During an appearance on MSNBC on July 4th afternoon, Slate legal analyst Dahlia Lithwick expressed skepticism that Chief Justice John Roberts has any idea what he expects from the lower courts after his majority ruling on Donald Trump's presidential criminal immunity was punted back to them.
Speaking with host Richard Lui and former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner, the topic turned to the Supreme Court's stunning 6-3 majority opinion that seems to absolve Donald Trump of any criminality committed while he was president.
At issue was the conservative majority court's broad expansion of what constitutes "presidential duties" as opposed to "personal conduct."
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With Judge Chutkan being put on the spot to make her own determination after holding evidentiary hearings as soon as possible, only to have the Supreme Court to review her findings, Lithwick suggested Roberts himself is in the dark as to what he is looking for from the lower court judge and in the Trump Manhattan hush-money case that has been being presided over by Judge Juan Merchan who is also undertaking a review.
"But it's really not a clear test, it's an incredibly murky test, and the court wants it to get worked out in the appellate process," Lithwick offered. "So, you know, the short answer I think we can do a ton of lawyering around this and clearly, that's what [Manhattan District Attorney Alvin] Bragg's team is going to try to do is lawyer this, and I think Glenn's right."
"An awful lot of this conduct by any construction of what is private unofficial acts still seems to survive, But I want to be really clear. I don't know that John Roberts knows what the test is that he's set forth in his opinion on Monday," she added.
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