Yesterday, the Supreme Court created a broad, unreviewable, and previously unrecognized presidential immunity for so-called official acts, basically blessing the old Nixon line: “When the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.” One could just add “if the president does it, it’s not reviewable,” and you’ve got a shorter version of the Court’s ruling.
But that’s not all the Court did. With a nod to some semblance of sanity, the Court’s majority disclaimed any form of immunity for unofficial acts. But what they gave with one hand they effectively took away with another in several respects.
First, they made it clear that the line between official and unofficial acts is very blurry. Even though they had concessions from the former president’s lawyer in open court that certain acts were certainly not official acts, the Court, nevertheless, sent the matter back to the district court for further proceedings to tease out the official from the unofficial.
