The Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump is entitled to immunity from federal prosecution for official actions he took while in office.
Credit: Abhiram JuvvadiThe Supreme Court of the United States ruled on Monday to grant former President and 1968 Wharton graduate Donald Trump partial immunity for his actions during his presidency relating to attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
The 6-3 ruling — in what has largely been classified as the most anticipated case before the court this year — is a large win for the former president, upending the February decision made by a federal appeals court to reject Trump’s claim for immunity in the election interference trial.
The case makes a distinction between official and unofficial acts taken by a president, ruling that presidents are reserved immunity for official acts taken during their term. The court also ruled that Trump’s trial judge, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, will be responsible for deciphering which actions are official and which are unofficial. Chuktan is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School.
Unofficial acts are not granted immunity under the court’s ruling.
“We conclude that under our constitutional structure of separated powers, the nature of Presidential power requires that a former President have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during his tenure in office,” Justice John Roberts wrote on behalf of the majority.
In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the court’s decision “makes a mockery of the principle, foundational to our Constitution and system of Government, that no man is above the law.”
The ruling has already prompted the judge in Trump’s Manhattan criminal case, Juan Merchan, to push the former president's sentencing to Sept. 18. Trump’s lawyers have agued that prosecutors should have been precluded from using evidence related to his official acts during the hearing.
Trump welcomed the decision, calling it a “BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY” on social media platform Truth Social.
President and former Penn Professor Joe Biden addressed the court’s decision in remarks made from the White House on Monday evening.
Speaking from Cross Hall, Biden said that the ruling “means that there are virtually no limits on what a president can do.”
“I know I will respect the limits of the presidential power, as I have for three and a half years,” Biden added. “But any president, including Donald Trump, will now be free to ignore the law.”
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