The Supreme Court conservative majority’s opinion in Trump v. United States has rightly drawn considerable criticism. Its conclusion that former presidents enjoy presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts committed during their presidency is flabbergasting. As legal scholars across the ideological spectrum have explained, this immunity finds no support in the Constitution’s text and history, or the Supreme Court’s own precedent. A blistering dissent by Justice Sotomayor (joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson) exposes this rootlessness and expresses “fear for our democracy.”
That’s not where the harm ends. The Court’s slow pace in handing down its decision is already largely responsible for delaying for more than 200 days the federal criminal trial of Donald Trump for alleged January 6-related crimes.
