People acting within the scopes of their duties, generally acting consistent with the law should not be tried for crimes. Employees of all sorts should be given discretion to do their jobs, generally consistent with the policies in effect without questioning by the government or others.
In net that’s how I read the Presidential Immunity case. Presidents should not challenged in court either civilly or criminally based on their decisions as leader of the nation as proscibed by the constitution and laws of the nation. The president has every right to choose any lawful policy option without personal legal challenge in court. It’s fine to challenge the president as the head of the federal government but he or she should not be challenged based on decisions they made as part of their office.
I do not agree with the court case against the president over the January 6th protests that became very unruly. The president had every right to decline to provide extra security for the US Capitol or refuse to call off the disruptive protest that spilled over into secured locations of the Capitol. Maybe he should have but that’s a political question not one for the courts to address.
Presidential Immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts is common sense. Official acts are political questions and are not representative of personal character. Obviously, acts clearly outside of the scope of office are not official acts. A president still can’t shoot somebody on the street or take a bribe without threat of criminal prosecution upon leaving office. Now granting a favor out of friendship, political loyalty or any other purpose is not a crime – that’s a political question not subject to review by any court criminally it civilly. But taking cash for that favor is a crime subject to review.
Do I think the Supreme Court unnecessarily waded into this question slowly to throw a monkey wrench into the many prosecutions of Trump prior to the election? Absolutely. Still, they needed to address this question as it was clearly being raised by the very dubious January 6th prosecution and to a lesser extent the the Georgia elections case. But the classified documents case and the New York hooker coverup case are very legitimate prosecutions far removed from any policy decisions that the president should be allowed to persue in the government without personal challenge by any criminal or civil court.
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