WASHINGTON — The US Supreme Court is taking up Donald Trump’s bid to avoid prosecution over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. The debates start at 10am
Trump’s lawyers argue that former presidents are entitled to absolute immunity for their official actions. Otherwise, they say, politically motivated prosecutions of former occupants of the Oval Office would become routine and presidents would be unable to function as commander in chief if they had to worry about criminal charges.
Lower courts have rejected these arguments, including a unanimous three-judge panel on a Washington appeals court. And even if the Supreme Court firmly follows suit, the timing of its decision could be just as important as the outcome.
That’s because Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, has pushed to delay the trial until after the November election, and the later the justices make their decision, the more likely he is to succeed.
The court typically issues its final opinions in late June, about four months before the election.
Currently:
What to watch for during the Supreme Court arguments on Donald Trump and presidential immunity
The Supreme Court will decide whether Trump is immune from federal prosecution. This is next
What you need to know in the Supreme Court case on immunity for former President Trump
Trump is in New York for the hush money trial, while the Supreme Court hears his immunity case in DC
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Here’s the latest:
Shortly before the feud was set to begin, Trump posted a few messages on his social media network on Thursday.
In one, he declared in all caps: “WITHOUT PRESIDENTIAL IMMUNITY IT WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE FOR A PRESIDENT TO FUNCTION PROPERLY, PUTTING THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA IN GREAT AND ETERNAL DANGER!”
Trump also said that a president without immunity would only be “ceremonial” and that the opposing party “can extort and blackmail the president by saying that ‘if you don’t give us everything we want, we will sue you for things you don’t want. want to do’. did when I was in office,’ even though everything done was completely legal and appropriate.”
Of the nine justices who heard the case, three were nominated by Trump: Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. But it is the presence of a judge who was confirmed decades before Trump’s presidency, Judge Clarence Thomas, that has caused the most controversy.
Thomas’ wife, Ginni Thomas, pushed for a reversal of the 2020 election results and then attended the rally that preceded the riot at the Capitol. That has led to calls for the justice department to distance itself from several lawsuits involving Trump and January 6.
But Thomas has ignored the calls and participated in the court’s unanimous decision finding that states cannot remove Trump from the ballot, as well as in last week’s arguments over whether prosecutors can use a particular obstruction charge against defendants of the Capitol riot.
The justices will likely meet privately shortly after the arguments to take a preliminary vote on the outcome. Chief Justice John Roberts would be a prime candidate to adopt the opinion for the court, assuming he is in the majority.
They could simply dismiss Trump’s immunity claim, allowing the prosecutor to move forward and send the case back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan to set a trial date.
They could also undo the lower courts by declaring for the first time that former presidents should not be prosecuted for conduct related to official actions while in office. Such a decision would stop the prosecution.
There are other options, including ruling that former presidents retain some immunity for their official actions, but that wherever that line is drawn, Trump’s actions go much further.
Yet another possibility is for the court to send the case back to Chutkan with an order to decide whether the actions Trump allegedly took to stay in power are official acts.