The Supreme Court decision granting Donald Trump broad criminal immunity has had no shortage of critics. But it’s still notable that a federal judge just came out with an op-ed in The Washington Post blasting the ruling authored by Chief Justice John Roberts.

In the opinion piece published Monday, Stephen S. Trott, a senior judge on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, wrote:

It’s worth underscoring here that Trott was appointed to the federal bench by a Republican president, Ronald Reagan. He wrote that the result of the ruling from the court’s GOP majority in Trump v. United States is that: “The president and his agents are free to break the laws that apply to every other person in the nation.”

Not just the fact but the breadth of Trott’s critique is noteworthy, in his estimation of how the ruling would apply beyond former presidents.

Not just the fact but the breadth of Trott’s critique is noteworthy, in his estimation of how the ruling would apply beyond former presidents. That’s because a question raised by the immunity decision is whether and how it would extend beyond Trump (or another former president), because the decision focused on former presidents. The issue could need further clarification from the justices if it arises in a case against someone who was allegedly engaged in criminality with or at the direction of a president.

At any rate, Trott’s criticism is correct as he concludes: “Nowhere in the Constitution or the Federalist is there any provision, suggestion, or hint that the president can with impunity commit crimes against the state or lawlessly abuse citizens without recourse. But that is what the Supreme Court has left us: a kingdom within our republic.”

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Jordan Rubin

Jordan Rubin is the Deadline: Legal Blog writer. He was a prosecutor for the New York County District Attorney’s Office in Manhattan and is the author of “Bizarro,” a book about the secret war on synthetic drugs. Before he joined BLN, he was a legal reporter for Bloomberg Law.