#roberts being a coward and volleying it back to the dc circuit is expected but

[shu-of-the-wind]

summary of the ruling on whether trump can be criminally prosecuted below:

1) presidents have some immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts during their tenure in office

2) an act of congress may not criminalize the president's actions within his exclusive constitutional power (i.e. executive power)

3) not all of a president's official acts fall within his executive powers and that immunity doesn't extend to conduct in areas "where his authority is shared with congress"

4) at minimum a president must be immune from prosecution for an *official* act unless the government can show that applying a criminal prohibition to that act would pose no "danger of intrusion" on the function of the executive branch

5) no immunity for *un*official acts

6) so to hold a president criminally liable you need to determine first a) whether it was an official or unofficial action and b) whether the president had the authority to take that action in the first place, but you CAN'T INQUIRE INTO HIS MOTIVES FOR TAKING THOSE ACTIONS during that analysis because it would put presidents on trial ~for everything~ apparently

7) trump's discussions with the attorney general are "readily categorized in the light of the nature of the president's official relationship to that individual" because as president he's allowed to fire the AG if the AG doesn't do what he wants

8) while it's true that the p and vp are engaging in official conduct while discussing their responsibilities, the question then becomes "whether the presumption of immunity is rebutted under the circumstances" i.e. it's the government's job to argue that applying a criminal law to this wouldn't "intrude on executive power"

9) trump's interactions with people outside the executive (state officials, the public) is a game of who can make the better argument of whether that was within his official or unofficial stance

11) same with public statements on twitter

12) good luck lower courts xoxo john roberts

i plan on reading the full opinion at lunch but i am gonna Throw Up Actually