Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
Page Number: 82.0

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

15 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

“ ‘ “deal fearlessly and impartially with” the duties of his of-
fice.’ ”  Ante, at 10 (quoting Fitzgerald, 457 U. S., at 752).  If 
every action the President takes exposes him personally to 
vexatious private litigation, the possibility of hamstringing 
Presidential  decisionmaking  is  very  real.    Yet  there  are 
many  facets  of  criminal  liability,  which  the  majority  dis-
counts, that make it less likely to chill Presidential action 
than the threat of civil litigation.

First, in terms of probability, the threat of criminal lia-
bility  is  much  smaller.   In  Fitzgerald,  the  threat  of  vexa-
tious civil litigation loomed large.  The Court observed that, 
given the “visibility of his office and the effect of his actions 
on countless people, the President would be an easily iden-
tifiable target for suits for civil damages.”  Id., at 753.  Alt-
hough “ ‘the effect of [the President’s] actions on countless
people’ could result in untold numbers of private plaintiffs 
suing  for  damages  based  on  any  number  of  Presidential 
acts” in the civil context, the risk in the criminal context is 
“only that a former President may face one federal prosecu-
tion, in one jurisdiction, for each criminal offense allegedly 
committed while in office.”  2023 WL 8359833, *9 (DC, Dec. 
1, 2023) (quoting Fitzgerald, 457 U. S., at 753).  The major-
ity’s bare assertion that the burden of exposure to federal 
criminal  prosecution  is  more  limiting  to  a  President  than 
the burden of exposure to civil suits does not make it true, 
and it is not persuasive.

Second,  federal  criminal  prosecutions  require  “robust 
procedural  safeguards”  not  found  in  civil  suits.    2023  WL 
8359833, *10.  The criminal justice system has layers of pro-
tections that “filter out insubstantial legal claims,” whereas
civil litigation lacks “analogous checks.”  Cheney v. United 
States Dist. Court for D. C., 542 U. S. 367, 386 (2004).  To 
start,  Justice  Department  policy  requires  scrupulous  and 
impartial  prosecution,  founded  on  both  the  facts  and  the 
law.  See  generally  Dept.  of  Justice,  Justice  Manual  §9–
27.000 (Principles of Federal Prosecution) (June 2023).  The