2 July—We know the U.S. Supreme Court screwed up on presidential immunity because Donald Trump exulted on his website: “BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.” Yeah, right.

But first we must welcome Trump’s good buddy Steve Bannon to Connecticut, if only for a short stay. As the Supremes were proclaiming presidential deference yesterday, Steve was checking in at what’s formally known as Federal Correction Institution, Danbury, Connecticut—but just plain old Danbury to most of us.

Sadly, Steve’s check-in was polluted by the presence of termagant Trump butch-cutie Marjorie Taylor Greene. But we wonder why Steve went to such pains to avoid his brief sojourn at Danbury. It’s only four months, after all. And in a minimum-security slammer that’s reported to be pretty comfortable, a penal resort. Steve will doubtless be treated respectfully—probably even deferentially—by both fellow inmates and screws. So you’d figure he’d look forward to his time there.

Consider, too, that, like many devoted parents who need a break and can afford it, Steve Bannon probably spent big bucks to send his kids up the river to summer camps for two-month stretches. And the facilities at those camps likely were nowhere near as cushy as Danbury’s. Think primitive and spartan, damp, wooden bunks and cabins, lousy plumbing (if any); cruel and unusual punishment for innocent (albeit spoiled) kids.

Steve Bannon will have a ball at Camp Danbury.

Back to Trump’s jubilant exultation, then. Of course he’s wrong. Because the effective carte blanche the Supremes have given presidents certainly isn’t a big (or small) win for the Constitution, it has nothing at all to do with democracy, and the former president doesn’t give a damn about being an American.

First, the Constitution doesn’t treat presidential immunity in any substantive or direct way. But the pregnant SCOTUS decision written by Chief Justice Roberts quite rightly concludes, inter alia, that “under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power requires that a former President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office. At least with respect to the President’s exercise of his core constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute. As for his remaining official actions, he is also entitled to immunity.”

Nothing to worry about. Right?

Second, Trump betrays his ignorance by bringing democracy into the equation. Democrats do it a lot because they don’t know better and it sounds good in all events. But democracy has nothing to do with presidential immunity. In fact, presidential immunity is concomitant with autocratic dictatorship and common in non-democratic states like Russia and North Korea. Can you imagine Vladimir Putrid or Kim Jong Un even being accused of anything, let alone a crime?

For the record, Donald Trump was a registered Democrat when it suited his purpose, from 2001 to 2009.

Third, Trump boasts that he’s proud to be an American now only because it suits his self-dealing purpose at the moment. But he wouldn’t hesitate to take pride in being any nationality or anything else if he could make a buck out of it. Or save his fat ass.

Based on his actions as 45^th President, there’s every reason to believe and expect that Donald Trump will abuse the privilege and implicit Constitutional right of presidential immunity if he were to be re-elected. That’s yet another reason to do everything possible to make sure he doesn’t get re-elected. Notwithstanding the Supreme Court, the United States is not a dictatorship and—one would hope—never shall be.

While Donald Trump was the focus of the overly broad presidential immunity decision, the precedent holds for all past, present, and future presidents until the Supremes’ distressing ruling is reversed or amended by another SCOTUS.

On the other hand, a constitutional amendment setting out more specific—and, one would expect or hope, reasonable—parameters would certainly ensure that the President of the United States, who should never be above the law, could never be above the law . . .