Summaries of noteworthy decisions in the last 48 hours from the U.S. Supreme Court and the D.C. Circuit and Second Circuit Courts of Appeals. Areas of law include standing for individual members of Congress in an inter-branch dispute, administrative law and the Affordable Care Act, and COVID-19 attendance limits on religious institutions.
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Yesterday morning, a three-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia dismissed Donald Trump’s lawsuit challenging the state’s ballot-counting and -certification process. Trump’s next move would be to head to the Supreme Court, just as his legal team has proclaimed all along. But don’t be fooled; Trump’s chances of getting any Justice to take his case seriously are as bad as Rudy Giuliani’s oral argument performance (calamitous by “any standard of review!”). The case is dead on arrival.
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In an historic decision yesterday, Chief Justice Roberts held for a 7:2 majority that a sitting president isn’t absolutely immune from a state grand jury subpoena seeking the president’s private documents, and that a state prosecutor need not show a “heightened need” for such documents. It is a resounding legal defeat for President Trump, who had challenged the authority of a state district attorney to subpoena Trump’s personal and corporate financial records. But the decision may be a political win; more likely than not, Trump will be able to stave off the release of his tax records until after the November election. Here is a recap of the Court’s decision in Trump v. Vance.
Over the past few months, the U.S. House of Representatives and the Manhattan District Attorney have issued subpoenas for President Trump’s personal and corporate tax returns. Trump has fought the subpoenas vigourously, filing lawsuits to block the release of his tax returns and arguing that the subpoenas are unconstitutional. Those lawsuits have percolated through the federal courts; the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the congressional subpoena, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the District Attorney’s subpoena. Now Trump has appealed both decisions. Both lawsuits now sit before the Supreme Court and await action from the nine Justices. This article gives a comprehensive overview of both of Trump’s tax returns cases. I analyze the D.C. Circuit and Second Circuit’s opinions, issued before Trump’s appeal to the Supreme Court. I assess each parties’ arguments as they are now laid out in briefs filed with the Supreme Court. I lay out timelines for both cases and explain what the Supreme Court might do and when. Finally, I give my own thoughts on some of the critical legal questions the cases present.
