The Supreme Court will deliver its final rulings on Monday, saving one of its biggest cases for last.
The court is expected to address former President Donald Trump’s appeal to presidential immunity in one of its rulings.
Whatever the ruling says, it will change the 2024 election, and it could also impact any future president of the United States.
Presidential immunity case
The case, called Trump v. United States, is the result of special counsel Jack Smith’s efforts to hold Trump accountable for his alleged role in the January 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol.
After Smith investigated the day’s events, Trump was indicted in August 2023 on four criminal charges, including conspiracy to defraud the United States.
Trump fought the charges by claiming presidential immunity, saying he cannot be prosecuted for his official actions as president and that prosecution can only follow impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction in the Senate, SCOTUSblog reported.
The trial on the charges was scheduled to begin earlier this year but has been put on hold as judges at various levels consider the scope of presidential immunity.
Trump’s claims ultimately failed before two lower courts, which said Smith’s case against the former president could proceed. But then the Supreme Court got involved, weighing whether to stay the DC Circuit’s ruling and then, at Smith’s urging, whether to fully brief and hear the immunity issue.
In late February, the Supreme Court chose the second option and added Trump v. United States to its April schedule.
Supreme Court Debates Trump
During oral arguments, the attorneys arguing for and against Trump joined the justices in discussing what’s at stake in the case.
The conversation was about more than the future of Trump and the future of the 2024 election. It was about the future of the presidency, which Trump’s team said would be threatened by a ruling against the former president.
D. John Sauer, Trump’s attorney, argued that the definition of “official acts” and the scope of presidential immunity should be broad to ensure that future presidents will not feel vulnerable to future prosecution and distracted from their tasks.
But several justices pushed back on that argument, saying it would be dangerous if presidents felt they couldn’t be held accountable for misconduct.
“I think if someone with that kind of power, the most powerful person in the world, with the most authority, could hold office knowing that there would be no potential punishment for committing a crime… then what’s the reason to turn the White House into a seat of criminal activity?” Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson said at one point, as the Deseret News reported at the time.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in the case will likely focus on the presidency as an institution rather than on Trump’s specific conduct. It could be narrow in scope if, for example, the justices decide to clarify the definition of “official acts” and then order the lower courts to reconsider Trump’s case in light of that clarification.
Regardless of what the majority finds, it will have implications for the special counsel’s case against Trump and likely determine whether the case can proceed before the November election.
Supreme Court rulings due Monday
In addition to the ruling in the presidential immunity case, the Supreme Court is expected to issue two or three other rulings on Monday, depending on whether cases involving social media content moderation policies are decided together.
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In Corner Post v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the courts had to consider the statute of limitations for claims against policies issued by a federal agency.
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In Moody v. Netchoice and Netchoice v. Paxton, the justices weighed whether state officials can regulate how social media sites moderate content. The cases arise from two separate state policies, so the court can issue two separate opinions.
On decision days, rulings are uploaded to the Supreme Court website from 8:00 a.m. MDT.
