What will happen now that the Supreme Court rules that Trump can claim immunity?
The Supreme Court decides to grant former president Donald Trump partial immunity from criminal prosecution in his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
Supreme Court justices have ruled that former president Donald Trump has some immunity from being criminally prosecuted for trying to overturn the 2020 election results.
Trump had maintained that he should be given blanket immunity from criminal prosecution for all issues related to his presidency, including his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol Hill riots.
The court’s complex ruling, which attempts to differentiate between official and unofficial acts, further pushes back special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecution of the former president.
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What would be the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision to grant Trump partial presidential immunity?
The Supreme Court dismissed Trump’s claim of absolute immunity, but ruled that he has some immunity for behavior related to his duties as president in the federal election interference case.
Since he was given partial immunity, the particulars of the court’s decision would determine what will happen to the charges Trump is currently facing. The judges in the two trial courts where he faces separate sets of federal charges will have to work out how the High Court’s decision will affect their specific cases. According to CNN, there will have to be “a lot of reading and explaining before the whole scope of the decision is clear.”
The decision to grant the former president partial immunity would not necessarily have an impact on his conviction on 34 counts of felony in the hush money case involving a scheme to unlawfully influence the results of the 2016 presidential election.
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Liberal justices of the high court believe granting the former president’s immunity claim would encourage future presidents to commit crimes without fear of reprisal.
“Once we say ‘no criminal liability, Mr President. You can do whatever you want,’ I’m worried we would have a worse problem than the problem of the president feeling constrained to follow the law while he’s in office,” according to Biden appointee Justice Ketanji Brown, per The Guardian.
The question of presidential immunity is an unprecedented Constitutional matter. However, the Supreme Court is the highest legal authority in the country, so the body’s decision on the issue is final.