In Trump hearing, SCOTUS majority suggests presidents may have some criminal immunity

"So apply it to the allegations here," she said, referring to a key part of Smith's case against Trump. "A fraudulent slate of electoral candidates, assuming you accept the facts of the complaint on their case -- is that plausible that would be within his right to do?"

Trump's attorney replied, "Absolutely."

Sotomayor pushed back: "Knowing that the slate is fake. Knowing that the slate is fake, that they weren't actually elected, that they weren't certified by the state."

John Sauer said he disputed the characterization the electors were "fake."

"This was being done as an alternative basis," he argued of the competing, alleged electors put forth in various states as part of a push to reverse Trump's 2020 defeat.

Justice Neil Gorsuch was the first on the bench to raise the idea of sending the immunity question back to the lower courts.

Gorsuch said a key question is how to segregate private conduct and official conduct that may, or may not, enjoy some immunity.

The justice said the appeals court "left open in that case the possibility of further proceedings and trial."

"Exactly right. And that would be a very natural course for this court to take in this case," Trump's attorney responded.

Minutes into arguments, Justice Sonia Sotomayor raised the question of whether immunity extends to political assassinations.

The issue was discussed at length in a lower court hearing. Then, Trump attorney John Sauer suggested Trump could be immune, under certain circumstances.

"I'm going to give you a chance to say if you stay by it," Sotomayor said. "If the president decides that his rival is a corrupt person and he orders the military, or orders someone to assassinate him, is that within his official acts for which he can get immunity?"

"It would depend on the hypothetical, but we could see that could well be an official act," Sauer said.

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pressed Trump attorney John Sauer on his contention that without immunity all future presidents would feel paralyzed to take official acts while in office that could put them in criminal jeopardy.

"I mean, I understood that every president from the beginning of time essentially has understood that there was a threat of prosecution [upon leaving office]," Jackson said.

Sauer responded by quoting Benjamin Franklin from the constitutional convention, to which Jackson seemed skeptical.

"But since Benjamin Franklin everybody has presidents who have held the office [who knew] that they were taking this office subject to potential criminal prosecution, no?" she said.