Supreme Court of the United States - BRIEF OF AMICUS CURIAE PUBLIC CITIZEN IN SUPPORT OF RESPONDENT

The indictment charges the President with a deliberate scheme to subvert the results of an election that he had lost and to remain in office in violation of the Constitution and laws of the United States. [...] Indeed, the Constitution does not grant the President any express powers with respect to the selection of electors, their casting of ballots, the certification and transmission of their votes, or the counting of votes in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives. [...] In light of the greater public interest in enforcement of the criminal law, and the likelihood that rare cases of criminal prosecution against a 13 former President would, like this one, involve charges of the utmost gravity, the very broad scope that the courts have given the concept of the “outer perimeters” of official authority in civil damages cases has no place in cases involving claims of i. [...] Thus, Alexander Hamilton argued that eligibility of the President for reelection “is necessary to enable the people, when they see reason to approve of his conduct, to continue him in his station, in order to prolong the utility of his talents and virtues, and to secure to the government, the advantage of permanency in a wise system of administration.” The Federalist No. [...] Trump asserts that when a President who lost an election participates in a conspiracy to overturn the results of that election, thwart the peaceful transfer of power in accordance with those results, and seize the presidency in violation of the means established by the Constitution and laws for the election of a Presi- dent, he acts within the perimeters of presidential authority—simply because hi.