Earlier this week, Public Citizen filed a brief in Trump v. United States.

That’s the U.S. Supreme Court case in which Donald Trump asserts absolute immunity from prosecution for criminal charges over his attempts to remain in power despite losing the 2020 election.

The case will be heard on April 25.

Here are some excerpts from our brief:

Even if the Court were to entertain the possibility of some form of immunity from prosecution for actions within the scope of a President’s authority, the Court should not accept the premise that an attempt by a President to overturn the constitutional order by resisting the lawful and peaceful transfer of power constitutes an exercise of presidential authority.

Any assertion that a President’s authority empowers him to conspire to overturn the result of a valid election and retain power beyond his term in office would be absurd.

Accepting a view of the outer limits of presidential authority that would sweep in a conspiracy to overturn an election and remain in office unlawfully would have exceptionally broad implications and threaten severe damage to our constitutional democracy.

It is, frankly, surreal that this is what things have come to in America.

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Of course Donald Trump does not have authority to ignore or overturn the results of an election. An argument that he, or any president, does is an argument against the very premise of democracy itself. A ruling that presidents are free to do illegal things to remain in power is a ruling to replace democracy with dictatorship.

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For justice and democracy,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen
 
 
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