KEY UPDATE
1 min ago
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By Ann Marimow
Supreme Court correspondent
The court has ruled on presidential immunity. “A former president is entitled to absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within his “conclusive and preclusive constitutional authority,” the ruling says. “There is no immunity for unofficial acts.”
I consider this a reasonable ruling, a reasonable victory for the rule of law and reasonable, although reasonably pyrrhic, victory for Jack Smith. Judge Chutkan will begin hearings asap and, I feel confident, rule expeditiously. That will put the Jan. 6 case on a, perhaps fast, trial track. But SCOTUS deliberately delayed taking this case with intent to benefit Trump. Smith petitioned the Court in December to bypass the intermediate federal appellate court. That deferral by the Court, until Trump's lawyers took Judge Chutkan's ruling rejecting immunity on appeal, delayed this trial, perhaps fatally.
Special thanks to Ann Marimow of WaPo for providing her timely, succinct summary of the ruling for the public.
