Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-635_o7jq.pdf
Page Number: 35.0

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

3 

THOMAS, J., dissenting 

they shall not be questioned in any other Place.”  Ibid.  By
contrast,  the  text  of  the  Constitution  contains  no  explicit
grant of absolute immunity from legal process for the Pres-
ident.  As  a  Federalist  essayist  noted  during  ratification,
the President’s “person is not so much protected as that of 
a  member  of  the  House  of  Representatives”  because  he  is 
subject  to  the  issuance  of  judicial  process  “like  any  other
man in the ordinary course of law.”  An American Citizen I 
(Sept. 26, 1787), in 2 Documentary History of the Ratifica-
tion of the Constitution 141 (M. Jansen ed. 1976) (emphasis 
deleted).

Prominent  defenders  of  the  Constitution  confirmed  the 
lack  of  absolute  Presidential  immunity.    James  Wilson,  a 
signer of the Constitution and future Justice of this Court,
explained to his fellow Pennsylvanians that “far from being 
above the laws, [the President] is amenable to them in his 
private character as a citizen, and in his public character 
by impeachment.”  2 Debates on the Constitution 480 (J. El-
liot ed. 1891) (emphasis in original).  James Iredell, another 
future  Justice,  observed  in  the  North  Carolina  ratifying
convention that “[i]f [the President] commits any crime, he
is punishable by the laws of his country.”  4 id., at 109.  A 
fellow  North  Carolinian  similarly  argued  that,  “[w]ere  it 
possible  to  suppose  that  the  President  should  give  wrong 
instructions to his deputies, . . . citizens . . . would have re-
dress in the ordinary courts of common law.”  Id., at 47; see 
also Americanus No. 2, in 19 Documentary History of the
Ratification of the Constitution 288–289 (J. Kaminski & G.
Saladino eds. 2003); Americanus No. 4, in id., at 359. 

2 
The sole authority that the President cites from the draft-
ing or ratification process is The Federalist No. 69, but it 
provides him no real support.  Alexander Hamilton stated 
that “[t]he President of the United States would be liable to