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Notes -
Was this justified along notionally originalist grounds? I know the role of president was a democratic palette-swapping out of the king to some extent, but sovereign immunity is easier to write off when those who enjoy it are alienated from actual political power/legitimacy.
Yes, on multiple axis.
The main originalist theme is that the Founders established some powers for the President, and not the Legislature, and so the Legislature or Courts don't have a Constitutional basis of restraining authorities that the President is constitutionally granted. I.E. the Constitution gives the President the power of pardon, originalist writing supports this sort of consideration, the Constitution doesn't give Congress or the Courts a role in executing or limiting it, and thus the current conclusion is that the Congress or Judiciary can't make it a crime to execute the Constitutional power of the President as the original intention for it was. This is generally consistent with the originalist intents behind separation of powers, the empowered Presidency vis-a-vis the previous Articles of Confederation, and so on.
The current forum discussions are more dominated by discussion over the military, but that's because of general conflation of two distinct authorities between the authority to Command (the President's Article II authority), and the authority to establish the rules and regulations of what may be commanded (Congress's Article I authority). And then trying to superimpose the absolute immunity argument on that overlapping sphere when the Court says absolute immunity doesn't apply to the overlapping spheres.
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