Former federal judge J. Michael Luttig said former President Trump and other U.S. presidents can be considered “above the law” after the Supreme Court ruled Monday that core presidential powers are immune from prosecution.
“We can never again say in America that no one is above the law,” said Luttig, a longtime conservative judge on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. stated in the post On social platform X.
“The Supreme Court ruled today that the president of the United States, and particularly a former president, is above the law and is the only person in America who is above the law,” Luttig added.
Monday’s ideologically-based ruling was a major victory for Trump, holding that the president has absolute immunity for actions taken within the scope of his primary official responsibilities and presumed immunity for all other official acts.
The 6-3 ruling all but guarantees that the 2020 election interference lawsuits against Trump will not go to trial before the November election. The ruling sends the cases back to the district court to determine whether Trump’s specific actions leading up to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol fall outside the scope of immunity protections.
Luttig has in recent years been one of the most prominent conservative critics of Trump and his efforts to remain in power after losing the 2020 election, and the former judge testified at a House Select Committee hearing on January 6.
He has also criticized past Supreme Court decisions regarding Trump, including finding that the 14th Amendment’s ban on insurrection did not disqualify Trump from voting.
The Supreme Court’s latest decision came four months before Election Day, when Trump is expected to try to retake the White House. Float and remove The special counsel would bring two indictments against him if elected president.
