The Supreme Court is hearing Donald Trump’s immunity bid for its final argument of the 2023-2024 term.
In the final argument scheduled for its 2023-2024 term, the Supreme Court will hear argument on Thursday in former President Donald Trump’s historic bid for criminal immunity. The question before the justices is whether Trump can be tried on criminal charges that he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The court’s answer will determine not only whether Trump’s trial in Washington, D.C., before U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, originally scheduled for March 4 but now on hold, can go forward, but also whether the former president’s trials in Florida and Georgia can proceed.
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Trump sought to have the charges against him thrown out, arguing that he is immune from prosecution because he was president. After Chutkan denied that request in December, it was Smith who came to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to weigh in on Trump’s claim to immunity without waiting for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to rule on Trump’s appeal. The justices denied that request on Dec. 22.
Six weeks later, the D.C. Circuit upheld Chutkan’s ruling and rejected Trump’s immunity claims. It told Trump that its decision would go into effect (and that the criminal case against him could therefore go forward) on Feb. 12 unless he asked the Supreme Court to intervene by then.
