Supreme Court rules Trump is shielded from prosecution for his official acts

Roberts was not entirely clear on what parts of the indictment against Trump may survive.

He said that even Trump's lawyers appeared to agree that a scheme to "submit fraudulent slates of presidential electors" was private and not part of the president's official duties. But he also said much would depend on the specifics of what Trump said or did.

"It is ultimately the government's burden to rebut the presumption of immunity," he wrote. "We accordingly remand to the district court to determine in the first instance — with the benefit of briefing we lack — whether Trump's conduct in this area qualifies as official or unofficial."

Before Monday, the Supreme Court had not ruled on whether a president or ex-president can be prosecuted for a crime.

The closest case came in July 1974, when a unanimous court rejected President Nixon's claim of executive privilege and ordered him to turn over his White House tapes to investigators pursuing the Watergate scandal.

The Justice Department had maintained it would not bring charges against a president while in office. Government lawyers said the Constitution's only remedy for law breaking by a president is impeachment.

But it had been long assumed that a former president could be indicted for crimes, including for actions that he took while in the White House.

Trump's lawyers, however, argued that a former president was broadly shielded from prosecution for his "official acts."

They also raised the specter of a partisan prosecution, since the former chief executive and this year's Republican nominee for president is facing charges lodged by a Democratic administration whose president is running against Trump.

Atty. Gen. Merrick Garland appointed Jack Smith as a special counsel to investigate Trump's role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. And last year, he indicted the former president on charges of conspiring to prevent the counting of electoral votes that confirmed Biden had won the election.

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