On Feb. 28, the Supreme Court agreed to review former President Donald Trump’s argument that he is immune from criminal prosecution for his official acts relating to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
Members of Congress and federal judges are immune from civil and criminal prosecution for their official acts. Currently, presidents are only immune from civil prosecution for their official acts. That is because the Supreme Court has never had to decide whether that extends to criminal prosecutions, as no president has ever faced a criminal prosecution until the Democrats’ four criminal indictments against Trump.
The justices will hear the argument the week of April 22, and a decision is expected by the end of June. Despite there having been no noted dissents from the Supreme Court’s order, anti-Trump legal analysts seethed over the decision. Special Counsel Jack Smith had urged the justices to review the case in December and to bypass any decision by the appellate court. MSNBC pundit Elie Mystal referred to six justices as “six Republicans in robes.” Vox’s Ian Millhiser fumed that the court had “just handed Trump an astonishing victory.” MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow characterized the decision as “bullpucky.” Professor Laurence Tribe of Harvard expressed the fear that “justice delayed is justice denied.”
Many other leftists lambasted the ruling, but Tribe’s attack illustrates the reason why these individuals are so irate. Suppose Trump were not a candidate for the presidency. It is highly unlikely that Smith and his fellow anti-Trumpers would be flailing about desperately in an attempt to bring this case to trial this year. They want a trial before November in front of a virulently anti-Trump jury and national media in the District of Columbia in hopes of garnering a conviction that would be deleterious to the........