WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is expected to issue its long-awaited ruling Monday on whether former President Donald Trump may claim immunity from prosecution for at least some of his actions to overturn the 2020 election.
Chief Justice John Roberts announced Friday that Monday would be the final day of rulings in the current nine-month court term, with the Trump case one of four yet to be decided.
The rulings will be delivered one at a time, beginning at 10 a.m., with the Trump case likely to be the last.
The court has already faced fierce criticism from the left — both for hearing the Trump case at all, preventing a March trial from happening, and for taking so long to decide it, making a trial difficult if not impossible before the election.
Trump is charged on four counts for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. These efforts culminated in the attack on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in which a group of supporters attempted to prevent Congress from certifying the election of President Joe Biden.
But time is running out for a trial before the November election, in which Trump will try to regain power.
Even if the Supreme Court rejects all of Trump’s arguments about his immunity on Monday and says a trial can take place, it likely wouldn’t begin until September.
Based on the timeline set before the appeal process began, it could take three months after the Supreme Court issues a ruling before the trial begins. The trial could then last up to twelve weeks.
The legal question before the court is “whether, and if so, to what extent, a former president enjoys presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to amount to official acts while in office,” the order said.
Although Trump initially made a broad immunity argument that would result in the entire suit being dismissed if approved, his lawyer backed away from those claims during oral argument in April. He admitted that some of the actions mentioned in the indictment were not part of Trump’s official duties. Trump’s lawyers have long recognized that Trump is not immune from any conduct that is not an official act.
Lower courts had rejected Trump’s broad claim to immunity, prompting him to ask the Supreme Court to intervene. The Supreme Court has a 6-3 conservative majority, including three justices he appointed.
Based on the oral arguments, it seemed likely that the court would conclude that the indictment could involve conduct for which immunity applies. The justices could create a new test to determine which official acts enjoy immunity and then send it back to lower courts to determine how that affects Trump’s indictment.
That could further delay the start of the process.
In the other cases to be decided Monday, two involve challenges to Republican-backed state laws that seek to regulate social media platforms. The other case concerns when companies can challenge regulations from federal agencies.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
