The Supreme Court’s decision, along partisan lines, does away with the principle that no one is above the law.
In ruling that Donald Trump and other former presidents enjoy immunity from prosecution for “official acts,” the Supreme Court on Monday gave shockingly short shrift to the principle that no one is above the law. It did so, moreover, in a ruling that divided along partisan lines at a time when the court must contend with complaints that its members are politicians in robes.
It was also frustrating that it took the court so long to hand down a ruling, more than six months after special counsel Jack Smith asked justices to expedite review. Monday’s decision, which came more than two months after oral arguments, doesn’t give Trump everything he wanted and doesn’t derail the federal prosecution of the former president for his outrageous attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr.’s majority opinion makes such a prosecution more difficult. It also makes it almost certain that Trump won’t be put on trial before the November election. If Trump wins that election, he could move to abort the prosecution. In that event, justice delayed truly would be justice denied.
Roberts concluded that a former president is “absolutely immune from criminal prosecution for conduct within his exclusive sphere of constitutional authority” and also possesses a “presumptive immunity” for acts “within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility.
