The announcement of the Presidential immunity decision today in Trump versus United States was a grim affair. As a first-time audience member for the announcements of high court opinions, I was surprised by the repeated “shushing” from SCOTUS security before the court session even started to an already quiet courtroom. Only very soft subdued conversations were happening mostly between lawyers who were sitting in the section reserved for members of the Supreme Court bar and there was almost no conversation in the public section.
The “shushing,” however was delivered by security facing the public with their backs to the lawyer section and the dais where the justices would be sitting. In other words, only the public was being warned to be silent. Of course, decorum is important at the high court—as it is in any courtroom— but the preemptive warning to the public seemed needless: much ado about something that had not happened. It would prove to be a metaphor for the majority opinion that Chief Justice John Roberts announced from the bench when court did start.
In an opinion that likely placed the last nail in the coffin of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s chances of getting the Jan 6 case against Trump tried before the election, the Chief Justice wrote for a majority comprised of the right-wing majority: Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch (absent without explanation), and Coney Barrett (more personable than expected—she even joked with the public about the opinion she announced as not being the one everyone was waiting to hear).
