The intent of the Fifth Amendment of the United States Constitution was, and is, to decree that a just society must refrain from imposing its will and pretending to know what is to come. It seeks to block governing and prosecutorial powers from attempting to claim ownership of truth and abusing it.

Herein lies the double jeopardy loophole, which New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo closed last week with the passage of a bill allowing the state to prosecute those pardoned by the president. The loophole essentially makes it so that separate sovereigns can’t both prosecute the same person for the same offense.

President Donald Trump and some of his top aides have been accused of various high crimes that are continually being investigated: emoluments violations, bribery, witness intimidation, campaign finance violation, extortion and obstruction of justice.

This bill from Cuomo can be seen as a direct shot at the president — that if he ends up in the state of New York attempting to continue his purported existence above the law, the state will not house him, or his henchmen, with grace.

Elie Honig, a CNN legal analyst and former federal and state prosecutor, said the notion that nobody is above the law can be complicated.

“There are instances in our Constitution where people can be put beyond the law to an extent,” Honig said. “I mean, you can look at the pardon power and say, well, if you pass it, if somebody is pardoned, they’re being put above the law or you can say, no, the pardon power is part of our system of laws. It’s built in.”

At the core of human society must be the human being. The president of the United States, just like anyone else, is a human being, and they, just like anyone else, must be held to the same standard of virtue and integrity that we would expect from our educators, our doctors, our lawyers and so on. The President of the United States is not above the law.

The president’s character misgivings are unfortunately beyond the reach of criminal condemnation, but America’s system of checks and balances allows for a hand of its own in justice. State governments acting within their own legal systems without regard to the federal government is, contrary to what some have argued, constitutional.

Honig brought up a 2019 Supreme Court opinion, Gamble v. United States as an example.

“It was within the last six months or so and it held that basically the federal government and the state governments are separate sovereigns, meaning what one does can’t bind or limit what the other does in terms of criminal charges.”

This is how justice must be administered in this country. Government will never have the capacity to equalize everyone’s station in life, but the human spirit’s hand in justice and in creating equity in the scope of the universe must not be trapped in a box.

Those who act out their unruliness, bitterness and vengefulness in the world will eventually have it returned to them.

Honig delved into the position Trump’s lawyers have taken on the president’s criminal liability.

“They’ve taken it way too far,” Honig said. “They’ve now taken the position that the president could — forget about whether the president can be charged criminally — they’ve taken the position that the president cannot even be investigated by authority.”

The president could, according to his lawyer, literally shoot someone on Fifth Avenue and authorities wouldn’t be able to do anything about it.

Removing the double jeopardy loophole is key for accountability’s sake. It’s about acting in accordance with democratic principles. It’s about orienting American society around truth. It’s about moral responsibility and decency.

Again, the human spirit and making ends meet must be the focus of government. Justice finds itself in the orientation of an individual’s soul. We all fall prey to the same threats of tyranny within our separate hearts — we are connected by our struggles. It’s wrong to dismember that reality.

Donald Trump is a product of democracy. But in a democracy, those who have aligned themselves with virtue and truth can push back against the ills caused by those who have not.

Sam Bova is a freshman writing and rhetoric major. His column appears bi-weekly. He can be reached at sabova@syr.edu. He can be followed on Twitter @sam_bova.

Published on October 28, 2019 at 4:09 am