Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
Page Number: 71

4 

TRUMP v. UNITED STATES 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

through brute force.  Under scrutiny, its arguments crum-
ble.  To start, the majority’s broad “official acts” immunity 
is  inconsistent  with  text,  history,  and  established  under-
standings of the President’s role.  See Part III, infra.  More-
over, it is deeply wrong, even on its own functionalist terms.
See Part IV, infra.  Next, the majority’s “core” immunity is 
both unnecessary and misguided.  See Part V, infra.  Fur-
thermore, the majority’s illogical evidentiary holding is un-
precedented.  See  Part  VI,  infra.  Finally,  this  majority’s
project  will  have  disastrous  consequences  for  the  Presi-
dency and for our democracy.  See Part VII, infra. 

III 
The  main  takeaway  of  today’s  decision  is  that  all  of  a
President’s official acts, defined without regard to motive or 
intent,  are  entitled  to  immunity  that  is  “at  least  . . .  pre-
sumptive,”  and  quite  possibly  “absolute.”  Ante,  at  14. 
Whenever the President wields the enormous power of his 
office,  the  majority  says,  the  criminal  law  (at  least  pre-
sumptively) cannot touch him.  This official-acts immunity 
has  “no  firm  grounding  in  constitutional  text,  history,  or 
precedent.”  Dobbs  v.  Jackson  Women’s  Health  Organiza-
tion,  597  U. S.  215,  280  (2022).    Indeed,  those  “standard 
grounds for constitutional decisionmaking,” id., at 279, all 
point in the opposite direction.  No matter how you look at
it, the majority’s official-acts immunity is utterly indefensi-
ble. 

A 
The majority calls for a “careful assessment of the scope
of Presidential power under the Constitution.”  Ante, at 5. 
For the majority, that “careful assessment” does not involve 
the Constitution’s text.  I would start there. 

The Constitution’s text contains no provision for immun-
ity  from  criminal  prosecution  for  former  Presidents.  Of 
course, “the silence of the Constitution on this score is not