So what in a sense you're saying is that there are certain situations where the

president can decide that it's in the best interest of the nation or something

and do something illegal.

When Richard Nixon sat down for a series of interviews in 1977 with British journalist David Frost,

he spoke words that have echoed across the 20th century and into the 21st.

Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal.

This idea of presidential immunity, whether a sitting president is shielded from

criminal prosecution lies at the center of the Justice Department's case against

former President Trump for his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.

But the question had never been taken up by the Supreme Court

until now.

In a landmark 6-3 decision, along ideological lines, the Supreme Court has ruled that a

president is absolutely immune for acts carried out under core

constitutional powers, enjoys a presumption of immunity for official acts, but is not immune from

prosecution for unofficial acts.

This is a significant short-term victory for Donald Trump.

NPR National Justice Correspondent Carrie Johnson says what counts term victory

Johnson says what counts as a core official or unofficial duty when it comes to

Trump's actions after the 2020 election will have to be answered at a later date. The court majority the which counts and which does not all of that was going to take time and that means

the prospect of a trial before the election is even more dim now than it was

before. This is an opinion that greatly expands presidential power.

Rick Hasen is a constitutional law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

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