The Supreme Court of the United States decided on Monday (1) that former President Donald J. Trump is entitled to substantial immunity against lawsuits. The vote was 6 to 3, following party lines.
The decision will certainly delay the trial in which he is accused of conspiring to subvert the 2020 elections. If this happens and Trump becomes president again, he could determine that the Department of Justice drop the charges against him.
What should you know about the decision?
The justices stated that Trump is immune from lawsuits for official acts committed during his presidency, but that there is a crucial distinction between official and private conduct. “Broad immunity for official conduct is necessary,” wrote Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. representing the majority, to protect “a vigorous and independent executive.”
The decision was one of the most significant rulings regarding the presidency in the court’s history. The majority said that protecting all presidents from having their actions questioned for fear of potential lawsuits was a vital constitutional mandate.
The dissenting justices argued that the majority created a kind of king who is not accountable to the law.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the decision was severely misguided.
“Today’s decision to grant criminal immunity to former presidents reshapes the institution of the presidency,” she wrote. “It mocks the fundamental principle of our Constitution and system of government, that no man is above the law.”
In her own dissent, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote that “the court has now declared, for the first time in history, that the most powerful official in the United States can (under circumstances yet to be fully determined) make himself a law unto himself.”
Trump considered the decision a “great victory” and his legal team says that the ruling could also help him in other cases.
The former president is dealing with four criminal cases while fighting against President Joe Biden to regain the White House. He will face a sentencing hearing next week in his case of falsifying business records to cover up money paid to a porn actress with whom he allegedly had an affair.
Sources: The New York Times and CNN