above the law

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

exempt from the legal constraints and obligations that apply to ordinary citizens, operating as though personal power, status, wealth, or political connection provides immunity from legal accountability; the phrase is almost always used critically to describe the perception or reality that powerful individuals, corporations, or institutions evade legal consequences that would apply to less powerful people in identical circumstances, violating the foundational principle of equality before the law; it names a central tension in democracies between the formal commitment to universal rule of law and the practical reality that social power shapes access to justice, prosecutorial discretion, and the severity of legal consequences