Left: A general view of the U.S. Supreme Court, in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, February 8, 2024 (Graeme Sloan/Sipa USA)(Sipa via AP Images). Right: Then-President Donald Trump speaks during a rally protesting the Elector College certification of Joe Biden’s win in the 2020 presidential race, in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021 (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File).
On Wednesday, the U.S. Supreme Court announced that it will hear oral arguments on April 25 over whether former President Donald Trump is, as he claims, totally immune from criminal prosecution and specifically, against a myriad of charges in Washington, D.C., alleging he conspired to subvert the results of the 2020 election.
Special counsel Jack Smith has seen his four-count indictment against the former president face delay after delay as Trump appealed the question of his liability for the charges all the way up to the nation’s highest court.
Though oral arguments will unfold on April 25, a decision could come either quickly or slowly — and discerning which is nearly impossible to say at this point.
Trump, the leading 2024 presidential nominee for the GOP in his bid to recapture the White House, is already facing a daunting schedule this spring — a month before oral arguments, on March 25, he is expected to face criminal trial in New York over allegations that he lied about making hush money payments to a porn star ahead of the 2016 election.
How long the high court takes to rule could wreak further havoc on Smith’s ability to bring Trump to trial before the November election.
Trump v. United States will be argued on the last day of the high court’s 2023 term.
Justices only last week indicated they would hear the immunity question.
The order stated only that the court would resolve the question of “whether and if so to what extent does a former president enjoy presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office[.]”
In the days that followed the decision to take up the case, the justices unanimously ruled in favor of letting Trump remain on the ballot in Colorado after a half-dozen voters tried and failed to remove him after he was found to have engaged in insurrection, a constitutionally disqualifying criteria under Section III of the Fourteenth Amendment.
The U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Trump’s bid for what he has described as a “absolute immunity” as president, rejecting his attorney’s lofty claims that under certain circumstances, a former president could even get away with murdering his political rivals.
