Supreme Court’s Options Narrow as Trump Loses Each Appeal
After the DC Circuit’s common-sense ruling, the justices will struggle to accept the former president’s immunity defense in the Jan. 6 case.
How times have changed.
Photographer: Mario Tama/Getty Images
It just got harder for the Supreme Court to save Donald Trump from criminal prosecution for his involvement with the violence at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In a straightforward opinion, a unanimous panel of the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit rejected Trump’s claim that a former president should be immune from being prosecuted criminally for conduct undertaken while in office.
The opinion is strong enough that it is unlikely to be reconsidered by the full DC Circuit. When the case goes to the Supreme Court, as it almost certainly will, the justices won’t be able to reject the appellate court’s common-sense conclusions with a straight face. And the issues are so straightforward that it would be embarrassing for the high court to delay long enough to push Trump’s criminal trial until after November’s election — after which, if Trump wins, he could dismiss the charges.