Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-635_o7jq.pdf
Page Number: 59

Cite as:  591 U. S. ____ (2020) 

15 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

not interfere with the performance of the duties of the of-
fice.  “[C]riminal litigation uniquely requires [a] President’s
personal time and energy, and will inevitably entail a con-
siderable if not overwhelming degree of mental preoccupa-
tion.”  Moss  Memo  254  (emphasis  deleted).    See  also  Ka-
vanaugh,  Separation  of  Powers  During  the  Forty-Fourth 
Presidency and Beyond, 93 Minn. L. Rev. 1454, 1461 (2009) 
(“[A] President who is concerned about an ongoing criminal 
investigation is almost inevitably going to do a worse job as
President”).

As for the potential use of subpoenas to harass, we need
not  “ ‘exhibit  a  naiveté  from  which  ordinary  citizens  are 
free.’ ”  Department of Commerce v. New York, 588 U. S. ___, 
___ (2019) (slip op., at 28).  As we have recognized, a Presi-
dent is “an easily identifiable target.”  Fitzgerald, 457 U. S., 
at  752–753.  There  are  more  than  2,300  local  prosecutors
and district attorneys in the country.10  Many local prosecu-
tors are elected, and many prosecutors have ambitions for 
higher  elected  office. 
(Respondent’s  famous  predecessor
Thomas  E.  Dewey  used  the  office  of  District  Attorney  for
New York County as a springboard to the governorship of
New York and to the Republican nomination for President 
in 1944 and 1948.)  If a sitting President is intensely un-
popular in a particular district—and that is a common con-
dition—targeting the President may be an alluring and ef-
fective  electoral  strategy.  But  it  is  a  strategy  that  would
undermine our constitutional structure. 

The Framers understood the importance of protecting the
Presidency from interference by the States.  At the Consti-
tutional Convention, James Wilson argued that the Presi-
dent  should  be  “as  independent  as  possible  . . .  of  the 
States.”  1 Records of the Federal Convention of 1787, p. 69 
(M. Farrand ed. 1911).  He and James Madison successfully 

—————— 

10 Dept.  of  Justice,  Bureau  of  Justice  Statistics,  Prosecutors  in  State 

Courts, 2007—Statistical Tables 1 (Dec. 2011).