Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
Page Number: 12.0

4 

TRUMP v. UNITED STATES 

Opinion of the Court 

that  “former  Presidents  do  not  possess  absolute  federal 
criminal immunity for any acts committed while in office.”
2023  WL  8359833,  *15  (DC,  Dec.  1,  2023).    The  District 
Court recognized that the President is immune from dam-
ages  liability  in  civil  cases,  to  protect  against  the  chilling 
effect such exposure might have on the carrying out of his
responsibilities.    See  Nixon  v.  Fitzgerald,  457  U. S.  731, 
749–756 (1982).  But it reasoned that “the possibility of vex-
atious  post-Presidency  litigation  is  much  reduced  in  the 
criminal context” in light of “[t]he robust procedural safe-
guards  attendant  to  federal  criminal  prosecutions.”    2023 
WL 8359833, *9–*10.  The District Court declined to decide 
whether the indicted conduct involved official acts.  See id., 
at *15. 

The D. C. Circuit affirmed.  91 F. 4th 1173 (2024) (per cu-
riam).  Citing  Marbury  v.  Madison,  1  Cranch  137  (1803),
the court distinguished between two kinds of official acts: 
discretionary and ministerial.  91 F. 4th, at 1189–1190.  It 
observed that “although discretionary acts are ‘only politi-
cally examinable,’ the judiciary has the power to hear cases” 
involving ministerial acts that an officer is directed to per-
form by the legislature.  Ibid. (quoting Marbury, 1 Cranch, 
at 166).  From this distinction, the D. C. Circuit concluded 
that  the  “separation  of  powers  doctrine,  as  expounded  in 
Marbury and its progeny, necessarily permits the Judiciary 
to oversee the federal criminal prosecution of a former Pres-
ident for his official acts because the fact of the prosecution
means that the former President has allegedly acted in de-
fiance of the Congress’s laws.”  91 F. 4th, at 1191.  In the 
court’s  view,  the  fact  that  Trump’s  actions  “allegedly  vio-
lated generally applicable criminal laws” meant that those
actions  “were  not  properly  within  the  scope  of  his  lawful 
discretion.”  Id., at 1192.  The D. C. Circuit thus concluded 
that Trump had “no structural immunity from the charges 
in the Indictment.”  Ibid.  Like the District Court, the D. C.