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A lawsuit brought by a member of Congress accuses the former president of the United States of conspiring to incite the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol January 6. Reuters news service spoke with IU McKinney Professor Gerard Magliocca for a news story about the action.

Former President Donald Trump will in all likelihood be dismissed as a defendant from the suit because of a 1982 U.S. Supreme Court decision that protects presidents from legal action over acts associated with their office.

“I don’t see how the tort suit can proceed,” Professor Magliocca said in the story. In his view, the speech at the rally January 6 was within the scope of the former president’s official duties.

Professor Magliocca, a well-known constitutional law scholar, is the Samuel R. Rosen Professor of Law at IU McKinney. He is the author of four books, the latest of which, The Heart of the Constitution: How the Bill of Rights Became the Bill of Rights, was published by Oxford University Press in 2018. He also is the author of over 20 articles on constitutional law and intellectual property. He was named to the 2020-2021 class of fellows for the Fred W. Smith National Library for the Study of George Washington at Mount Vernon.