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1. Great question. Wish I had an equally great answer. Article VI of the Constitution says federal laws are “the supreme law of the land” and “judges in every state shall be bound thereby.” Thing is, there is no “law” that says you can’t indict a sitting president . . .
2. Rather, there is only a poorly-reasoned DOJ policy memo saying you can’t indict a sitting president. So there are undoubtedly valid arguments on both side of the question, “can a state indict a sitting president.” If a president were to, say, shoot someone on 5th Avenue . . .
3. I would argue that the NY authorities could (and should) arrest, indict and try the president for his criminal act. Others would argue that it would be unwieldy and thus unacceptable to let the 50 states indict a sitting president, to which I say . . .
4. Then maybe a president shouldn’t commit crimes in 50 states opening himself up to 50 prosecutions (yes, that was a little snarky). The bottom line is, there’s only one way to get the question answered. . .
5. If NY state finds sufficient evidence to charge Trump w/crimes & they indict him, then the question will be decided in the courts. Given yesterday’s NY indictment of Manafort, we may be one step closer to state prosecutors deciding to test the presidential indictment waters.
