Donald Trump and other future Presidents will receive a free pass from the Supreme Court
A Conversation with John J. Roberts about the Supreme Court and the Role of Attorney General Relativity in Trump’s White House
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., writing for the majority, said Mr. Trump had at least presumptive immunity for his official acts. The trial judge needs to conduct an intensive factual review to determine if prosecutors can overcome the presumption of protecting Mr. Trump.
“Today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits on what the president can do,” Biden said. The power of the office will be unaffected by the law even the Supreme Court of the United States. The only limits will be self-imposed by the president alone.”
“Now the Americans will have to abide by the court’s decision, but will not make a judgement about Donald Trump’s behavior,” Biden said.
Biden, who is under pressure from his fellow Democrats to withdraw from his race after his performance in last week’s presidential debate, took no questions. He spoke clearly and calmly during the statement.
He held several events in hopes of getting his supporters to believe that he is up to the job. Last Friday, a day after the debate, Biden held a rally in Raleigh, N.C., where he attempted to persuade supporters that he could still do the job. And, more crucially, he spent the weekend doing damage control, telling donors and others that he understood their concern.
“I didn’t have a great night,” he told supporters gathered at the home of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy on Saturday night. I am going to need you with me to get it done, but I am going to be fighting harder.
The Trump High Court Decision and the Charges It Entails for Attempting to Overturn the 2020 Election: Are They Really Concerning the Prosecuting?
The immediate effect of the decision — one of the most consequential ever produced by the court on the subject of presidential powers and constitutional government — was to delay indefinitely the prosecution of Mr. Trump for his attempt to overturn the 2020 election. The vote this fall will likely move forward with no accountability for that act. But the long-term danger to the Constitution and the American government is even more serious, particularly given the real possibility that Mr. Trump, whose recent criminal conviction in New York is only the latest demonstration of his contempt for legal boundaries, could be returned to office in just a few months.
No one is above the law anymore, as of Monday. The court undermined the American Revolution in its very week by giving presidents power to restore the monarchy that was rejected in the Declaration of Independence. Presidents can still be impeached for their crimes in office, but it is hard to see how they can ever be prosecuted. Encouraging an insurrection at the US Capitol can be taken with no fear of being held responsible or going to jail.
That part of the court’s decision likely ensures that the case against Trump won’t be tried before the election, and then only if he is not reelected. If reelected, Trump could either order the Justice Department to abandon the charges against him or use his power to pardon himself.
That will entail significant delays, and the prospects for a trial before the election seem vanishingly remote. If Mr. Trump prevails at the polls, he could order the Justice Department to drop the charges.
The High-Centric Indictment of Donald J. Trump: A High-Energy Court Decision to revoke the Presidency
The Supreme Court did not have to sift through all the evidence and separate protected conduct from the rest, as was written by Chief Justice Roberts. He wrote that that analysis would be best left to the lower courts.
Other parts of the indictment against Mr. Trump, the chief justice said, “requires a close analysis of the indictment’s extensive and interrelated allegations.”
She gave examples: “Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Would you take a bribe to get a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”
While a sitting president may enjoy certain benefits, they do not mean a lifetime pass to get out of jail. According to the judge in Washington, the US has only one chief executive at a time.
The 14th Amendment makes insurrection ineligible to hold office, and in March the court rejected an attempt to bar Mr. Trump from the ballot. The court ruled that states were not allowed to exclude the candidates for the presidency from the ballot because of the provision.
On Friday, the court ruled that federal prosecutors had improperly used an obstruction law to prosecute some members of the pro-Trump mob that stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6. Two of the charges against Mr. Trump are based on that law.
The case was decided quickly, with the court hearing arguments a month later and making its decision a month later.
The pace of the case is not as fast as it could be. In December, Jack Smith wrote to the justices asking that they leapfrog the appeals court and hear the case immediately, so that the immunity claims of respondent could be resolved by the court. He told them that only this court could resolve them.
Several conservatives did not seem to be interested in looking at the charges against Mr. Trump at the argument. Instead, they said, the court should issue a ruling that applies to presidential power generally.
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the court’s decision, joined by his fellow conservatives. Dissenting were the three liberals, Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson.
He chiding the lower courts for their fast decisions, he wrote that no court has yet considered how to distinguish between official and unofficial acts. He said the lower courts “did not analyze the conduct alleged in the indictment to decide which of it should be categorized as official and which unofficial.”
Even after Judge Chutkan separates the constitutional wheat from the chaff, Trump could seek further delays, as immunity questions are among the very few that may be appealed prior to trial.
