wsj.com

The Supreme Court, hearing a last-ditch appeal from Donald Trump, appeared open Thursday to granting some level of immunity to protect former presidents from being prosecuted for alleged crimes committed while in office. Over nearly three hours of oral argument, the court’s conservative majority expressed greater concern that a future president might flinch from bold action for fear of prosecution than the possibility that Trump could avoid accountability on charges he attempted to steal the 2020 presidential election from Joe Biden. The risk, said Justice Brett Kavanaugh, was that a Trump trial could open the door to a new era of American politics where prosecution of ex-presidents became routine, much as the use of special counsels accelerated after the Watergate scandal