The high court is by no means bound by how other federal courts have interpreted the legitimacy of Trump’s post-election conduct.
But if the justices decide that Trump’s attempts to reverse his loss were in the realm of official presidential conduct, they’ll be rebuffing the assessments of a broad swath of lower court judges – appointed by Democratic and Republican presidents alike – who have concluded otherwise.
The justices will be hearing arguments on Trump’s claims that the protections of the presidency immunize his alleged election subversion conduct. The case will decide whether the federal criminal case brought by special counsel Jack Smith against Trump for his 2020 election schemes can go forward.
At the heart of the issue is whether Trump was acting within the “outer perimeters” of his presidential duties in a campaign that allegedly included urging state officials to reverse his election loss, pressuring his vice president to disrupt Congress’ certification of the electoral results and falsifying presidential electors to rival those from the states that Joe Biden won.
Courts in Washington, DC, Georgia and California have considered from a variety of angles the potential legal consequences that Trump and some allies could face for their 2020 gambits. They’ve approached it in disputes over the congressional probe into the Trump actions preceding and during the attack on Capitol, and in the context of civil January 6, 2021-related litigation against Trump and his allies.
Keep reading here about what other judges are saying.
