Dreeben: Trump's position would license presidential bribery, sedition, murder and let Trump 'perpetuate himself in power' to 'subvert democracy'

As for potential abuses: there are layers of protections with Article III courts providing the ultimate protection.

Justice Thomas: is there no pres immunity even for official acts?

D: yes. President as head of Art II branch can assert doctrine re fulfilling Art II powers. But no blanket immunity.

Dreeben: the reason there were not previous prosecutions of presidents was there were not crimes.

Roberts: former president can be prosecuted because he's being prosecuted? That's tautologically true, and problematic. It's often easy to get a grand jury to bring an indictment. Should we rely on good faith of the prosecutor?

Let's send it back to lower court, maybe?

It's now clear why SCOTUS took cert. At least four justices didn't like the DC Circuit opinion's reasoning.

Alito: former president does have form of special protection, you seem to agree.

D: yes, due to general principle of avoiding constitutional questions.

Dreeben: relying on impeachment is very unreliable, esp. for conduct near the end of a president's term

Kav back on his clear-statement kick

Dreeben: this court's cases and OLC opinions do not speak that broadly - no need for every criminal statute to specifically name the president

Dreeben says a balanced interest incorporates both protection AND accountability for the president.

Bribery statute does not name the president...

Gorsuch jumps in: some core functions of the executive that can be immunized? you concede Congress cannot criminalize some things.

3 things are clear:
(1) nobody is inclined to grant absolute immunity, BUT
(2) the conservatives are not happy with the black-and-white DC circuit ruling against Trump, WHICH MEANS
(3) the ruling *won't* come quickly and will likely call for further proceedings in lower courts

So, big picture: the (already slim) chances of Jack Smith actually getting his 2020 election-subversion case in front of a jury before the 2024 election are dwindling before our eyes.