This is more or less what Justice Elena Kagan seemed to be wondering during the oral arguments in Donald Trump’s Jan. 6 immunity case at the Supreme Court on Thursday morning.
“Wasn’t the whole point that the president was not a monarch and the president was not supposed to be above the law?” she asked.
Like her, I had assumed those questions were answered decisively in the affirmative more than 200 years ago.
But now, after almost three hours of circuitous debate and bizarre hypotheticals at the Supreme Court, I’m not so sure.
And they tried to draw a distinction between official acts, for which a president might have immunity from prosecution, and private acts, for which no immunity would apply.
Persons:
Elena Kagan, Donald Trump’s Jan, “, ”, I’m, Trump
Organizations:
Supreme