Lawyers to cite Nixon case during Supreme Court arguments about immunity of former President Trump

The Supreme Court is poised to decide the legally untested question of whether a former president is immune from criminal prosecution. But there’s another case involving a president’s immunity from civil litigation that we’re going to be hearing a lot about during arguments. And another former president by the name of Richard Nixon that we’re going to be hearing a lot about, but not for the reasons that one might think. There was a lawsuit many years ago when Nixon was president, brought by someone who worked for the Air Force and was subsequently fired. He challenged that termination in court, suing Richard Nixon. And said, you can’t sue me, I’m president. And in fact, the Supreme Court wound up agreeing that a former president cannot be sued for acts taken while in office. Trump’s team says that that holding carries over into this context. And it means that a former president cannot be prosecuted for official acts. Jack Smith team, however, says that’s nonsense and there is no such thing as criminal immunity for a former president.