For Immediate Release:
July 1, 2024
For press inquiries only, contact:
Amanda Priest (334) 322-5694
William Califf (334) 604-3230
(Montgomery, Ala) – Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision in Trump v. United States, which overruled the D.C. Circuit’s decision that former President Trump has no immunity from criminal prosecution. The majority held that “our constitutional structure of separated powers” entitles a former President to some absolute and some presumptive immunity from criminal prosecution for his official acts as President.
“The Supreme Court recognized that until now our Nation has never before needed an answer’ for when a former President could face prosecution. If Biden were confident that he could win an election without his Justice Department prosecuting his political opponent, we would not have needed one today. But the Supreme Court correctly threw a wrench in this sordid scheme,” said Attorney General Marshall. “I am proud of our critical briefs which advocated for the protection of the Constitution and the office of the presidency. I hope that the district court will get the message and dismiss this abusive prosecution. I look forward to working with a reelected President Trump to reverse the disasters of this Administration and make America great for all Americans.”
In March, Attorney General Marshall led an 18-state brief supporting former President Trump’s immunity case before the Supreme Court. The brief argued that presidential immunity is a necessary bulwark against partisan prosecutions—a possibility the Founders of our Nation greatly feared. The brief suggested that the timing of DOJ’s prosecution reflects improper motives, particularly since it began only after former President Trump announced his campaign and President Biden remarked that he was “making sure” President Trump would not “take power.” The amicus brief also pointed to other prosecutions of President Trump around the country—the Special Counsel’s case in Florida and the Georgia and New York prosecutions—as evidence of the possibility of partisan abuse of the justice system.
Previously, Attorney General Marshall published an op-ed in Newsweek defending the Supreme Court against the partisan attack that its normal certiorari review was politically motivated. In February, he successfully led a group of 22 states urging the Supreme Court to resist the prosecution’s urgency and to review the case on a normal timeline, rather than acquiesce to a politically motivated timeline. And in December, the Attorney General successfully led another multi-state brief opposing the Special Counsel’s extraordinary request that the Supreme Court skip over appeal in the D.C. Circuit to facilitate a rush to trial before the election.
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