The Supreme Court’s Trump-Immunity Decision Was a Public Service

While the result of the Court’s decision may be to preserve Trump’s freedom from jail, its greater consequence is to protect the liberty of us all.

President Joseph Biden’s attack this week on the Supreme Court got at least one thing right. Trump v. United States’ finding of presidential immunity will have profound effects, both short- and long-term, on our constitutional order. Combined with last week’s Fischer v. United States, which threw out the main obstruction charge against the January 6 rioters, Trump tears the heart out of the special-counsel prosecution of the former president for his conduct on that sorry day.

But Trump will have consequences that will extend far beyond correcting special counsel Jack Smith’s excesses and punishing his incompetence. It should end Democrats’ misguided efforts to use the criminal-justice system to achieve a partisan end — the elimination of Trump as a viable candidate. It should protect the very characteristics of the presidency that make it executive in nature, which will enhance the separation of powers and the national security. And it will force the other branches of government and, ultimately, the electorate to take up their responsibility to check abuses of executive power. Viewed from this broader perspective, Trump’s outcome was almost foreordained, as it falls within the broader effort of the Roberts Court to protect executive prerogatives while calling on Congress and the people to perform their constitutional responsibilities as well. Unfortunately, it took more than a year, after the Department of Justice crossed the Rubicon of prosecuting a former president and leading opposition candidate, for Biden to finally understand that the American people — and not prosecutors — must judge Trump for his involvement on January 6.