Former U.S. President Donald Trump after a jury found him guilty on all 34 counts in his criminal trial in New York State Supreme Court on May 30.JUSTIN LANE/Reuters
The U.S. Supreme Court has granted Donald Trump immunity from prosecution for his official acts while president, significantly delaying his impending trial on charges related to his attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 election and possibly ending it altogether.
In a 6-3 decision on partisan lines, the court’s conservative majority ruled Monday that U.S. presidents have absolute immunity for core constitutional acts, at least presumptive immunity for all other official acts and no immunity for unofficial acts.
The ruling sends Trump v. United States, the federal 2020 election case against the former president, back to a trial court to decide which of Mr. Trump’s actions were official and which were unofficial, almost certainly ensuring he will not be tried before the November vote, in which he will try to reclaim the White House.
If he wins, Mr. Trump is widely expected to force the Justice Department to end Special Counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of him or attempt to grant himself a presidential pardon.
The Supreme Court’s ruling represents a potentially sweeping expansion of executive power, removing the possibility of legal sanctions for presidential actions taken in an official capacity.
Demonstrators participate in a rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on July 1 in Washington. The Supreme Court released its ruling in Trump v. United States, stating that a former president has absolute immunity for official acts but that immunity is not extended for unofficial acts.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
“Such an immunity is required to safeguard the independence and effective functioning of the Executive Branch, and to enable the President to carry out his constitutional duties without undue caution,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the court’s majority opinion.
He dismissed concerns that presidents would now have a free hand to commit serious crimes as “fear mongering on the basis of extreme hypotheticals.”
In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by the court’s two other liberals, warned such a precedent means presidents can now legally order Navy Seals to assassinate political rivals, organize military coups to stay in office or take bribes. “In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law,” she wrote. “With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”
The court found that Mr. Trump’s attempts to have the Justice Department help him overturn the 2020 election were official acts and he cannot be prosecuted for them.
The ruling said it was unclear whether Mr. Trump’s other efforts to cling to power were official or unofficial and left it up to Tanya Chutkan, the District Court Judge on the 2020 case, to decide. Among other things, Mr. Trump pressed then-vice-president Mike Pence and various state officials to throw out Joe Biden’s electoral votes, and summoned the Jan. 6, 2021, protest that ended with a riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Chief Justice Roberts wrote that, even when prosecuting a president for unofficial acts, actions taken in an official capacity cannot be introduced as evidence – another potential roadblock to Mr. Trump’s trial, putting limits on how prosecutors can try to prove their case.
Anti-Trump demonstrators rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court on July 1 in Washington.Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In a footnote, the Chief Justice said that some of the charges against the former president could also be invalidated by last week’s Supreme Court decision narrowing, in the cases of some of the Capitol rioters, the application of a law against obstructing an official proceeding.
The process for deciding what, if any, of the prosecution can now proceed could also involve further appeals of whatever Justice Chutkan decides. Both she and an appeals court ruled against Mr. Trump’s immunity bid, which he then appealed to the Supreme Court.
Mr. Trump will also likely try to use the Supreme Court’s ruling to stop the other two outstanding criminal cases against him. He is also indicted federally for refusing to return classified documents after leaving office and at the state level in Georgia for attempts to overturn the 2020 election result there.
“BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!” Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday.
While the court stopped short of dismissing the entire case against him, as he asked, the ruling is still a major victory, particularly given his legal strategy of delaying his trials until after the election. He was already riding high after Mr. Biden’s disastrous debate performance last week, which has some Democrats mulling ditching the President as their standard-bearer.
Mr. Biden warned that the Supreme Court decision made the prospect of Mr. Trump returning to office even more dangerous than before, as the former president would be “emboldened to do whatever he pleases, whenever he wants to do it.” He said the court was effectively relying on the restraint of individual presidents alone not to abuse their powers.
“For all practical purposes, today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do,” he said at the White House. “It’s a dangerous precedent, because the power of the office will no longer be constrained by law.”
Mr. Trump, the first-ever former president to be criminally indicted, was convicted in May in relation to a hush-money payment to a porn star before the 2016 election. He faces sentencing next week, a few days before the Republicans officially renominate him in Milwaukee, Wis.
A U.S. Capitol Police officer and K-9 patrol pass protesters by the Supreme Court on July 1 after court decisions were announced in Washington.Jacquelyn Martin/The Associated Press
Laurence Tribe, a constitutional law expert at Harvard University, said Monday’s ruling will deprive voters of key information ahead of the election by ensuring Mr. Trump is not tried beforehand.
More broadly, he said, it “restructures dramatically the American system of government” and creates an “imperial presidency.” Even if a president is tried over an unofficial act, he said, the inability of prosecutors to use actions taken in an official capacity as evidence will make it extremely difficult to build a case.
“No president in future need ever really worry about criminal prosecution,” Prof. Tribe said. “It’s the most devastating decision of its kind in the history of the country.”
Mr. Trump has already signalled he intends to push the limits of presidential power if he returns to office. He has promised to fire civil servants and replace them with political loyalists and has mused about using the Department of Justice to go after political rivals.
There is nothing in the U.S. Constitution that explicitly grants presidents immunity. The Department of Justice has long held that presidents should not be charged while in office as it would impede the operation of the government. But the department has said they could be indicted after leaving power.
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Before the current case, this had never been tested. Richard Nixon, for instance, was pardoned by his successor, Gerald Ford, ensuring he was not criminally charged.
The case comes as the court’s conservatives definitively push U.S. jurisprudence to the right amid questions about two justices’ own family ties to election denialism.
In May, it was revealed that Justice Samuel Alito’s Washington-area house had an upside-down American flag flying outside it on Jan. 6, 2021. The symbol, widely used by election deniers, was put up by Justice Alito’s wife, Martha-Ann Alito, he told Congress.
Meanwhile, Ginni Thomas, a conservative activist married to Justice Clarence Thomas, lobbied Arizona legislators to overturn Mr. Biden’s victory in 2020.
In decisions last week, the court overturned a doctrine called Chevron deference, which gave federal agencies power to enforce laws as they saw fit, and froze federal environmental regulations limiting smog-causing emissions from power plants.
U.S. President Joe Biden on July 1 criticized the Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity that was seen as a win for his election rival, former President Donald Trump, calling it a dangerous precedent that did a disservice to the American people.
Reuters