Hypothetical SEAL Team 6 political assassination resurfaces in Supreme Court presidential immunity dissentOutdoor Army-Navy store owner Bill Hyland displays the U.S. Navy Seal Team Six patch available at his store on Main Avenue in Ashtabula, OH, in an undated photo.
U.S. Supreme Court justices pose for their group portrait at the Supreme Court in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. Seated : Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., Samuel A. Alito, Jr. and Elena Kagan. Standing : Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Neil M. Gorsuch, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
"The dissents' positions in the end boil down to ignoring the Constitution's separation of powers and the Court's precedent and instead fear mongering on the basis of extreme hypotheticals about a future where the President 'feels empowered to violate federal criminal law,'" he wrote. Without immunity, he warned that prosecutions of former presidents who were criticized for failing to enforce a federal drug, gun, immigration or environmental law, for example, "could quickly become routine."
ABC News Supreme Court contributor Kate Shaw said on ABC News Live Monday that she agreed with the dissenting opinion that ordering the hypothetical assassination could be considered immune from criminal prosecution. "It would depend on the hypothetical," Sauer answered. "We could see that could well be an official act."