Washington, DC – The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that former President Donald J. Trump is entitled to some level of immunity from prosecution. This decision, with a vote of 6 to 3 that divided along partisan lines, may effectively delay the trial of the case against him on charges of plotting to subvert the 2020 election.

Mr. Trump contended that he was entitled to absolute immunity from the charges, relying on a broad understanding of the separation of powers and a 1982 Supreme Court precedent that recognized such immunity in civil cases for actions taken by presidents within the “outer perimeter” of their official responsibilities. Lower courts rejected Mr. Trump’s claim, but the Supreme Court’s ruling, with its potential to delay the case enough that Mr. Trump could make it go away entirely if he prevails in November, could significantly impact the case’s outcome.

Here’s what to know:

The ruling: The justices said that Mr. Trump is immune from prosecution for official acts taken during his presidency but that there was a crucial distinction between official and private conduct. The case returns to the lower court, which will decide whether Mr. Trump’s actions were in an official or private capacity.

The charges: The former president faces three charges of conspiracy and one count of obstructing an official proceeding, all related to his efforts to cling to the presidency after his 2020 loss. He was indicted last August by the special counsel, Jack Smith, in one of two federal criminal cases against him; the other relates to the F.B.I. raid on his private club, Mar-a-Lago, in August 2022 that recovered missing government documents.

Lower courts ruled against Trump: The trial judge, Tanya S. Chutkan of the Federal District Court in Washington, denied Mr. Trump’s immunity request in December. “Whatever immunities a sitting president may enjoy, the United States has only one chief executive at a time, and that position does not confer a lifelong ‘get-out-of-jail-free’ pass,” she wrote.

A unanimous three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit agreed in February, saying that “any executive immunity that may have protected him while he served as president no longer protects him against this prosecution.”

The timing: Even before the ruling, the court’s decision to take up the case already helped Mr. Trump’s strategy to delay his prosecution until after the November election. With this ruling, the prospects for a trial before the election seem increasingly remote. If Mr. Trump prevails at the polls, he could order the Justice Department to drop the charges, significantly impacting the timing of the trial.

Other Jan. 6 cases: The court heard two other cases this term concerning the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, both of which relate to Mr. Trump. One — an attempt to bar Mr. Trump from the ballot in Colorado under Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which made people who engage in insurrection ineligible to hold office — was unanimously rejected in March. The other limited the use of a federal obstruction law to prosecute members of the mob who stormed the Capitol. Two of the four charges against Mr. Trump are based on that law.

The Hmong Cultural Center Museum in St. Paul, one of few public institutions dedicated to displaying Hmong material culture and history, is growing.

The museum, which opened its storefront exhibition space in 2021, has just finished an expansion that increases its footprint by two-thirds, to about 2,000 total square feet.

Visitors can tour the expanded museum for free during an open house, from 3 to 5 p.m. Tuesday. Regular hours are from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, with a $7 admission fee per person.

Hmong Cultural Center program director Mark Pfeifer and executive director Txongpao Lee pose for a photo next to a display of story cloths and flower cloths at the museum on University and Western Avenues in St. Paul on Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2021. (John Autey / Pioneer Press)

The Hmong Cultural Center, founded in 1992, has been headquartered for the past decade or so in second-floor offices near Western and University avenues. The center provides a variety of support services for the Hmong community as well as research and education programs aimed both at Hmong and non-Hmong people.

Even before the street-level museum opened in 2021, a few rooms in the office space were dedicated cultural exhibits. These were technically open to the public, said Hmong Cultural Center program manager Mark Pfeifer, but people didn’t necessarily realize they could go upstairs.

More exhibition space

The storefront museum has been transformative, he said. It’s open seven days a week and staffed full time for walk-in visitors, and the cultural center has designed 12 different curriculum packets for school field trips. So far in 2024 alone, Pfeifer said, about 1,400 people have come through the space, including over 60 school groups from not just the Metro but greater Minnesota and western Wisconsin, too.

Recently, the center took over another storefront next door to the museum, directly below its offices. The space had previously been storage for May’s Market, a neighboring herb and supplement shop, and adds about 800 additional square feet of exhibition space.

As part of the expansion, the center also installed track lighting throughout both levels to better illuminate displays and educational panels.

The expansion also creates space for the third and final phase of the museum project, which involves connecting the downstairs museum with the upstairs cultural center and library — not currently possible without stepping outside. Integrating the museum with the office-level exhibits upstairs — which still exist — would both grow the center’s capacity for more in-depth rotating exhibits and also allow visitors easier access to the center’s research library, Pfeifer said.

The center is also planning a comprehensive security upgrade to the whole facility.

This third expansion phase is probably the last for the foreseeable future, though, Pfeifer said.

