Sonia Sotomayor is the John (Reporting for Duty) Kerry of Supreme Court Justices. Kerry and Sotomayor both think the military is full of morally bankrupt, uneducated dunderheads. The military is comprised of a bunch of unthinking automatons who know how to make guns go pew pew and blindly follow orders. Blame Barack Obama.

Barack Obama nominated Sotomayor to the Supreme Court in 2009 by Obama. A remark the judge made about a “Wise Latina” became widely known and a point of contention during the Confirmation Hearings:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life,” Sotomayor said in a speech in 2001 at the University of California, Berkeley, law school. She made similar statements at other such events.

That poor, pitiful “Wise Latina” has written some of the dumbest, darn remarks ever handed down from the bench. In Monday’s ruling, the majority read out a reasoned argument in the immunity case. Sotomayor cut an absolute rusty in the “dissent” proving that she doesn’t know shite about the military. What, you ask, does the military have to do with Presidential Immunity? The “Wise Latina” brought up Seal Team Six assassinating a political rival on orders of a mentally incompetent President (Trump) to Trump’s attorney during April arguments. Her weird obsession with manly men showed up in her “dissent”. Politico bought it completely:

In her dissent to Monday’s Supreme Court ruling, Justice Sonia Sotomayor painted a grim portrait of a commander-in-chief now “immune, immune, immune” from criminal liability and free to exploit official presidential power against political opponents.

“Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival?” she wrote. “Immune.”

As extraordinary as that prospect might sound, constitutional law experts say she’s right: The court’s decision in Trump v. United States really does appear to immunize a hypothetical president who directed the military to commit murder, though a president might be hard-pressed to find someone to carry out such an order.

What a bunch of fecking idjits? First, I am sure that the CIA or some other Alphabet Agency has personnel for black ops and wetwork. Next, the military has a Duty to Disobey:

So, can a person in the military simply refuse to follow an order if they don’t like it?

The answer is yes — if they consider the order itself to be illegal or unconstitutional.

It’s generally called a “duty to disobey,” and is empowered by the Uniform Code of Military Justice. The UCMJ is more concerned about the need to obey orders, but specifies the conditions when military personnel may feel justified in not following them:

If the order is “contrary to the constitution” or “the laws of the United States.”
If the order is “patently illegal, … such as one that directs the commission of a crime.”

Oy effing vey:

The Seal Team Six assassination team nonsense came from Sotomayor, one of the dumbest people ever to sit on the Supreme Court.
Seal Team 6 took an oath to the US Constitution and is bound by UCMJ. Such an order would be illegal, and both officer and enlisted would refuse them.

— Mr Inviso (@InvisoMr) July 1, 2024

JFC! What is the public’s obsession with Seal Team Six? It’s not like a guy fast ropes into your captor’s quarters and says, “Hi, I’m Carl. I’ll be your Seal Team Six Special Operator Rescuer today. Here’s my card for future reference.”

It doesn’t work that way. Special warriors are NOT picked for their stupidity.

These operators are chosen for their brains. Their intellectual hunger. Their flexibility and moral clarity. Tom Rogan wrote for the Washington Examiner:

Those who make it to the final stage of selection for the Army’s Delta Force special operations unit must pass a commander’s board interview. There, Delta’s commanding officer and other unit personnel barrage the candidate with various questions to test his intellect and character under pressure. I’ve been told by former Delta personnel and have read in at least one memoir that one frequent question is: “How would you respond to an order by the president of the United States to kill a political opponent?”

It can be presumed that a similar question is asked in the selection process for candidates to join the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, also known as SEAL Team Six, and the Air Force‘s 24th Special Tactics Squadron. These organizations constitute Joint Special Operations Command’s three combat-focused special mission units.

This bears noting in light of Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor‘s dissent to Monday’s ruling on presidential immunity. Sotomayor posits what the decision would mean for a president who “Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival?” She answers: “Immune” from prosecution.

Sotomayor’s contention is both intellectually disingenuous and legally flawed. It shows an utterly defective understanding of military professionalism. It also ignores the majority opinion’s express reservation of judicial review for presidential actions which constitute acts of “authority without law.” No serious legal scholar would claim that a president has the legal authority to kill a domestic political opponent. Established law on what constitutes lawful orders includes the stipulation that an order is pursuant to a “military duty” — plainly a domestic political assassination is a political and criminal act. Still, Sotomayor’s inventive conspiracy has sparked fear by some that former President Donald Trump could order SEAL Team Six to kill off his political enemies if he returns to office.

That brings us back to the Delta Force commander’s board question.

Because the answer to that question, at least if you want to retain a shot at passing the commander’s board, is not “I would follow said order.” On the contrary, it is a variation on the theme of “I would refuse the directive on grounds it constitutes an unlawful order” or “I would consult Joint Special Operations Command legal adviser.” The rationale for this question is simple: Delta wants thinkers who can fight, not zombies who can pull triggers. It wants operators with moral confidence and competence who understand that they serve under a constitutional legal structure rather than as heirs to the corrupt traditions of 1st-century-onward Praetorian Guard units. In essence, Delta, DEVGRU, and 24th STS want and provide the exact opposite of what Sotomayor apparently believes they want and provide.

That’s because the Wise Latina ia a functioning idiot. This Special Operator could runs rings around Sotomayor in a battle of the brain pans:

Ben Shapiro is flat right on this:

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— THE OCpatriot™ (@OCpatriot_) July 2, 2024

Teen Vogue columnist.

Featured Image: Dan Love/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons/DonkeyHotey/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons