Trump's Trials - High stakes for the Supreme Court as it takes on Trump's immunity case

Episode Date: February 29, 2024

For this episode of Trump's Trials, we hear from NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg.There are lots of questions surrounding the Supreme Court's decision to hear arguments over whether former President Trump is immune from criminal prosecution. The court is notoriously secretive; Nina Totenberg tries to read between the lines for an explanation.Topics include:- Supreme Court's decision - Importance of the political calendar - History of the Supreme Court & the presidency Follow the show on Apple Podcasts or Spotify for new episodes each Saturday.Sign up for sponsor-free episodes and support NPR's political journalism at plus.npr.org/trumpstrials.Email the show at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

It's Trump's Trials from NPR. I'm Scott Detrow. We love Trump! This is a persecution. He actually just stormed out of the courtroom. Innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. We're here in your feed today to share some interesting analysis about former President Trump's ongoing legal woes that are taking place in the middle of a presidential election. that are taking place in the middle of a presidential election. We will have that interview for you right after a quick break.

And keep an eye out for episodes like this whenever news breaks or whenever we have new insights to share. We'll be back with more in our usual Big Picture episode on Saturday. This message comes from NPR sponsor, Solgar. As people age, cellular function declines, which may impact changes in energy and strength. Solgar Cellular Nutrition is a holistic collection of cellular nutrients formulated to help fight cellular decline and promote cell health. Learn more at cellularnutrition.solgar.com.

These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. Welcome back to Trump's Trials. I'm going to turn things over now to my co-host at All Things Considered, Mayor Louise Kelly, as well as NPR's legal affairs correspondent, Nina Totenberg. The Supreme Court's decision to hear former President Trump's immunity claim and the timing of it are enormously consequential, and not just for Trump, but for the American political system and the court itself. And Pure Legal Affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg takes a look at some of the repercussions. There are some aspects of covering the Supreme Court that

are a little like covering the Kremlin. Nobody really knows what's going on behind the scenes, but there are hints as well as questions. Among the questions are these. Why did the court decline special counsel Jack Smith's request to hear the immunity case in December, but agree to hear Trump's appeal now? And why, when Trump appealed, did the court take more than two weeks to say it would hear the case and then set a briefing schedule that all but ensures that Trump will either face trial during the presidential campaign or that there may well not be a trial? UCLA law professor Richard Hasson. Surely the court was aware that timing is everything here. And the fact that they set this for the last week of the term, when they're going to be the busiest that they're going to be all year,

it looks like they recognize that this trial may well not happen before the election. The court could have moved faster. It has historically done that in other big cases with political ramifications. Indeed, in Bush v. Gore, the court decided the 2000 election in just three days. And in the Watergate Tapes case, the court ruled against President Nixon 16 days after oral argument. What makes this term different is that there are a dozen non-Trump, huge landmine cases that are pending, several to be argued in April, and none yet decided. Given that, University of Texas law professor Stephen Vladek says

he thinks that the schedule the court set out yesterday is pretty speedy, and he thinks the court could deliver an opinion in the Trump case by the end of May. A hint of that is what he calls the weird language in the court's order yesterday, language that suggests the lower courts could proceed to trial faster than usual if the Supreme Court rules against the former president. Both Fladdock and Hassan agree on one thing, the pivotal role that likely has been played and will be played in this case by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. While other members of the court have served in the executive branch,

Kavanaugh is the justice who has worked most closely with the president. He was staff secretary to George W. Bush and worked with him closely on a day-to-day basis. Professor Vladek. He has a uniquely pro-executive perspective, not just having been in the White House, but having been in that White House at a period in time when the White House was claiming as much power as we've ever seen the White House claim. What's more, one of the things that most defenders of executive power believe is that if nothing else, the president and presumably a former president,

is entitled to get a hearing at the Supreme Court in any case that involves him personally and that's not frivolous. Trump, of course, is a former president, and it's hard to find a scholar who believes that he has total immunity now that he's out of office. Professor Hassan. Even an executive power person like Justice Kavanaugh surely doesn't believe that a president could order SEAL Team 6 to assassinate political rivals without facing potential criminal consequences. The forever shield from criminal prosecution that Trump is advocating would allow just such immunity. His lawyers conceded the point in the lower court.

Thanks for listening to Trump's Trials from NPR. Keep an eye out for more episodes like this whenever big news happens. And we'll be back later this week with our regular show on Saturday. I'm Scott Detrow. Thank you. whatever the market throws at you next. Learn more at Concur.com. This election season, you can expect to hear a lot of news, some of it meaningful, much of it not. Give the Up First podcast 15 minutes, sometimes a little less, and we'll help you sort it out, what's going on around the world and at home. Three stories, 15 minutes, Up First every day. Listen every morning, wherever you get your podcasts.

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