Supreme Court Decision on Trump’s Presidential Immunity Delays Trial Until After 2024 Election
In a decision that has left many frustrated and disappointed, the Supreme Court has announced that it will hear Donald Trump’s claim of presidential immunity from prosecution, effectively delaying his trial on charges of attempting to subvert the 2020 election. The trial, which was supposed to begin next week, will now be postponed until after the 2024 election or held in the final months leading up to Election Day. This decision by the justices has only worsened an already bad situation, leaving many questioning the timing and consequences of their actions.
Timing is at the heart of the criticism surrounding the Supreme Court’s decision. Many argue that the court should have taken up the issue back in December when special counsel Jack Smith urged them to bypass the federal appeals court. Instead, two and a half months have passed since then, and it took the justices an additional two weeks after Trump sought their intervention to announce that they would hear the case. Furthermore, oral arguments are set for the week of April 22, which means a decision may not be reached until May or even the end of June when the term finishes.
This delay in the proceedings has allowed Trump to achieve his desired outcome: to use the immunity claim as a tactic to postpone his trial until after the election. The court could have allowed trial preparations to proceed while the case was being deliberated, preventing Trump from manipulating the system in his favor. However, the justices chose a different approach, issuing an unusual order to the appeals court that effectively accomplished the same result without meeting the usual standards for granting a stay.
As a result, pretrial proceedings remain frozen, and U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan estimates that it will take at least 88 days for both parties to adequately prepare for trial. This means that even after the justices finally rule on the case, it will still be months before the trial can commence. The earliest possible start date for the trial is September, but it is highly likely that Trump will request further postponements to allow him to campaign freely rather than be confined to the federal courthouse.
Many are left wondering why the Supreme Court has allowed this situation to unfold as it has. Some argue that this compromise, which doesn’t seem like much of a compromise at all, is a result of the conservative supermajority on the court. It is not difficult to imagine that some of the conservative justices, regardless of their political affiliations, would want the case to be decided in the regular order, without the electoral calendar playing a role. This would mean pushing the case to the next term beginning in October.
The slow pace of proceedings also raises questions. The court has shown its ability to expedite matters when necessary, as seen in Colorado’s Trump disqualification case where arguments were scheduled within a matter of days. However, it is likely that the conservative justices believed they were already expediting matters in this case. Ultimately, it seems that the conservative justices hold more bargaining power than their liberal counterparts, making it difficult to reach a satisfactory resolution.
Lastly, some justices may be unwilling to accept responsibility for the collision of the electoral and legal calendars. They argue that if Attorney General Merrick Garland had acted more swiftly in bringing charges against Trump for his alleged misconduct during his tenure, this situation could have been avoided. However, the fact remains that the court itself is responsible for the current predicament.
There may be further delays in the future due to the way the court has framed the question it wants to address. The question of whether a former president enjoys presidential immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct involving official acts during their time in office could lead to additional time being spent in lower courts determining which alleged criminal conduct falls under official acts.
From the beginning, Trump’s claim for presidential immunity has been a long-shot attempt to buy himself more time. Unfortunately, with the Supreme Court’s involvement, this strategy has been successful. The trial, which was meant to hold Trump accountable for his actions, has been indefinitely postponed, leaving many frustrated and concerned about the implications for future presidential immunity cases.
