President Trump asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to keep his tax returns out of the hands of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1262334
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=1262334
Hopefully SCOTUS will simply refuse to consider this.
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I love the smell of desperation, with a hint of abject fear…
Priceless…
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Except we now have the GOPSCOTUS…
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If SCOTUS decides to hear this case, it won’t be to uphold the lower-court ruling, that’s for sure…
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thousand of prosecutors would have to have a case, nothing about summary judgment has changed, however, the question for the Roberts court is. Is the President above the Law. like a King? Are they willing to say yes he can shoot and kill someone but cannot be prosecuted until he is no longer President because he is above all the laws of the constitution and our land. answer supremes. lol I already know your answer a one time only? like bush vs gore. the supreme court of conservatives has killed our democracy by their phony Umpire their dead Clarence Thomas Alito the Racist Drunkin Kavauaugh. I surprise myself and say Gorsich may be an ok guy not sure yet
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What about State’s rights?
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It will be interesting to see how this bears out…
We have lawyers on TV every day making the argument that impeachment is a political rather than a legal process.
So, is the President essentially immune from the law as long as they’re in office?
If the POTUS murders someone on day one of their term and then proceeds to murder someone every day for the rest of their term, will they essentially be allowed to as long as the Senate doesn’t remove them from office?
Sure, they can be prosecuted after they leave office. But for those four years, go crazy.
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This is a separate case than the appeals court upholding Congress’ right to access 8 years of his taxes correct? Also, would love to know if either of these are just his state and/or federal taxes. And this isn’t new, but even his signature is stupid and irritates me to no end.
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Roberts isn’t terrible (for a conservative). I don’t get partisan hack from him.
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This should be a quick “no.” If not, we know how corrupt our SCOTUS has become. The president doesn’t get to shield criminal conduct from a prosecutor. That really makes the president a monarch. And, by the way, isn’t it really obvious he’s guilty of something now? Honest innocent people don’t do this.
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Not to lose sight of what a lot of folks – myself included – think they will show: that Trump was laundering $$$ for the Russians – explaining why everything he does seems to help out Putin…
And to keep it all in one place, Two Federal Appellate Courts – the 2nd Circuit in NY, and the DC Circuit – have now upheld subpoenas to Trump’s accountants Mazers for eight years of his taxes. The NY case is by the NY AG, the DC case is by house oversight committee.
In NY, Trump agreed with the NY AG to “stay” the case (not demand the tax returns be turned over immediately), provided that Trump filed any petition for review in the US supreme Court w/I 10 days. That time runs today, so Trump had to file a “Petition for Certiorari” That will likely be considered by the Court in conference to see if they take the case on either December 13 or more likely January 10. It takes 4 votes to grant the petition to review the case.
In the DC case, Trump lost 2-1 (the one judge who supported him was appointed by him) then asked the full 11 member Court to review the decision, and he lost that 8-3 (the other Trump judges voted for him, as did a Bush Judge). What is interesting in that case is that Trump will not only have to petition for review, but he will have to immediately ask the Supreme Court for a Stay to allow him to file a Cert. Petition. A stay takes 5 votes. Those petitions are decided quickly. I expect to see that petition to stay tomorrow.
I should note that some judges (Breyer in particular) will vote for stays as a “courtesy”, even if he will not vote to grant cert, so a stay being granted does not mean a lot, but we should know quickly on a Stay. If they deny one, Trump’s taxes will be quickly produced by his accountant.
Assuming that the Supreme Court takes the case, we would see oral argument in April, decision by week of June 29 (last week the Court sits).
The opinion in the NY case is here: https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/6538570/Trump-v-Vance-20191104.pdf
DC Opinion is here: https://www.cadc.uscourts.gov/internet/opinions.nsf/20C16C3C5721030C85258490004DE33C/$file/19-5142-1810450.pdf
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Kind of like saying someone isn’t gluttonous (for a cannibal).
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Trump also accuses Vance of “invad[ing] Congress’s impeachment authority” by conducting his investigation.
That’s an interesting admission. So, there’s something in these tax returns that would rise to the level of high crime or misdemeanor? Do tell.
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I think Roberts is not a partisan hack, he is rather really smart and is always balancing what he wants to do (vote for the Natzi party) vs how he thinks the Court will be perceived if it goes too far.
Roberts knows the damage to the Court’s legitimacy from Bush v. Gore and also his citizen’s united ruling. He wants to avoid him and the Court being perceived by the majority of the country as partisan.
The result is that where the conservative arguements are just stupid, ones that no legtimate law professor would find credible, and that partners in major law firms in NY and DC would see as meritless, he will vote against what he wants. The Obama care ruling was one like that. The Ruling in the census case was like that, it was so clear that partisan hackerary was afoot.
But where there is some small sliver of merit to the point being made by the Republicans, he will vote with them. This is why Trump will win on DACA.
I think that Trump’s arguements are so crazy re his taxes that Roberts will just not go there. I hope I am not wrong. The really interesting question is if the other conservatives (particularly Barf and Gorsch) want to go down as simply being Trump toadies…
It will either be no grant of cert, 5-4, or 9-0.
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Guess we’ll see if Fat Donnie gets a return on his investment.
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“Trump also accuses Vance of “invad[ing] Congress’s impeachment authority” by conducting his investigation.”
Oh that’s rich. So, what we have basically is…
- Federal gov’t can’t investigate or charge POTUS with any crimes.
- No state can investigate or charge POTUS with crimes (partly because it infringes on Congress’ impeachment authority).
- Congress has impeachment authority but it is basically limited into non-existence because POTUS and his advisers are 100% absolutely immune from complying with impeachment investigations into any wrongdoing he may have committed or talked about with any of his advisers.
Know what the above adds up to? “POTUS IS ABOVE THE LAW.” That is their argument, period. It doesn’t matter what sophistry they dress it up in. They are LITERALLY arguing that POTUS is above the law. The argument is clearly circular have-your-cake-and-eat-it-too bullshit designed to create an untouchable monarch who can rule by fiat and, when a GOPer, perpetuate the GOP’s control over and capture of the WH seat of the monarchy by abusing his power to influence and rig elections while never ever being caught or called to account for doing so.
I told you: END. GAME.
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The DACA kids would beg to differ
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An excellent summation of the mound of bullshit we’re being asked to eat.
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Actually, I think she was a Reagan appointee.
Forgive me, but I’m actually expecting…or at least hoping…that if he loses outright, Trump makes a massive shitshow of it by sending in law enforcement or something to prevent the accountant from producing the returns.
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