College of Charleston political science professor Claire Wofford has published an article, “Trump was not king and can be prosecuted for crimes committed while president: Appeals court places limits on immunity,” for The Conversation that examines the limits on presidential immunity.
Wofford notes that a federal appeals court recently ruled against former President Donald Trump, deciding that presidents are not immune from criminal prosecution for actions they took while in office. She says protecting the president from the hassles of civil litigation is one thing; permitting the president, charged in Article 2 of the Constitution with faithful execution of the laws, to be able to break those same laws with impunity is quite another.
“As a scholar of judicial behavior and American politics, I have been closely watching this case,” says Wofford. “The court’s decision, particularly if the Supreme Court allows it to stand, is likely to have ramifications across the U.S. legal and political systems for decades.”
