The President is Not Above the Law: Bill Clinton Edition
President Bill Clinton tried to avoid going to trial over Paula Jones’ sexual harassment allegations, claiming that it would interfere with his duties as president. The Supreme Court, in Clinton v. Jones, rejected his claim on this day.
The decision reaffirmed the principle, established by the Supreme Court in President Richard Nixon’s Watergate tapes case, that the president is not above the law. Go to July 24, 1974, for the landmark United States v. Nixon decision, in which Nixon unsuccessfully claimed executive privilege in the investigation of the Watergate scandal.
On May 23, 2018, a federal district court judge ruled that President Donald Trump had violated to the First Amendment when he blocked critics of his presidency from accessing his twitter account. The judge held that his twitter account was a public forum.
On several occasions while president Donald Trump made extraordinary claims of presidential power. As of mid-2020, with the presidential election only five months away, none of his claims had been tested in the Supreme Court.
The Court: “ . . . it is also settled that the President is subject to judicial process in appropriate circumstances.”
Read why the president is not above the law here
And read Senator Elizabeth Warren’s argument on why the president is not above the law here
Read about the Jones case and the Clinton scandals: Jeffrey Toobin, A Vast Conspiracy (1999)