The court’s most anticipated decision of the term was on the unprecedented question of whether Donald Trump enjoyed presidential immunity from charges he interfered with the 2020 election. It dropped like a bombshell on the final day, upending the historic prosecution of the former president and likely reshaping White House power for decades to come.
The conservative majority did not embrace Trump’s contention that he was absolutely immune from prosecution, but nevertheless handed him a ruling that was a stunning victory.
They ruled that presidents cannot be prosecuted for carrying out their core constitutional powers and are entitled to presumptive immunity for other official acts, drawing a furious dissent from the liberal justices even as the majority said presidents do not enjoy immunity for private conduct.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote that the 6-3 decision mocked the principle that “no man is above the law.”
“With fear for our democracy, I dissent,” she wrote, a cri de coeur that instantly made its way onto a T-shirt hawked by Trump’s niece, Mary L. Trump, a vocal critic of the 45th president.
