No, 1982 Supreme Court ruling didn't give Obama immunity for drone strike | Fact check

Chris Mueller, USA TODAY
·5 min read

The claim: 1982 Supreme Court ruling gave Obama 'presidential immunity' for drone strike that killed US teen in Yemen

A July 2 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) claims to explain why a former president wasn't criminally prosecuted for a drone strike that killed a U.S. citizen overseas.

"Obama wasn't prosecuted for drone-striking 16-yo American citizen Abdulrahman al-Awlaki in 2011," reads text in the image, which is a screenshot of a post on X, formerly Twitter. "Why? Because Obama had presidential immunity. It's not new. SCOTUS ruled on it 40 years ago. But if democrats wanna pretend it IS new, then the justice department needs to begin retroactively prosecuting Barack Obama for murder. That simple."

The post's caption reads, "Obama escaped prosecution due to presidential immunity for drone strikes."

The post was liked more than 5,000 times in a week. The X post was reposted more than 1,000 times in that same period.

More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page

Our rating: False

While the Supreme Court ruled in 1982 that presidents have immunity from civil liability, its decision doesn't apply to criminal prosecution. It wasn't until the court's more recent decision in a case involving former President Donald Trump that it addressed whether presidents are immune from criminal prosecution, according to legal experts.

SCOTUS decision in 1982 found presidents immune from civil liability

Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, a 16-year-old Denver native, was killed Oct. 14, 2011, in a U.S. drone strike in Yemen. He was not the intended target, according to court documents from a lawsuit filed years later. But his father, Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen who worked as a propagandist for al-Qaida, had been the target of a drone strike about two weeks earlier. Obama announced the elder al-Awlaki's death during a ceremony for his outgoing Joint Chiefs chairman.

Obama was not prosecuted for the teen's death, but the Instagram post's claim that a decades-old Supreme Court decision is the reason for that is wrong. In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled presidents have absolute immunity from liability for civil damages for all acts within the "outer perimeter" of the office's duties. But that decision only applies to civil cases – the court's opinion specifically says it "carries no protection from criminal prosecution."

The court's much more recent July 1 decision giving former presidents some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts is the "first time in history" it has ruled on that issue, said Corey Brettschneider, a political science professor at Brown University and author of a book about presidential abuses of power.

While the court's older decision made presidents immune to civil liability, Brettschneider said its newer decision "extends that to criminal cases for the first time."

"That's what's novel about it," he said.

Fact check: No, Biden didn't order arrest of Supreme Court justices

While it's not a law, there is also a long-standing Justice Department policy against charging a sitting president with a federal crime. An opinion from the department's office of legal counsel says such a step would "unconstitutionally undermine the capacity of the executive branch." The policy was cited by former special counsel Robert Mueller near the end of his investigation of former President Donald Trump, when he said charging Trump was "not an option," as USA TODAY previously reported.

A lawsuit filed on behalf of some family members of those killed in the drone strikes argued they "violated the Constitution's fundamental guarantee against the deprivation of life without due process of law." It named several Obama administration officials as defendants, but not Obama himself. A federal judge eventually dismissed the case, ruling the officials couldn't be held "personally responsible in monetary damages for conducting war," the Associated Press reported.

A document released in response to a different lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union lays out presidential policy on drone strikes, often referred to as a "playbook." It indicates Obama had to personally approve the killing of a U.S. citizen targeted for a drone strike outside of a combat area, Politico reported.

In 2001, shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, federal lawmakers authorized the president to use "all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed or aided the terrorist attacks … to prevent any future acts of international terrorism against the United States." A similar measure was passed ahead of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

Since then, multiple presidents, including Obama, Trump and Biden, have cited the authorizations as legal justification for drone strikes. Obama's strike against Anwar al-Awlaki was in part justified because his relationship with al-Qaida brought him "within the scope" of the authorization, according to a government memo released in 2014, The Washington Post reported.

USA TODAY reached out to the social media user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response.

Our fact-check sources:

Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or e-newspaperhere.

USA TODAY is a verified signatory of theInternational Fact-Checking Network, which requires a demonstrated commitment tononpartisanship, fairness and transparency. Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant fromMeta.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: SCOTUS ruled presidents immune in civil cases in 1982 | Fact check

  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next
  • Up next

Latest Stories

  • Critics Stunned By Donald Trump’s ‘Heartless’ Punchline About Man Killed At His Rally

    The Republican nominee was slammed as horrible, unkind and a “self-centered sadistic monster” over the line.

  • Donald Trump Gets Basic English Lesson After Ridiculous Comment About His ‘Pronouns’

    “So, you’re fluid?” Laura Ingraham asked the former president in response.

  • Trump Campaign Attempts Damage Control Over Fiasco At Black Journalists' Conference

    For a former president who never admits a mistake, it's no surprise his staff's statement on the Q&A declared victory over "Liberal Mainstream Media Malpractice."

  • 'Daily Show' Spots The Odd Moment Trump 'Lost A Debate With Himself'

    Ronny Chieng mocked the former president's back-and-forth comments about debating Kamala Harris.