A small admission fee helps cover some operating expenses, but this year’s expansions have really only been possible due to public and private grants, Pfeifer said. Money from the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund, part of the state’s Legacy program, has been particularly influential, as have other gifts from funders like the McKnight Foundation and the Freeman Foundation.

“With the museum, the idea was to take our work to another level and to reach a lot more people, particularly so schools can come in and learn about Hmong culture and history,” Pfeifer said. “This work is not new to the Hmong Cultural Center — we’ve been doing it a long time — but the museum allows us to reach a lot more people.”

Currently on view and coming soon:

The museum’s permanent exhibition includes a variety of paj ntaub, or storytelling tapestries, tools and artifacts brought from Laos by Hmong immigrants fleeing the Vietnam War, and traditional instruments like the qeej.

A new exhibit in the expanded space showcases photographs taken by James E. Williams, who served as a U.S. Agency for International Development financial officer in Laos from 1965 to 1968. The black-and-white photos show celebrations, landscapes and various aspects of everyday life before many Hmong people were forced into exile.

Once the downstairs museum and upstairs cultural center are connected, Pfeifer said, the museum will continue upstairs with a new exhibit on the history of the Hmong Cultural Center itself.

The Hmong Cultural Center Museum is located at 375 W. University Ave.; 651-917-9937, ext. 17; hmongculturalcentermuseum.org

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The St. Croix River in Stillwater crested on Monday, just over moderate flood stage, but river watchers are expecting a long and slow recession of the water.

The river reached 688.09 feet around 10:45 a.m., and stayed at that level most of the day. It was expected to fall to 688 feet – which marks moderate flood stage – around 7 a.m. Tuesday, even with a half-inch of rain in the forecast overnight on Monday, said Tyler Hasenstein, meteorologist with the National Weather Service.

The expected rain coming in Thursday or Friday – more than an inch – “is more concerning,” Hasenstein said. “The river levels could level off, if not rise again at the end of the week. The most likely scenario would be a continued dropdown.”

City crews in Stillwater on Monday began removing jersey barriers and sandbags from the south end of Lowell Park, and “we are working our way north,” said Shawn Sanders, director of public works.

“I’m sure there is some water damage to Lowell Park, but we have to wait until the water recedes,” he said.

Stillwater Mayor Ted Kozlowski said it might take quite a while for the river to recede, especially if the state gets more rain. “It’s staying pretty flat at least for now, but I’m not liking the looks of the forecast for the rest of the week,” he said.

The flood forecast doesn’t take into account future precipitation, he said.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, and I don’t see the river dropping as fast as the forecast is predicting it will,” he said. “That’s just not how the river works. I don’t see the river level changing that much in the next week.”

Stillwater Lift Bridge

The Stillwater Lift Bridge won’t be lowered until after the river reaches 685.2 feet at Stillwater; the river is forecast to reach that level on Saturday afternoon, said Kent Barnard, communications and media coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

Plans to remove ballast, restore power and resume operation of the Stillwater Lift Bridge, as well as opening the Loop Trail on the bridge to pedestrian and bicycle traffic will rely on water levels in the St. Croix River.

MnDOT maintenance crews “want to avoid interfering with people/traffic in town for the weekend after the Fourth (of July),” he said. “If the river cooperates, we will probably begin our ballast removal on Monday, July 8.”

While the Federal Emergency Management Agency approved a federal disaster declaration for 22 Minnesota counties impacted by flooding, Washington County was not on the list. Whether the county is included in the future depends on how much damage is revealed once the river recedes, said Doug Berglund, the county’s emergency services manager.

“We don’t know the extent of our damages yet, and we probably won’t know until the river recedes by a couple of feet, and we can see what is left behind,” Berglund said Monday.

The federal threshold that the county must meet is $1.2 million in damage to uninsured public infrastructure, he said.

“An example of that is when the water recedes and Lake St. Croix beach has had riprap damage, and the beach needs to be cleaned up,” he said.

St. Paul

The Mississippi River floods Harriet Island Regional Park in St. Paul on Friday, June 28, 2024. (Devanie Andre / Pioneer Press)

The Mississippi River at St. Paul crested at approximately 5:30 p.m. Saturday at 20.17 feet. As of Monday morning it was at 19.1 feet and is expected to recede under the major food stage — 17 feet — by Wednesday. St. Paul declared a public emergency Wednesday in response to the flooding. Low-lying roads and parks along the river have been closed since the river began to rise. City officials have asked the public to stay away from blocked off areas even with the river level dropping.

The river’s rise was triggered by heavy rains last month that caused flooding across the state. Gov. Tim Walz has sought a presidential disaster declaration after touring flooding in the Mankato region.

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