Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/23-939_e2pg.pdf
Page Number: 73.0

6 

TRUMP v. UNITED STATES 

SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

34; Part IV–C, infra.  The majority ignores, however, that
the Impeachment Judgment Clause cuts against its own po-
sition.  That  Clause  presumes  the  availability  of  criminal
process  as  a  backstop  by  establishing  that  an  official  im-
peached and convicted by the Senate “shall nevertheless be 
liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Pun-
ishment,  according  to  Law.”  Art.  I,  §3,  cl. 7  (emphasis 
added).  That  Clause  clearly  contemplates  that  a  former
President  may  be  subject  to  criminal  prosecution  for  the
same conduct that resulted (or could have resulted) in an
impeachment judgment—including conduct such as “Brib-
ery,” Art. II, §4, which implicates official acts almost by def-
inition.1 

B 
Aware of its lack of textual support, the majority points
out that this Court has “recognized Presidential immunities 
and privileges ‘rooted in the constitutional tradition of the
separation of powers and supported by our history.’ ”  Ante, 
at 10 (quoting Fitzgerald, 457 U. S., at 749).  That is true, 
as far as it goes.  Nothing in our history, however, supports 
the majority’s entirely novel immunity from criminal pros-
ecution for official acts. 

The  historical  evidence  that  exists  on  Presidential  im-
munity from criminal prosecution cuts decisively against it. 
For instance, Alexander Hamilton wrote that former Presi-
dents would be “liable to prosecution and punishment in the 
ordinary course of law.”  The Federalist No. 69, p. 452 (J.
Harv. Lib. ed. 2009).  For Hamilton, that was an important 
distinction  between  “the  king  of  Great  Britain,”  who  was 
“sacred  and  inviolable,”  and  the  “President  of  the  United 
States,” who “would be amenable to personal punishment 

—————— 

1 Article II, §4, provides: “The President, Vice President and all Civil
Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeach-
ment for and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and 
Misdemeanors.”