The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that presidents and former presidents are entitled to absolute immunity from prosecution for acts that occur in connection with their official duties. The court also ruled that presidents can be prosecuted for unofficial acts. In addition, the court ruled that Trump cannot be prosecuted for some specific acts alleged by Special Prosecutor Jack Smith to have been criminal. The court ruling was made in response to claims by former President Donald Trump that he could not be prosecuted for attempting to overturn the results of the 2020 election through the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.
The conservative majority on the court ruled that Trump is immune from prosecution for threatening to fire Department of Justice department officials who refused to go along with his attempts to pressure state officials to overturn the election results in their states. The court also ruled that Trump was acting in his official capacity and is immune from prosecution for pressuring Vice President Pence not to accept the Electoral College ballots that gave the election to Biden. The court’s conservatives ruled that it was an official act when Trump telephoned Pence and what he said to Pence didn’t change the fact that making the telephone call was an official presidential act.
The Supreme Court overruled a decision by a federal appeals court that said Trump was not entitled to immunity from prosecution for the charges related to his actions attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election and remain in office.
The court remanded Trump’s Jan. 6 case back to a lower court to decide which acts, if any, Trump could continue to be prosecuted for by Special Counsel Jack Smith. Sending the case back to a lower court virtually guarantees that no trial of Trump on charges in connection with the assault on the Capitol can take place before the November election. The court ruled that when acts occur that are part of the president’s core constitutional duties the president is immune. Justice Roberts wrote that Donald Trump asserts immunity far broader than what the court defines as core duties. The vote by the court to grant partial immunity was 6 to 3 with the liberal justices dissenting.
It is speculated that the lower court may conduct a series of mini-trials, each on a single act by Trump, to determine whether the act was personal part of presidential duties, and thus determine whether Trump can be prosecuted for whatever he may have done in that particular instance.
