A Reasonable Approach to Presidential Immunity

This Supreme Court opinion while about former President Donald Trump is far bigger than one former occupant of the Oval Office.

Photo by Tabrez Syed on Unsplash

For all of this hysteria over the Supreme Court’s ruling in Trump v. United States, it really is a reasonable approach to the question of presidential immunity.

To consider this opinion, you really have to take the focus off the subject of the lawsuit, Donald Trump, and consider the office of the presidency at large.

Does the President of the United States enjoy blanket immunity? Of course not.

Does the President of the United States enjoy absolute immunity when exercising Article II powers? Yes.

In a nutshell, the President has immunity for official acts. He doesn’t have immunity for unofficial acts.

Who will decide what is official and unofficial outside Article II powers? The courts.

This is important because we don’t want (or at least we shouldn’t want) presidents consistently being charged with crimes after leaving office because the next administration or prosecutors from the opposite party disagreed with how the president exercised that power.