{"id":71731,"date":"2024-07-01T21:00:19","date_gmt":"2024-07-01T21:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/guid_108000196"},"modified":"2024-07-01T21:00:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-01T21:00:19","slug":"supreme-court-rules-trump-has-immunity-for-official-acts-limits-evidence-and-reach-of-special-counsel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.timesamerica.net\/supreme-court-rules-trump-has-immunity-for-official-acts-limits-evidence-and-reach-of-special-counsel\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court rules Trump has immunity for official acts, limits evidence and reach of special counsel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The Supreme Court ruled<\/span> Monday that Donald Trump<\/span> has “presumptive immunity” for official acts he performed as president, complicating but not killing special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case.<\/p>\n

The court also ruled that Trump is not immune for “unofficial acts.” And “not everything the President does is official,” the majority determined.<\/p>\n

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But the decision effectively erases any chance that the high-profile criminal case against the presumptive Republican presidential nominee will head to trial before the Nov. 5 election.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The 6-3 ruling, which was opposed by the court’s three liberal justices, sends the case back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.<\/p>\n

“The President is not above the law,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for the majority.<\/p>\n

“But Congress may not criminalize the President’s conduct in carrying out the responsibilities of the Executive Branch under the Constitution,” Roberts ruled.<\/p>\n

That means the president is “absolutely immune from criminal prosecution for conduct within his exclusive sphere of constitutional authority,” Roberts wrote.<\/p>\n

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That covers actions such as granting pardons or removing presidentially appointed executive officers, he wrote.<\/p>\n

The president also enjoys “at least a presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution” for acts performed “within the outer perimeter of his official responsibility,” the majority concluded.<\/p>\n

That standard “is required to safeguard the independence and effective functioning of the Executive Branch,” the chief justice explained.<\/p>\n

In practice, that means that the president is immune from prosecution “unless the Government can show that applying a criminal prohibition to that act would pose no ‘dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch,'” Roberts wrote.<\/p>\n

Justice Sonia Sotomayor in a blistering dissent wrote, “this majority’s project will have disastrous consequences for the Presidency and for our democracy.”<\/p>\n

“The relationship between the President and the people he serves has shifted irrevocably. In every use of official power, the President is now a king above the law,” she wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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More CNBC news on Supreme Court rulings<\/h2>\n
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  • Supreme Court punts social media moderation cases to lower courts<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Supreme Court rules Trump has some immunity for official acts<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Supreme Court: Trump aide Steve Bannon must go to jail<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Chevron doctrine overturned: Republicans, big business praise Supreme Court decision<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Supreme Court blocks Purdue Pharma opioid settlement, threatening billions of dollars for victims<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n


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    “When he uses his official powers in any way, under the majority’s reasoning, he now will be insulated from criminal prosecution,” Sotomayor wrote.<\/p>\n

    “Orders the Navy’s Seal Team 6 to assassinate a political rival? Immune. Organizes a military coup to hold onto power? Immune. Takes a bribe in exchange for a pardon? Immune. Immune, immune, immune.”<\/p>\n

    “With fear for our democracy, I dissent,” she wrote.<\/p>\n

    Trump celebrated the ruling soon after its release Monday morning.<\/p>\n

    “BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY. PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN!” he wrote<\/span> on Truth Social<\/span>