Biden campaign expresses horror at Trump immunity decision
Trump, on the other hand, embodied glee on what he described as a constitutional victory. Plus: New Biden federal OT protections take effect.
The Supreme Court on Monday morning ruled in a 6–3 decision along ideological lines that former President Donald Trump is entirely immune from federal prosecution for official acts he took while in office.
The stunning move came on the final day of one of American history's most consequential terms for the high court.
And although the court excluded private unofficial acts from the immunity shield, the decision has immediate ramifications for the future of Trump’s case related to his attempts to overturn the 2020 election. It also weakens the notion that no one—even the leader of the free world—is above the law in America.
“BIG WIN FOR OUR CONSTITUTION AND DEMOCRACY,” Trump said in an all-caps victory lap on his Truth Social app. “PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN.”
The Biden campaign and key congressional surrogates had a far less celebratory take on the news on a press call with reporters to discuss the stakes of the decision and frame it within the context of the presidential election—as President Joe Biden attempts a critical course correction following his terrible performance and the fallout after the first presidential debate.
“I’m scared as shit,” Quentin Fulks, deputy campaign manager of the Biden re-elect, said. “And I think Americans are scared and should be scared of what Donald Trump will do—because he has been telling us for months.”
Fulks added that Trump has only grown more unhinged since he left office in 2021.
“And now he’s unchecked thanks to this ruling today by the Supreme Court.”
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), who served as the top lawyer in the first Trump impeachment trial in 2019, more than three years before he was elected to Congress, said the decision virtually guaranteed Trump won’t be tried before the election and reinforced his belief that the presidency is a get-out-of-jail-free card.
“It is a sweeping thing and devastating opinion for our separation of powers,” Goldman added. “If Joe Biden is not elected in November, we will not have a democracy that we have known for 250 years.”
I cover Jasmine Crockett, the first-term Texas congresswoman and rising national Democratic political star, closely in Congress and speak to her almost daily. So it was striking to hear her speak so solemnly about the decision as she did on the call.
“I always want us to be hopeful on our side, but I am going to be honest: The fearmongering is about to begin,”
she said. “This is a very real thing. It’s a very real and scary thing for me. And I hate to not focus on the more hopeful future that the Biden-Harris team wants to bring.”
Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored the majority opinion, acknowledged that the case the court decided was unique because it was the first criminal prosecution of a former president for actions during his term. But Roberts said Congress cannot criminalize a president’s actions when fulfilling executive branch responsibilities under the Constitution. And while all presidential actions aren’t official, Trump is immune from prosecution for all official acts. This immunity applies to all occupants of the Oval Office, regardless of politics, policy, or party.
In her dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor argued that the decision empowers future presidents to break the law for personal gain without fear of consequences from the criminal law system all other Americans must follow.
The Obama appointee, joined in dissent by the two other liberal justices—Elana Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson—closed with seven of the most sobering words you’ll read in a decision: “With fear for our democracy, I dissent.”
Roberts dismissed the Sotomayor dissent and a separate one from Jackson as histrionics.
“They strike a tone of chilling doom that is wholly disproportionate to what the Court actually does today,” he wrote.
Trump was indicted in a Washington, DC, district court last August on four charges in connection with his false accusations of electoral fraud and attempts to overturn the 2020 election. Judge Tanya Chutkan initially set Trump’s trial for early March but withdrew the date pending the resolution of Trump’s immunity claims.
The former president challenged a unanimous ruling from the DC Court of Appeals that Trump was liable for prosecution to the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments on the case in April.
During the three-hour spring proceedings, a substantial portion of the hearing focused on the distinction between official presidential acts and private conduct. The court signaled skepticism of the former president’s claim of sweeping immunity and of Special Counsel Jack Smith’s desire to prosecute Trump before the lower courts resolved some of the case’s thornier elements.
Fulks declined to detail any specifics when he was asked if President Biden would make opposition of the Roberts court, on which three Trump appointees sit and two more could if he wins a second term, a central tenet of the campaign this summer. He also did not disclose if the president would increase his public activity to condemn the ruling on the campaign trail or if he supported court reform proposals to expand the court, institute term limits or enact an enforceable code of ethics.
“For the next four months, we’re gonna continue to remind people and underscore how dangerous Donald Trump would be in power, which became even more dangerous today,” he said. “For the next four months, we’ll continue to remind the American people that Trump is a fundamental threat to our democracy, and that's why they voted him out in 2020. And that’s why they are going to turn out and vote to reelect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris this November.”
Crockett said the election would boil down to the opposing ideas of freedom between Biden and Trump.
“You can look at it a couple of ways: For one candidate, it’s about freedom—freedom from jail,” she said. “For the rest of us who care about this country, when we say this election is about freedom, we’re talking about reproductive freedom, freedom to access the ballot box, freedom to love who you want freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom of religion and freedom to live the life you want to live. And today’s Supreme Court decisions certainly didn’t change those stakes.”
Biden extends OT protections to 1M federal workers
The Biden administration announced on Monday morning it has officially extended federal overtime protections for a million workers who earn $43,888 or less in what labor leaders consider the largest expansion in federal overtime eligibility in decades.
The Labor Department announced a final rule in late April that updated a Fair Labor Standards Act provision that exempted certain employees from minimum wage and overtime pay requirements.
The overtime threshold will increase to $58,656 in 2027, impacting three million workers.
The Congressional Progressive Caucus included the expanded right to overtime pay in its policy agenda in 2023. The group had lobbied the Biden administration to raise the overtime threshold as an action the president could take to relieve working-class employees in a divided government where meaningful progressive legislation has been hard to come by.
“Millions more employees will get time-and-a-half pay for work beyond 40 hours a week, ending workplace exploitation, increasing workers’ pay and free time, and spurring more job hiring,” CPC Chair Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) said when the regulation was announced this spring. “While we know this is not everything the Progressive Caucus called for, we believe it is a huge step forward and we will continue to push for the full expansion for the next round.”
Acting Labor Secretary Julie Su said the final rule ensures lower-paid salaried workers receive the protections they’re entitled to under the law.
“For more than 80 years, the 40-hour workweek has been a pillar of fairness for American workers. It’s the promise of going home to loved ones after putting in your time, not endless hours for flat pay,” Su said in a statement. “Far too many are stuck in jobs that disregard this principle. Today, our rule to restore that balance by expanding overtime protections for our nation’s lower-paid salaried workers goes into effect.”
In a brief statement, President Biden said the new protections mean higher paychecks and more time with family for millions of Americans.
“While Republicans side with big corporations and special interests on Park Avenue to try to deny workers these protections, I will always side with hardworking families like the ones I grew up with in Scranton,” Biden added.
Make me smarter. Did I miss something in this post? Is there something else I should know? Drop me a line at michael@onceuponahill.com or send me a message below to get in touch.
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