DeepSummary
In this special bonus episode, constitutional law scholar Eric Siegel is interviewed to unpack the Supreme Court's momentous ruling on presidential absolute immunity. Siegel explains that the court set up three 'buckets' regarding presidential immunity - core powers where the president has absolute immunity, actions authorized by Congress with presumptive immunity, and personal acts with no immunity.
However, Siegel expresses grave concerns, noting that the ruling bars considering the president's motive or evidence of other official acts, making prosecution extremely difficult. Even harsh critics were surprised by how bad the decision is, appearing calculated to protect Trump from prosecution according to Siegel.
Siegel analyzes the potential impacts, suggesting it will be very hard for Special Counsel Jack Smith to successfully prosecute Trump, and that if Trump is re-elected, the prosecutions may go away entirely. He rates the damage to due process and rule of law as a 9.5 out of 10.
Key Episodes Takeaways
- The Supreme Court's ruling on presidential absolute immunity sets up three 'buckets' of immunity but bars considering motive or other official acts, making prosecuting a president extremely difficult.
- The ruling appears calculated to protect Trump from prosecution, even surprising harsh critics of the court.
- If Trump is re-elected president, the prosecutions against him may go away due to this ruling.
- While the ruling's logic could extend to allowing a president to kill a citizen, the court likely wouldn't go that far in practice.
- The ruling represents a 9.5/10 in terms of damage to due process, accountability and rule of law according to the constitutional scholar interviewed.
- Despite purporting to rely on text and history, the ruling seems driven more by policy judgments aimed at insulating Republicans/conservatives.
- The prosecution against Trump in Georgia may still proceed since it's a state case, but the federal case looks very difficult after this ruling.
- The court has a pattern of issuing decisions with logical conclusions they likely wouldn't actually apply, undermining their legitimacy as a true court.
Top Episodes Quotes
- “So what this effectively means is if Trump is elected president, that prosecution goes away.“ by Eric Siegel
- “I do not believe there are five members of this supreme Court. There might be two. But to hire five members of this Supreme Court that would allow the president of the United States to execute an american citizen. Cold blood in America, by the way, Mister Libtard, that's what you called yourself. We're going to have that conversation. We got to talk about President Obama, who executed an american citizen having lunch at Yemen with no due process at all.“ by Eric Siegel
- “About a nine and a half. Because I can't imagine a world where it's worse. I mean, we can all imagine a world where the court said presidents can never be prosecuted, but not really. Right? I mean, it's really hard to imagine New York, to imagine a New York Times headline, Supreme Court rules, president's always immune. It's just no, like, no.“ by Eric Siegel
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Episode Information
The Back Room with Andy Ostroy
Produced by RFR and Andy Ostroy
7/1/24
Eric J. Segall is a constitutional law scholar, professor, and author of the books Originalism as Faith, and Supreme Myths: Why the Supreme Court is not a Court and its Justices are not Judges. His articles on constitutional law have appeared in, among others, the Harvard Law Review Forum, the Stanford Law Review On Line, the UCLA Law Review, the George Washington Law Review, the Washington University Law Review, the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Constitutional Law, the Northwestern University Law Review Colloquy, and Constitutional Commentary among many others. His op-eds and essays have appeared in the New York Times, the LA Times, The Atlantic, SLATE, Vox, Salon, and the Daily Beast, among others and his television appearances include CNN, Fox News, MSNBC and France 24.
Join us for this special bonus episode as Professor Segall unpacks today's monumentally consequential Supreme Court ruling on presidential immunity.
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Produced by Andy Ostroy, Matty Rosenberg, and Jennifer Hammoud @ Radio Free Rhiniecliff Design by Cricket Lengyel