WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court Congress ruled Monday for the first time that former presidents enjoy broad immunity from prosecution, extending the deadline in Washington’s criminal case against Donald Trump on charges he brought against him. plotted to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election and it is almost certain that the former president could be tried before the November elections.
In a historic 6-3 decisionThe court’s conservative majority, including the three justices appointed by Trump, narrowed the case against him and sent it back to the lower court to determine what remains of special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment.
Trump celebrated a “GREAT VICTORY” over X. President Joe Biden said the justices set “a dangerous precedent (that) undermines the rule of this nation.”
The decision reflects a muscular view of presidential power and has left dissenting justices criticizing it as undermining a core democratic principle that no one is above the law.
The court’s decision highlighted the important role that judges played in November’s presidential election. Previously, they had rejected efforts to exclude him from the ballot because of his actions after the 2020 election. Last week, the court also limited an obstruction charge that Trump faced and used against hundreds of his supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. The division among the justices also in many ways reflects the political divide in the country.
“Under our constitutional separation of powers structure, the nature of presidential power grants a former president absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for acts within his conclusive and exclusive constitutional authority,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the court. “And he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts. There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”
The chief justice insisted that the president “is not above the law.” But in a sharp dissent for the court’s three liberals, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote: “In every exercise of official power, the president is now a king above the law.”
Sotomayor read her opinion to the court and said, “Given that our Constitution does not protect a former president from liability for his criminal and treasonous acts, I dissent.” Sotomayor said the decision “makes a mockery of the fundamental principle of our Constitution and our system of government, that no one is above the law.”
The court’s protection of presidents, she said, “is as bad as it sounds and it is without merit.”
Shortly after his decision was released, Trump posted in capital letters on his social media: “A GREAT VICTORY FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND OUR DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!”
In his evening address from the White House, Biden cited accepted limits on presidential power since George Washington and lamented that “for all practical purposes, today’s decision almost certainly means that there are virtually no limits to what a president can do.”
Smith’s office declined to comment on the decision.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer denounced the decision as “a disgraceful decision” made with the help of the three Trump-appointed judges.
“It undermines the credibility of the Supreme Court and suggests that political influence trumps everything in our courts today,” the X-rated New York Democrat said.
The judges threw out one aspect of the indictment. The opinion concluded that Trump was “absolutely immune” from prosecution for alleged conduct involving discussions with the Justice Department.
Trump is also “at least presumptively immune” from allegations that he tried to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to reject the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s election victory on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors may try to argue that Trump’s pressure on Pence can still be part of the case against him, Roberts wrote.
The court ordered a factual analysis of one of the most striking allegations in the indictment, that Trump engaged in a scheme to enlist fake voters in key Biden-won states who would falsely claim that Trump had won. The two sides had starkly different interpretations of whether that effort could be considered official, and the conservative justices said that determining which side is right would require additional analysis at the trial court level.
Roberts’ opinion further restricted prosecutors by prohibiting them from using official acts as evidence to try to prove that a president’s unofficial actions violated the law. One example not relevant to this case, but one that came up during argument, was the hypothetical payment of a bribe in exchange for an ambassadorial appointment.
Under Monday’s ruling, a former president could be prosecuted for accepting a bribe, but prosecutors could not mention the official act, the appointment, in their case.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the rest of Roberts’ opinion, diverged from that point. “The Constitution does not require that juries be blind to the circumstances surrounding the conduct for which presidents may be held responsible,” Barrett wrote.
She also called the analysis of the allegations about fake voters unnecessary. “I see no plausible argument for barring prosecution for this alleged conduct,” Barrett wrote.
The task of determining how to proceed will fall to the U.S. district judge. Tanya Chutkanwho would preside over Trump’s trial.
Trump could still be tried, said Derek Muller, a law professor at Notre Dame. “But the fact is, it’s almost impossible for that to happen before the election.”
David Becker, an election law expert and executive director of the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, called the scope of Trump’s immunity “incredibly broad” and “deeply troubling.”
“Almost everything a president does with executive power qualifies as an official act,” he said on a call with reporters after the decision. He added that “for any unscrupulous individual in the Oval Office who might lose an election, the way I read this decision is that it could be a road map for them to stay in power.”
The decision was the last of the term and came more than two months after the court heard arguments, far more slowly than in other epic High Court cases involving the presidency, including the Watergate tapes affair.
The former Republican president has denied doing anything wrong and said this lawsuit and three others were politically motivated to try to prevent him from returning to the White House.
In May, Trump became the first former president to be convicted of a crimein a New York court. He was convicted of falsifying business records to conceal a hush-money payment made during the 2016 presidential election to a porn actress who says she had sex with him, which he denies. After Monday’s ruling, Trump’s lawyers asked the New York judge who presided over the trial to vacate his conviction and postpone his sentencing. He remains in prison. three other indictments.
Black-smith is leading the two federal investigations into the former president, both of which have resulted in criminal charges. The Washington case focuses on Trump’s alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election after he lost to Biden. The Florida case revolves around the mishandling of classified documents. Another case, in Georgia, also focuses on Trump’s actions after his 2020 defeat.
If Trump’s trial in Washington does not take place before the 2024 election and he is not granted four more years in the White House, he will likely be tried shortly thereafter.
But if he wins, he could appoint an attorney general who would seek to have this case and the other federal charges he faces dismissed. He could also seek a pardon if he wins the White House. He was unable to pardon the New York state court conviction.
The Supreme Court that heard the case included three justices appointed by Trump — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Barrett — and two justices who chose not to retire after questions were raised about their impartiality.
Thomas’s wife, Ginniattended the rally near the White House where Trump spoke on January 6, 2021, although she did not go to the Capitol when he delivered his speech. a crowd of Trump supporters She attacked the candidate soon after. After the 2020 election, she called the outcome a “heist” and exchanged messages with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, urging him to stand firm with Trump as he falsely claimed there was widespread voter fraud.
Justice Samuel Alito said there was no reason for him to withdraw Flags similar to those carried by the January 6 rioters were flying over his homes in Virginia and on the Jersey Shore, according to reports in The New York Times. His wife, Martha-Ann Alito, is responsible for displaying the inverted American flag in January 2021 and the “Call to Heaven” banner in the summer of 2023, he said in letters to Democratic lawmakers responding to their requests for his recusal.
Before the Supreme Court got involved, a trial judge and a three-judge appeals panel had unanimously ruled that Trump could be sued for actions taken while he was in the White House and in the period leading up to January 6.
Chutkan Court rules against Trump’s immunity request In December, Chutkan said in his ruling that the office of president “does not confer a life pass to ‘get out of jail without risking being run over.'”
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Associated Press journalists Lindsay Whitehurst, Alanna Durkin Richer, Eric Tucker, Stephen Groves, Farnoush Amiri, Michelle Price and Ali Swenson contributed to this report.
