No person should be above the law

“[I]n America the law is king. For as in absolute governments the King is law, so in free countries the law ought to be king; and there ought to be no other,” Thomas Paine in “Common Sense.”

When Thomas Paine wrote those words in 1776, the colonies that would eventually become what is today the United States of America were in revolt against King George III of England — a man who ruled by “divine right” and accident of birth rather than through the will of the people.

Paine, and his fellow founding fathers, would be appalled at the current state of affairs in the nation they helped form. They would be especially appalled at the Supreme Court decision that places the president above the law.

In the ruling in Trump vs. United States, the majority opinion of the court was that the president holds broad immunity for crimes they may have committed while in office. In this demonstration of judicial activism, the justices have rewritten the constitution to serve their own political ends rather than being faithful stewards of the founder’s intent. This is particularly odious coming from justices who claim to be originalists, yet who use the constitution as a soiled wipe rag when it gets in the way of their personal politics.

America is a nation of laws and throughout its history has operated under the fundamental premise that no one is above the law. This has been an essential check on the power of the president throughout American history. Even in the darkest chapters of American history, this premise has stood as a shield that protected the nation from would-be tyrants and two-bit despots.

That shield is gone and in its place Americans are left to rely only on the personal morality of the person serving as commander in chief to keep themselves in check. Anyone who has lived through American history in the past 50 years can cite multiple times where a president’s moral compass appeared to be locked away in the Resolute Desk and where personal motives were placed above national interests.

Placing any person above the law, regardless of title, party affiliation, wealth or stated belief is a recipe for disaster and a fateful step down the proverbial slippery slope toward the erasure of the America that has been the shining city on the hill for generations of people facing oppression around the globe.

Congress, the states and ultimately the people of the United States must move quickly to adopt a proposed constitutional amendment to codify that no person is above the law. This should not be a partisan issue, but should be an issue of ensuring that whoever holds the seat of power in the United States is held to the same standards as any other person.

America is a nation of laws and it is up to all Americans to ensure that remains so in this generation and for generations to come.