The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision along ideological lines, has ruled that a former president has absolute immunity for core constitutional powers and a presumption of immunity for official acts. However, this immunity does not extend to unofficial acts. The court has sent the case back to the trial judge to determine which of Trump’s actions were part of his official duties and are thus protected from prosecution.


This decision likely means the case against Trump will not be tried before the election, and if he is reelected, he could potentially order the Justice Department to drop the charges or attempt to pardon himself in the pending federal cases.


Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by his fellow conservatives, authored the decision. The three liberal justices, Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, dissented.


The case has been returned to Judge Tanya Chutkan, which means there will be no trial on the election interference charges for several months. Judge Chutkan had already indicated that trial preparations would take around three months, and now she must decide which charges in the Trump indictment are protected under the Supreme Court’s ruling.


After Judge Chutkan makes her determinations, Trump could still seek further delays, as immunity questions are one of the few that can be appealed before trial.


The Supreme Court’s decision comes months after it agreed to hear the case in February and scheduled arguments for April. Critics have noted that the court could have considered the case earlier when Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith sought review in December.


This approach contrasts sharply with how the court has handled other presidential power cases. For instance, in 1974, the justices ruled against President Nixon just 16 days after oral arguments, and this year, the court took less than a month to rule unanimously that states could not bar Trump from the ballot.