How US Supreme Court Is Paving the Way for Trump’s Return to the White House

In a new political victory, former President Donald Trump celebrated the decision of the US Supreme Court, which decided that he enjoys some presidential immunity with respect to official acts, but he does not have immunity with respect to unofficial acts.

These decisions will also be subject to appeal and review — a process that could take months if not years.

If Trump wins the presidency in November, his appointees to the Justice Department may drop the case entirely.

Trump described the ruling as a major victory for the Constitution and democracy, and said in a tweet on his account on Truth Social platform: “I am proud to be an American.”

It is noteworthy that Trump is being tried in several criminal cases, and he was recently convicted in a case of falsifying financial records. 

Despite this, it is expected that the Republican Party will officially nominate him to run in the presidential elections scheduled to be held next November.

He hopes that these elections will return him to the White House, after his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, eliminated him in the November 3, 2020, elections.

A Political Victory

On July 1, the US Supreme Court ruled that former President Donald Trump has the right to immunity from criminal prosecution for acts that occurred within his constitutional authority while he was president of the United States, but there is no immunity for unofficial acts.

The Court ruled that former presidents are protected from prosecution for actions they take within their constitutional powers, not in their private capacity.

In the repercussions of the decision, American media reported that the former president’s lawyers submitted a letter challenging his conviction in the hush money trial after the Supreme Court’s decision.

Trump asserts that he has presidential immunity from the four criminal charges brought by special counsel Jack Smith, who accused the former president of conspiring to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power and deprive millions of voters of the right to vote in the 2020 elections.

Trump considers many of his efforts to overturn the 2020 election to have been part of his official duties as president, noting that former presidents cannot be prosecuted for any such official actions.

Attorney Smith counters that Trump's immunity theory would be anathema to the nation's founders and would effectively raise presidents above the law.

According to Politico, two lower courts sided with Smith, but the Supreme Court, which includes an overwhelming majority of 6 justices, including 3 appointed by Trump, agreed to reconsider the case for several months.

While judges considered the case, all court proceedings related to the federal election charges were halted.

In clear and measured statements from the White House, US President Joe Biden said that the court’s decision means that it is highly unlikely that Trump will be tried on charges of seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 elections before the vote scheduled for November 5.

He also considered that the Supreme Court's ruling on presidential immunity is a dangerous precedent that could turn American presidents into kings, calling on the American people to object to that.

He pointed out that the court's decision is a continuation of its attack in recent years on a wide range of established legal principles on which the United States was founded.

Reactions and Warnings

While Republicans applauded the Supreme Court’s decision to grant Donald Trump immunity for official acts undertaken as president, Democratic leaders expressed outrage over a ruling that legal experts warn could undermine the foundations of US democracy.

“Today’s ruling by the court is a victory for former President Trump and all future presidents, and another defeat for President Biden’s weaponized Department of Justice and Jack Smith,” the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson said.

Senator John Barrasso, who ranks third in the Senate Republican leadership, put out a statement heralding the Supreme Court decision as ending the weaponization of the justice system.

House Majority Leader Steve Scalise praised the court's decision and said: “The weaponization of President Biden's Department of Justice against President Trump is outrageous, unconstitutional, and must cease.”

Meanwhile, Democrats condemned the ruling as a disgrace, describing it as an attack on the separation of powers and a mark against the Supreme Court’s reputation.

“They just handed Donald Trump the keys to a dictatorship. We have to do everything in our power to stop him,” the deputy campaign manager, Quentin Fulks said.

Hakeem Jeffries, the House Democratic leader, said: “The ruling sets a dangerous precedent for the future of our nation.”

Immunity or Weapon?

The Supreme Court took 67 days of deliberations and discussions to reach this ruling, since last February 28.

During the consultations, ideological differences emerged between the nine Supreme Court justices (6 Republicans versus 3 Democrats), and the conservative justices did not agree with the broader definition of immunity demanded by the former president.

Republican Chief Justice John Roberts said in his opinion based on the majority opinion that any president is not above the law but enjoys absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions he carried out while in power.

He added that for unofficial acts, there is no immunity, referring the case to a lower court to determine which charges related to official or unofficial behavior the former president may face.

While Trump and his team were celebrating the decision as a victory for American democracy, the three liberal justices on the court had a very different opinion.

As Justice Sotomayor said, “This new immunity now lies about like a loaded weapon for any president that wishes to place his own interests, his own political survival, or his own financial gain, above the interests of the nation.”

“The court effectively creates a law-free zone around the president, upsetting the status quo that has existed since the founding,” Sotomayor wrote, in an opinion joined by the other two Democratic appointees, Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Last May, Trump was convicted in New York of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide money paid at the height of the 2016 presidential campaign to silence porn star Stormy Daniels, who says she had a sexual relationship with him.

Thus, Trump became the first former US president to be convicted of a crime, and he will be sentenced on September 18.

By filing a series of briefs before the trials, Trump's lawyers were able to postpone the three other trials related to his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and to keep top-secret documents at his home in Florida.

If he is re-elected, Trump could, immediately after his inauguration in January 2025, order the closure of the federal cases against him.