Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
Page Number: 17

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

9 

Opinion of the Court 

of Congress—either a specific one targeted at the President 
or  a  generally  applicable  one—may  not  criminalize  the 
President’s  actions  within  his  exclusive  constitutional 
power.  Neither may the courts adjudicate a criminal pros-
ecution that examines such Presidential actions.  We thus 
conclude  that  the  President  is  absolutely  immune  from 
criminal  prosecution  for  conduct  within  his  exclusive 
sphere of constitutional authority. 

B 
But  of  course  not  all  of  the  President’s  official  acts  fall 
within his “conclusive and preclusive” authority.  As Justice 
Robert  Jackson  recognized  in  Youngstown,  the  President 
sometimes “acts pursuant to an express or implied author-
ization of Congress,” or in a “zone of twilight” where “he and 
Congress  may  have  concurrent  authority.”    343  U. S.,  at 
635, 637 (concurring opinion).  The reasons that justify the 
President’s  absolute  immunity  from  criminal  prosecution
for acts within the scope of his exclusive authority therefore
do  not  extend  to  conduct  in  areas  where  his  authority  is 
shared with Congress. 

We recognize that only a limited number of our prior de-
cisions guide determination of the President’s immunity in
this context.  That is because proceedings directly involving 
a President have been uncommon in our Nation, and “deci-
sions of the Court in this area” have accordingly been “rare”
and “episodic.”  Dames & Moore v. Regan, 453 U. S. 654, 661 
(1981).  To resolve the matter, therefore, we look primarily 
to the Framers’ design of the Presidency within the separa-
tion of powers, our precedent on Presidential immunity in 
the civil context, and our criminal cases where a President 
resisted prosecutorial demands for documents. 

1 
The President “occupies a unique position in the consti-
tutional scheme,” Fitzgerald, 457 U. S., at 749, as “the only