Why a SCOTUS ruling could put US presidents 'above the law': Charlie Sykes

Special counsel Jack Smith has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review Donald Trump's claim that he enjoys immunity from prosecution in Smith's election interference case.

Smith alleges that Trump violated federal laws when he lost the 2020 election to now-President Joe Biden but tried to remain in the White House anyway. But Trump is claiming that because he was still president in late 2020 and early 2021, Smith cannot legally prosecute him on those charges — a claim that Judge Tanya Chutkan flat-out rejected in a three-page ruling.

According to Chutkan, Trump's "four-year service as commander in chief did not bestow on him the divine right of kings to evade the criminal accountability that governs his fellow citizens."

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But it remains to be seen whether the High Court will agree or disagree with Chutkan's decision — and if the Court will review the matter as soon as Smith would like.

In a column published by The Bulwark on December 13, Never Trump conservative Charlie Sykes stresses that how the Roberts Court rules has implications for the United States way beyond Smith's election interference case.

"As I mentioned briefly yesterday," Sykes argues, "this is The One — the one ruling to rule them all…. As Smith writes, only the Supreme Court can 'definitively resolve the question.' Which is why he is asking SCOTUS to grant a writ of certiorari before judgment 'to ensure that it can provide the expeditious resolution that this case warrants, just as it did in United States v. Nixon.'"

The Never Trump conservative continues, "It's hard to overstate what's at stake here: not just the scheduling of Trump's trials, but the constitutional balance itself. If SCOTUS upholds Trump's immunity claim, it would be a defining ruling, not just for this Court, and for the nation — because the president would, in effect, be above the law. In more rational times, the Court would reject that notion, and the vote would be unanimous. But, as you may have noticed, we do not live in those times."

READ MORE: Why Brett Kavanaugh already shot down Trump's immunity-from-prosecution claim — 2 decades ago

Charlie Sykes full column for The Bulwark is available at this link.