  • CNN Host Laura Coates Erupts at Pro-Trump Guest on Panel Talking Race

    A CNN panel grew testy Wednesday night during a discussion about Donald Trump’s racist comments about Vice President Kamala Harris earlier in the day, with anchor Laura Coates reprimanding a Trump-friendly guest for talking over her.On Laura Coates Live, the namesake anchor spoke with four guests, one of whom was Bruce LeVell, the former executive director of the National Diversity Coalition for Trump. When Coates asked him how Trump questioning Harris’ ethnicity and saying she had “turned Black

  • Harris slices Trump’s national lead in half: New polling average

    Vice President Harris halved former President Trump’s 2024 lead in a newly relaunched national polling average that replaces President Biden with Harris as Trump’s likely Democratic opponent. The first iteration of Cook Political Report’s (CPR) new average, relaunched on Wednesday, shows Trump leading Harris by 1.3 points — 47.5 percent support to 46.2 percent. In the…

  • American Woman Found Chained to a Tree in India Went Without Food for 40 Days, Was Allegedly Left to Die

    Lalita Kayi Kumar, 50, alleges her ex-husband left her in a jungle to die

  • Starving American Yoga Student Chained to Tree ‘For 40 Days’

    An American woman who went to India a decade ago to study yoga and meditation has claimed she survived without food and water for 40 days after being shackled to a tree by her former husband.U.S. citizen Lalita Kayi Kumar, 50, was found starving and emaciated on Saturday by a local shepherd in a remote forest in the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra about 25 miles from Goa, according to reports.The shepherd broke an iron chain that was used to secure her to the tree. Police said she was severel

  • 'Is she Indian or Black?' Trump questions Harris' identity at Black journalists' convention

    CHICAGO/HOUSTON/HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania (Reuters) -U.S. Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump falsely suggested to the country's largest annual gathering of Black journalists on Wednesday that his Democratic rival Kamala Harris had previously downplayed her Black heritage. Trump continued.

  • JD Vance’s close college friend shares revealing emails

    Sofia Nelson, a Yale Law School friend of JD Vance, revealed years of emails the two previously exchanged. Nelson told CNN’s Erin Burnett that the Republican vice presidential nominee has changed his views on “literally every imaginable issue.”

  • Kamala Harris Offers Swing State Clue to Veepstakes Winner

    Kamala Harris offered a possible hint about the identity of her choice of running mate when she announced that her first rally with her new pick will be in Philadelphia on Tuesday.Her choice of Pennsylvania’s City of Brotherly Love triggered speculation that she has plumped for the state’s governor, Josh Shapiro.Shapiro is one of the top contenders being vetted by the vice president’s campaign team and, perhaps more importantly, Pennsylvania is a swing state with a vote that is crucial to the ou

  • Trump Under Fire For Agreeing As Host Says Doug Emhoff Is A ‘Crappy Jew’

    In a radio interview, the former president also claimed that political rival Kamala Harris, Emhoff's wife, "dislikes Jewish people even more than [Biden] did."

  • These 3 senators voted against children online safety bills

    The Senate overwhelmingly passed two bills intended to strengthen children’s online safety on Tuesday, imposing new rules on what online firms can offer to minors and how they use those children’s data. Both bills, the Kids Online Online Safety Act (KOSA) and the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Action (COPPA) 2.0, were approved in bipartisan 91-3…

  • Lara Trump Likens Kamala Harris to a Designer ‘Trash Bag’

    It seems like Donald Trump’s love of trash talking his opponents has spread to other members of his family.Last week, Trump described Kamala Harris as “real garbage.”Now the GOP presidential candidate’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump has compared the Democratic White House hopeful to a designer “trash bag.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get the Daily Beast's biggest scoops and scandals delivered right to your inbox. Sign up now.Stay informed and gain unlimited access to the Daily Beast's unmatched rep

  • Exclusive-US Army stops paying soldier imprisoned in Russia, may prosecute him

    The Army has stopped paying wages and allowances to a U.S. soldier sentenced last month to nearly four years in a Russian penal colony and may prosecute him if he returns to the United States, U.S. officials said. Gordon Black, a 34-year-old staff sergeant, was convicted in Russia of theft and threatening murder. He was also having an extramarital affair - prohibited in the U.S. military - with a Russian woman named Alexandra Vashchuk, who he met during a deployment in South Korea.

  • Canadians flagged at border for house-sitting say U.K. company misled them

    Some Canadians who tried to house-sit abroad say they were flagged and turned away at the U.S. border and now fear their ability to travel freely has been jeopardized after border agents classified their house-sitting plans as work.Several house-sitters told CBC News they feel misled by U.K.-based company Trusted Housesitters, which some said has been "irresponsible" in "downplaying" the risks involved when taking on an international house-sitting opportunity.Meanwhile, the company maintains hou

  • Hamas' top political leader is killed in Iran in strike that risks triggering all-out regional war

    BEIRUT (AP) — Hamas' top political leader was killed Wednesday by a predawn airstrike in the Iranian capital, Iran and the militant group said, blaming Israel for a shock assassination that risked escalating into an all-out regional war. Iran's supreme leader vowed revenge against Israel.

  • Sajjan defends request to use soldiers as backdrop for Diljit Dosanjh concert

    Canada's emergency preparedness minister is defending an official request he made to use Canadian soldiers as a backdrop for a concert by Punjabi pop star Diljit Dosanjh, one of India's biggest actors and singers.As first reported in The Globe and Mail, Harjit Sajjan received a letter mid-April asking if Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) members would participate in Dosanjh's show in Vancouver on April 27. According to a statement from Sajjan's office, the minister then forwarded the request "along wi

  • 'Pulsating' mechanized assaults in Ukraine may reflect the limit of Russia's offensive abilities, war analysts say

    Analysts at the Institute for the Study of War said Russia has been conducting "periodic and pulsating" assaults.

  • Trump Surrogates Already Spinning ‘Turned Black’ Comments

    Hours after Donald Trump’s controversial interview at a National Association of Black Journalists conference, the former president’s press secretary Karoline Leavitt began spinning his incorrect assertions that Vice President Kamala Harris “happened to turn Black.”“What this showed is that President Trump is unafraid to show up and to have these difficult and hostile conversations in environments,” Trump’s Leavitt told host Connell McShane on NewsNation on Wednesday night.“He rightfully pointed