John Roberts, justice of the United States Supreme Court, wrote the opinion supported by the majority of the court’s justices that Donald Trump has limited presidential immunity in relation to acts while he was in charge of the White House.
Roberts highlighted that “under our constitutional structure of separate powers, the nature of presidential power requires that a former president have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts while in office.”
“At least with regard to the exercise of the president’s main constitutional powers, this immunity must be absolute,” he added.
Still, he explained that “the president does not enjoy immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the president does is official. The president is not above the law.”
Roberts highlighted that a lower court will have to evaluate which of Trump’s conduct is immune under the new guidelines determined by the Supreme Court, and the opinion noted that additional instructions will be needed for the lower court to do so.
“Consequently, we remand the case to the District Court to determine in the first instance whether Trump’s conduct in this area qualifies as official or unofficial,” Roberts wrote.
The judge also said there was a lack of “factual analysis” in previous lower court opinions rejecting the former president’s immunity.
Difference of opinion among judges
This Monday (1st), Sonia Sotomayor, another Supreme Court judge, issued a long dissent criticizing the court for ruling that Donald Trump has limited presidential immunity in relation to acts carried out while he was in charge of the White House.
Writing on behalf of the other two liberal justices, Sotomayor said the court’s decision “makes a mockery of the principle, fundamental to our Constitution and system of government, that no man is above the law.”
“Afraid for our democracy, I disagree,” he wrote.
“Even if these nightmare scenarios never come to fruition, and I pray they never do, the damage has already been done. The relationship between the president and the people he serves has changed irrevocably. In every use of official power, the president is now a king above the law,” the judge concluded.
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