When a federal appeals court unanimously rejected Donald Trump’s claim of presidential immunity in connection with his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, the decision wasn’t just about him.

It was about all of us.

In a 57-page opinion, the three-judge panel delivered a long-overdue response to what I believe to be the unhinged legal theories posited by Trump and his team.

In doing so, the court eviscerated Trump’s lawyers’ claim that a former president is immune from prosecution for any act carried out while in office, up to and including the assassination of a political opponent. The judges rightly viewed such arguments as dangerous and unconstitutional and said as much in their opinion.

“We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a President has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power — the recognition and implementation of election results,” the judges wrote. “Nor can we sanction his apparent contention that the Executive has carte blanche to violate the rights of individual citizens to vote and to have their votes count. At bottom, former President Trump’s stance would collapse our system of separated powers by placing the President beyond the reach of all three Branches.”

Click here to read the entire column on Inquirer.com

Photo by Gage Skidmore. Donald Trump speaks at CPAC. Creative Commons License.