Friedman Kaplan Files Supreme Court Brief on behalf of Historians in Trump v. United States
Friedman Kaplan, together with the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, filed an amicus brief on behalf of 15 leading Founding Era historians in the landmark United States Supreme Court case Trump v. United States, in which former President Trump asserts that he should be immune from criminal charges of conspiracy to thwart the peaceful transfer of power following the 2020 presidential election.
The brief uses extensive historical evidence to show that the Framers of the Constitution approached the creation of the presidency with a deep-seated antipathy to monarchy and that former President Trump’s claim of permanent criminal immunity is contrary to the Framers’ intent to avoid creating an elective monarchy, which is why they created an executive accountable to the law, including by criminal prosecution. The brief also argues that even if a president is immune for “official acts,” the Framers never would have envisioned that immunity would attach to former President Trump’s alleged attempts to overturn the rightful results of the 2020 election.
The brief has been covered and quoted in multiple news outlets, including Law360, The Guardian, The Washington Post, and MSNBC.
Our Friedman Kaplan team included partners Lawrence S. Robbins and Katherine L. Pringle, associate Ian C. Bruckner, and paralegal Lilley Gallagher. The brief is accessible here.
