Former President Donald J. Trump asked the Supreme Court on Monday to pause an appeals court’s ruling rejecting his claim that he is absolutely immune from criminal charges based on his attempts to subvert the 2020 election.
Unless the justices issue a stay while they consider whether to hear his promised appeal, proceedings in the criminal trial, which have been on hold, will resume.
The filing was Mr. Trump’s last-ditch effort to press his claim of total immunity, which has been rejected by two lower courts. The Supreme Court is now poised to determine whether and how fast his federal trial on charges that he tried to subvert the 2020 election will proceed. Unless the justices move quickly, the trial could be pushed into the heart of the 2024 campaign, or even past the election.
I doubt they will rule in his favor, or at least hope that is the case. The more likely scenario is that they’ll play for time. They refused to take the case early a few months ago so that it would be forced into a lower court. That court took it’s time and is now complete with the obvious ruling. Now the SCOTUS will take it up and sit on it till November.
This is doubtful. The Supreme Court fully understands that ruling the President has absolute immunity will serve to permanently undermine their own power. There is no material benefit to the Supreme Court in waiting to rule on this case, and every reason for them to make a hasty decision affirming the lower courts finding or simply refusing to hear the case altogether. Regardless of their own personal politics, it is extremely unlikely that the Supreme Court will make ANY rulings that serve to undermine or limit the authority of the judiciary.
You’re absolutely right. It’s highly unlikely they’d rule in his favor. As you said, that would give any president absolute power and that’s not agreeable to the court who, after overturning Chevron, will wield a lot more power themselves.
I hope they refuse the case. It would have been smart for the judiciary as a whole to do that a long time ago. Let trump face trial while they still had another viable candidate in the race. However, the strategy in all of his legal fights has been to drag this out as long as possible in the hope that he becomes president and it’s all null and void. Thus allowing him to never face trial and the court to never rule either way.
I’m doubtful they’ll sit on it. As you said, they already indicated a lack of desire to pick it up last time Trump submitted an appeal to them on this basis. I’m pretty sure everyone is expecting a repeat performance here. Remember the rule of four would apply here and I’m sure Sotomayor, Kagan, Jackson, and Roberts would do exactly the repeat as before.
There’s just not the numbers to play petty favors for Trump here.
TIL what the Rule of Four was. Thank you for sharing that!
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