send their children into a world that will respect their autonomy and honor their humanity—will the Fourth of July no longer be a sad, cruel joke.
https://msmagazine.com/2024/07/03/independence-day-usa-july-4-trump-supreme-court-immunity-president/