Five SCOTUS Justices’ Comments on Prez Immunity Come Back to Haunt Them

Collective amnesia seems to have reached the conservative majority in the Supreme Courtespecially around the question: is the president above the law?

Five of the six conservative justices who decided to give the president absolute immunity from “fundamental” presidential duties appear to have made contradictory statements during their Senate confirmation hearings.

“No man is above the law”, Neil Gorsuch told Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) during your confirmation hearing in 2017.

Gorsuch even doubled down, calling the court’s landmark 1952 ruling a Youngstown vs. Sawyer, who reigned in presidential authority, a “brilliant opinion.”

Similarly, Brett Kavanaugh told the Senate that “no one is above the law” during his 2018 confirmation hearing, according to CNN. Amy Coney Barrett agreed during his hearing, but like Kavanaugh, overshadowed in presidential pardons, according to The New York Times.

“That question may or may not arise, but it requires a legal analysis of what the scope of the pardon power is,” Barrett told the Senate about extending the presidential pardon.

Kavanaugh told the Senate: “The issue of self-pardon is something I have never looked at.”

In Samuel Alito confirmation hearing he told the Senate that “no president, Democrat or Republican, no president is above the law, just like you, not me, not anyone in this room.”

Alito also praised the Youngstown decision, adding that during Watergate it was “the responsibility of the judiciary to stand firm” by forcing President Nixon to comply with subpoenas.

Chief Justice John Roberts agreedquoting Youngstown as binding the president to the law.

“Senator, I believe that no one is above the law in our system, and that includes the president,” he said at his confirmation hearing in 2005. “The president is completely subject to the law, the Constitution and the statutes. Now, issues often arise where there is a conflict between the Legislature and the Executive over the exercise of executive authority, the executive authority said. The framework for analyzing this is in Youngstown Sheet and Tube case, the famous case resulting from President Truman’s seizure of the steel mills.

Presidential pardons, Youngstown and presidential immunity were not discussed in Clarence Thomas confirmation hearing.

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