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As the Supreme Court tries to recapture its authority and legitimacy, it may be tempted to issue a pair of lopsided decisions both for and against the former president.

The ruling answered a question that an appeals court had never addressed: Can former presidents escape being held accountable by the criminal justice system for things they did while in office?

The judge said that a court clerk had made “foolish and fleeting” comments during Mr. Murdaugh’s trial, but that they did not affect the jury’s verdict that he murdered his wife and son.

The judgment for E. Jean Carroll, and another potentially much larger one on the horizon, could compel the former president to sell some of his assets.

When they faced off at E. Jean Carroll’s defamation trial, it was a clash of two New Yorkers, both formidable combatants and talkers, but products of different worlds.

The ex-president was found liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll, but called her a liar. The award was “a huge defeat for every bully who has tried to keep a woman down,” she said.