IN DECEMBER JACK SMITH tried to get the Supreme Court to quickly take up the question of whether Donald Trump was immune from prosecution for allegedly attempting to subvert the results of the election in 2020. The charges, wrote the special counsel (an independent prosecutor appointed by the Department of Justice), “implicate a central tenet of our democracy”. The  justices’ prompt resolution was necessary to “permit the trial to occur on an appropriate timetable”. He must have known it was a long shot.

The Supreme Court declined to step in early. But on July 1st, seven months after Mr Smith’s request and four months after the date that Judge Tanya Chutkan had initially set for the start of Mr Trump’s trial, the Supreme Court’s ruling arrived. Although the decision in Trump v United States does not give Mr Trump everything he asked for, it is a clear practical victory for the once and possibly future president. The charges against Mr Trump for allegedly trying to thwart his electoral loss in 2020 will almost certainly not proceed before the election in November—and maybe not ever.