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The Supreme Court has never heard a case like this, mainly because no former president in the history of the republic has been charged with crimes committed in office.
Presidential immunity protects a sitting president from civil lawsuits related to official duties while they are in office, essentially, a president cannot be sued for carrying out his office. Although not enshrined in the US constitution, it is a legal doctrine.
But that doesn't mean the president is above the law—it doesn't cover them for misconduct, criminal behavior, or actions before they were president.
Donald Trump is now facing dozens of criminal charges in four cases, becoming the first president in US history to be criminally indicted.
Today there is a big showdown in the USA between the prosecutor's office and Trump's lawyers regarding the immunity that a president has. Depending on what the Supreme Court justices decide, this case could set a crucial precedent in how US presidents are held accountable for abusing their executive power.
The Supreme Court's verdict, which we may not get for at least several weeks, will be one of the most important decisions about presidential power in decades. If the justices rule that Trump has presidential immunity, some of the criminal charges he faces, including that he allegedly conspired to overturn the outcome of the 2020 election, would be dropped.
Lower courts have already rejected his immunity argument, but his legal team appealed to the Supreme Court, which agreed to hear it. In August 2023, Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith indicted Trump on four counts of criminal conspiracy to sway the 2020 election.
In December, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan rejected Trump's immunity claims, ruling that being president "doesn't grant a 'get out of jail'" license for life. Trump quickly appealed the decision, and Smith asked the Supreme Court to take up the case, speeding up the appeals process.
The Supreme Court has never heard a case like this, mainly because no former president in the history of the republic has been charged with crimes committed in office.
The detailed constitutional arguments will be examined in the coming hours, but the consequences of this case will reverberate for years to come. If the former president convinces the nine judges that he has blanket immunity, then the criminal cases facing Trump will no doubt disappear. Granting full immunity may be impossible, but delays are making it increasingly likely that some of these trials won't happen before the election.
Donald Trump's legal team cited a 1982 case, Nixon vs. Fitzgerald, as their main argument during today's showdown.
Arthur Fitzgerald was an analyst at the Air Force Department, and in 1968 he became a whistleblower, testifying to Congress about budget blowouts and technical problems.
When he was fired two years later, he claimed it was in retaliation for his testimony. Fitzgerald later sued several White House officials, including Richard Nixon, who was president at the time he was impeached.
Two lower courts rejected Nixon's claim for immunity, but the Supreme Court went the other way and ultimately granted Nixon presidential immunity from civil damages—basically, he can't be sued for acts committed while who was on duty.
But on the other hand, this case is different from that of Donald Trump – Nixon vs Fitzgerald was a civil case, while Trump's is a criminal one.
Still, even if the Supreme Court ultimately rules against Trump, the justices may have given him enough time to defeat the two federal cases that have been filed against him.
If he wins re-election in November, Trump could appoint Justice Department officials willing to drop prosecutions or, at the very least, suspend cases for his four-year presidential term.
If that doesn't work, he could take the unprecedented step of pardoning himself for the alleged crimes. The possibility that such a delay strategy could succeed, regardless of the merits of the cases against him, is one of the reasons why some of Trump's fiercest critics are angry that it took years for federal charges to be filed against him. pamphlet
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