Legal expert Jonathan Turley said the 6-3 Supreme Court ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from prosecution for official acts while in office was a victory for former President Donald Trump against special prosecutor Jack Smith.
The ruling sent the case back to lower courts to determine whether Trump's actions under indictment were official acts. Even if the judge decides they aren't, the ruling is likely to cause a delay beyond the November 2024 election.
If Trump wins that election, he will be able to instruct the Justice Department to drop the case based on the ruling.
“The court did not go with absolute immunity on everything but did say there is absolute immunity when it comes to core constitutional powers.” Turley told Fox News "America’s Newsroom" co-host Dana Perino and guest co-host Bret Baier. “We’re still going through the opinion to see if there is any assistance on where that line is to be drawn."
"This case is going to have to go back to the district court, which is going to have to try to thread this needle to determine what in the case would not fall under these protections, but this is obviously a win for President Trump in the sense that the special counsel was arguing, as with the lower court, that there was very little immunity here to be concerned with,” he added.
Turley wondered if the justices looked at the prosecution of Trump--the first of a current or former president--and saw that protections were needed so that they wouldn't be prosecuted for actions they took while in office.
“The court here is saying we do need lines here, drawn to protect presidents so they have some breathing room, and you have to sort of wonder how the context affected the justices. If they want to look at the implications of leaving presidents without protection, they just need to look around the country,” he said.
Most Republicans have said they believe Democrats are prosecuting Trump because he's a political opponent and they want to see his candidacy harmed.
Much to Democrats' chagrin, however, the indictments against Trump have actually helped him as voters have seen through their schemes.
Democrats have been up in arms over the ruling, and the lies about what it means have already started.
Even Justice Sonia Sotomayor said in her dissent that the ruling makes Trump a "king," and posited a hypothetical that he could order Seal Team 6 to execute a political rival and get away with it.
These lies have already been parroted by other Democrats in an attempt to make it look like Trump would actually murder someone under the guise of immunity.
If Democrats really believed this, they would get President Joe Biden to order Trump's execution. But that hasn't happened, showing the heightened rhetoric of the argument.
Trump praised the ruling and said he was "proud to be an American" on Truth Social.
