The court represents Trump's last hope to protect the documents from being released by banks and accounting firms on the eve of the 2020 election.
WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court on Friday will consider President Donald Trump's last-ditch efforts to keep his personal tax and financial data away from congressional and New York City investigators.
If it agrees to hear the cases and rules in favor of the president, it will be accused of political favoritism. The high court ruled unanimously on demands for documents or testimony against President Richard Nixon in 1974 and President Bill Clinton in 1997, opinions that Chief Justice John Roberts, who favors unanimity whenever possible, likely respects.
"These are fairly monumental questions," says Professor Michael Gerhardt, an expert on constitutional conflicts between presidents and Congress at the University of North Carolina School of Law."It’s hard to see how the court easily dodges them." "It really goes to the question, is he above the law?" Judge James Wynn of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said Thursday.
Despite the court's conservative tilt, the result has been mixed. The court upheld Trump's travel ban against several majority-Muslim nations on his third try last year, but it blocked his effort this year to put a citizenship question on the 2020 census. Now it is weighing his effort to wind down the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which has provided a reprieve for some undocumented immigrants brought to the United States as children.
The criminal case from Manhattan was the only one of the three formally listed for discussion Friday. It raises issues of federalism that focus on whether the president can be subjected to state and local investigations and prosecutions. In the case involving the House Oversight and Reform Committee, the high court may have tipped its hand last month by blocking the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit while Trump's lawyers are appealing.
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