Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.), a current member of the House Armed Services Committee and a candidate for U.S. Senate in her home state of Michigan, was among those speaking out this week against the U.S. Supreme Court’s immunity ruling in an appeal from Donald Trump.
Trump was challenging a criminal case accusing him of conspiring against the 2020 presidential election outcome, meaning Biden’s win that year. And the conservative court majority held — eventually — that presidents do indeed possess legal immunity, meaning protection from criminal prosecution, for actions taken within their legal roles combined with “at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for all his official acts” — quickly spurring extensive concern about what this could mean for democracy.
“Thanks to this ruling, the American President is now something like a king — immune from criminal accountability, no matter how horrific their official acts,” Slotkin said Monday. “That’s not what the Founders wanted; in fact, it’s what they risked their lives to escape, and what millions of Americans have risked their lives to resist. Today’s ruling does enormous harm to the free and democratic vision of America. Like Justice Sotomayor, I fear for our democracy.”
Trump’s underlying criminal case will now be mired in further delay, with the Supreme Court’s ruling teeing up new proceedings on the question of whether certain conduct alleged of him falls within the new protections. And there was also new delay in his New York City criminal case where a jury recently convicted him on all counts after prosecutors alleged the felony falsification of business records. Trump’s sentencing was originally set for this month, but it will now take place in September — allowing, it seems, for an examination of how the ruling might impact the proceedings, though the case included conduct seemingly outside the presidency.
