On Tuesday, lawyers for the United States and for former President Donald Trump will appear in the federal appeals court for the District of Columbia to argue whether Trump is immune from prosecution.
If the appeals court upholds Judge Tanya S. Chutkan’s order rejecting Trump’s claim that the Constitution grants him “absolute immunity from criminal prosecution” for his actions while he was president, an important reason will be that Judge Chutkan’s reasoning tracks constitutional theories advocated by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court—where the losing party in the Circuit Court will inevitably go next.
The interpretive theories are commonly labeled “originalism.” Justice Clarence Thomas is the leading advocate for this theory among the current Supreme Court justices.
