Over 1900 years ago, the Roman emperor, Nero, allegedly fiddled while Rome burned. This week, Donald Trump scrolled through his smart phone while small business owners shared how the coronavirus was devastating their livelihoods. Talk about cold-blooded.
At the same time, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reports that as of this writing, there are over 125,000 deaths and over 2.5 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Throughout the country, states that rushed to reopen like Arizona, Florida, and Texas are experiencing surges as the President might say, “the likes of which we have never seen before.” With the majority of these deaths tearing up communities of color, it’s time to sue.
At the failed Tulsa rally recently, when the President admitted to telling his staff to cut back on testing, he threw us a bone. Consider the hospitals, grocery stores, and farms that have lost valuable front line workers, delivery personnel, and farm workers and fruit pickers. Remember the caregivers, primary providers, mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, and children whose lives were cut short, often without the soothing touch of a human hand while they lay dying.
Who can forget that warnings were given by health professionals like Dr. Anthony Fauci and other epidemiologists, who emphasized that prematurely reopening the country would have devastating effects? Why? Because the virus was marching through the country on its own time table. Yet, no one listened.
Therefore, it’s time to consider that everyone — from the President himself and his administration, down to the Republican governors who under reported confirmed cases or simply withheld data to curry favor with Trump — needs to pay damages to the families of lost loved ones. As Governor Jay Inslee of Washington correctly said, ““We need a president who will care more about living Americans and less about dead Confederates.”
So, how do ordinary Americans go about the business of suing a sitting president, his administration, and Republican governors? In short, it ain’t easy. Still it’s an idea worth seriously exploring.
Without getting into the weeds of legalese, the U.S Constitution makes clear that no citizen —- even the president — is above the law. Yet, the Department of Justice has an official policy stating that you can’t sue a sitting president.
This creates a quandary similar to finding a Bible passage to support an argument. The idea of suing the president is almost open to interpretation even though the law seems to be clear. This very issue came up during an appeals court appearance where Cy Vance, the Manhattan District Attorney, attempted to make his case for access to the President’s log-sought-after tax information in October of last year.
It was the shot heard around the world when the president’s attorney, William Consovoy, declared that, indeed, should Trump pull a gun and shoot a citizen in the middle of Fifth Avenue, the President is immune against prosecution by virtue of his office — the highest in the land.
So, if the president can’t even be prosecuted for murder, can he be sued either personally or in his legal capacity as Leader of the Free World, while still in office? Let’s say that the jury is still out on that but, it’s worth a try to find out.
With only 128 days left until Election Day as of this writing, families who have lost members to the coronavirus should be banding together for a great, big, class action suit ready to launch on November 4, should Trump lose. Likewise, the GOP governors who refused to take action when the data was clear that the virus was still a threat, must be named and included in any suit.
Business “trumped” health and American citizens, primarily of color, paid and continue to pay, the price. One of the hallmarks of this Administration is the complete lack of accountability for all the corruption and political games played on The People. It’s time to pay up.
Of course, money will never replace the lives lost. But, money will supplement struggling families as they try to recover and grieve. It is the only right thing to do.
Oh, and vote Trump and his cohorts out in November.
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