Do you think most people actually expected this? I felt like most people expected that they would give a definitive 'no, of course the president can't commit crimes,' just too late to do anything before the election.
I am with you. I genuinely believed Alito, et al. were running out the clock. The biggest reason I never saw *this* coming is because I never thought they would create such a hopeless morass. It is going to take decades (at least) to figure out what the standard is going to be. Utter insanity.
This is EXACTLY what I expected from this court. Rule the POTUS has absolute immunity for official acts, then remand to the lower court to define if the charges fall under official acts, have the lower court rule they don’t, let Trump appeal back to SCOTUS who will then hold it until after Nov.