In a 6-3 ruling Monday, the Supreme Court decided that former President Donald Trump has “presumptive immunity” for official acts he performed as president, throwing a wrench into special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case.

The majority also ruled that Trump is not immune for “unofficial acts” and “not everything a President does is official.”

The decision, which was opposed by the court’s three liberal justices, throws the case back to U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s court to decide what constitutes an official act, a process that will likely take months.

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“The President is not above the law,” the court said. “But under our system of separated powers, the President may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for his official acts.”

Smith’s four-count indictment accuses Trump of illegally conspiring to “overturn” the rigged 2020 election results.

Specifically, Smith alleges that Trump attempted to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to take particular acts in connection with his role at the certification proceeding in Congress.

“The question then becomes whether that presumption of immunity is rebutted under the circumstances. When the Vice President presides over the January 6 certification proceeding, he does so in his capacity as President of the Senate, ” the court said.

“With respect to the certification proceeding in particular, Congress has legislated extensively to define the Vice President’s role in the counting of the electoral votes, see, e.g., 3 U. S. C. §15, and the President plays no direct constitutional or statutory role in that process. So the Government may argue that consideration of the President’s communications with the Vice President concerning the certification proceeding does not pose “dangers of intrusion on the authority and functions of the Executive Branch.”

Trump’s legal team will argue that the former president’s conversations with Pence over his official responsibilities constitutes official conduct, thus Trump is presumptively immune from prosecution.

Trump’s immunity challenge forced Judge Chutka to postpone the trial, which was initially set to start March 4. Now, the Supreme Court’s decision will further delay Smith’s case and and possibly kick it past the Nov. 5 election.

Update:

In his hugely significant concurrence, Justice Clarence Thomas questioned whether Special Counsel Jack Smith’s office is actually constitutional.

“If there is no law establishing the office that the Special Counsel occupies, then he cannot proceed with this prosecution. A private citizen cannot criminally prosecute anyone, let alone a former President,” Thomas wrote. “If this unprecedented prosecution is to proceed, it must be conducted by someone authorized to do so by the American people.”