Ahead of a ruling granting official immunity to himself and other presidents, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. has urged his colleagues to quickly rule in President Donald Trump’s favor, according to an investigation published Sunday by The New York Times.
The new report details what went on behind the scenes at the nation’s highest court during three recent Supreme Court decisions that centered on and generally favored the Republican former president.
The New York Times report, based on leaked memos, case transcripts and interviews with court officials, suggested that Roberts, who was appointed to the Supreme Court under Republican President George W. Bush, played an unusually active role in the three cases at issue, and he wrote the majority opinions in all three.
In addition to granting presidential immunity, these rulings barred state governments from excluding any public official, including Trump, from voting in federal elections and declared that the government exceeded its authority in obstruction of justice charges brought against participants in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol by supporters of the former president.
The Times reported that Roberts sent a memo to his fellow Supreme Court justices in February last year about criminal charges brought against Trump for trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Joe Biden.
The New York Times reported that in a leaked memo, Trump criticized lower court decisions that allowed the lawsuit to proceed and told other justices that Trump was protected by presidential immunity. He reportedly said the Supreme Court should hear the case and give Trump greater protection from prosecution.
“I think our view of the separation of powers analysis is likely to change,” Roberts wrote in a private memo to his fellow Supreme Court justices, The Times reported.
According to the Times, some conservative justices wanted to postpone the presidential immunity case until after Trump’s election in November for a second term, but Justice Roberts argued for an early hearing and ruling, ultimately writing the majority opinion himself.
Before the decision and opinion were released, The Times reported that Justice Brett Kavanaugh had praised Roberts for an “extraordinary” ruling. Fellow conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was appointed to the Supreme Court during President Trump’s presidency, also called the decision “remarkable.”
The ruling, handed down July 1 and granting the former president some immunity from criminal prosecution, was seen by conservatives and liberals alike as a major win for Trump, who has been facing a string of legal troubles and is awaiting sentencing after a May conviction for falsifying business records to hide hush money payments to adult film stars who claim to have had extramarital affairs.
The Supreme Court then remanded the case to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is presiding over a federal lawsuit accusing Trump of participating in an illegal effort to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat, leaving her with the task of figuring out how to apply the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision.
The Times also reported that in a case over whether states can remove Trump from the ballot under language in the U.S. Constitution that bars insurrectionists from holding public office, Roberts told his colleagues he wanted the decision to be made unanimously and without a signature.
All nine justices initially agreed that Trump should remain on state ballots, but then four conservative justices proposed additions to the ruling, including suggesting that Congress must authorize enforcement of the Constitution’s anti-insurrection provision, The Times reported.
Four justices reportedly dissented — liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, as well as conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who was appointed by Trump — saying the ruling went too far, according to the Times.
Ultimately, Roberts, in an unsigned opinion released today, sided with the four remaining justices — conservatives Kavanaugh, Gorsuch, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito Jr.
The third case reviewed by The Times involved alleged obstruction of justice by participants in the Capitol attack, in which Justice Roberts initially entrusted Justice Alito with writing the majority opinion.
But then, in May, Justice Roberts took the unusual step of notifying the court that he would write the decision himself. The chief justice did so days after Justice Alito was embroiled in scandal after his wife reportedly flew an upside-down flag outside their marital home after the Capitol storming. Flying the flag upside down is a symbol of universal distress and has been associated with the movement that promoted Trump’s lie that the 2020 election was unfairly stolen from him.
The New York Times reported that it was unclear whether there was a connection between the flag scandal and Justice Roberts’ decision on the Capitol storming, in which a 6-3 conservative majority ruled that the federal government could not enforce obstruction of justice laws so broadly. The justices did not respond to the Times’ request for comment.