“A huge victory for our Constitution and Democracy. Proud to be an American!” Trump wrote on social media.
The 6-3 decision was the latest in a series of favorable developments for the Republican nominee with two weeks to go until the GOP nominating convention is scheduled to begin.
Biden's widely panned performance in last week's debates has caused panic among Democrats and broader questions about whether he should be the party's nominee. Last week, in a victory for conservatives, the Supreme Court limited the power of federal agencies, overturning a 40-year-old precedent called “Chevron,” which said courts must follow agencies' interpretations of the law. In a separate ruling, the court found that prosecutors wrongly charged defendants with obstruction in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a development Trump's legal team may try to use to defend him in court.
Meanwhile, Trump's donations have surged since his May 30 conviction in New York on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide payments to porn actresses, essentially erasing the financial advantage held by Biden and the DNC.
“Trump got really lucky. His campaign couldn't have had a better few days,” said Republican strategist Alex Conant. “Legally he still has problems, but politically he can claim innocence and no one is going to see him in federal court before the election.”
Still, Trump faces challenges in the coming months. He is in uncharted territory campaigning as a felon before a polarized electorate, and his false claims and combative tone on the campaign trail have alienated many voters.
Trump has maintained that he has complete immunity from prosecution, but lower courts will have to decide which actions were official and which were unofficial. The case is expected to continue to move forward as the former president's campaign continues.
“This decision gives Donald Trump an excuse to do exactly what he has said he wants to do for months – exact revenge and retaliation against his political opponents,” Quentin Fulks, Biden's deputy campaign manager, said in a conference call with reporters.
The Supreme Court's decision ends months of uncertainty about how Trump's legal disputes would affect his campaign. Trump was convicted in a hush-money trial in New York, becoming the first former U.S. president to be convicted of a crime. Federal prosecutors also charged him with illegally concealing classified documents, but that trial has been indefinitely postponed. Trump also faces state charges of trying to overturn the election results in Georgia.
“Trump's legal team would be ecstatic about this decision because it gives them an opportunity to truly delay the January 6th trial and ensure that it never happens in 2024,” said former federal prosecutor John Fishwick.
But he noted, “There will be a lot of hearings revisiting what happened on and around January 6, 2021, so everything will be retried in some way.”
Nicole Marcus contributed to this report.
