One Year Later And Where Are Trump’s Tax Returns? | Supreme Court Still Demands Hard Copy Printing Amid Pandemic
April 3, 2020
TIME RUNNING OUT
|Naomi Jagoda with The Hill notes that one year after House Democrats requested PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S tax returns from the IRS, it’s unlikely that they’ll get their hands on those documents before 2020 is over. The Supreme Court seems to have indefinitely postponed hearing a case concerning the president’s financial records, despite this being a presidential election year. Jagoda also points out, “Supporters of the efforts to obtain Trump’s financial documents are frustrated that the court cases haven’t moved at a quicker pace. They note that time is of the essence, because the current Congress ends in January.”
GOTTA GET THAT PAPER
|Kimberly Strawbridge Robinson with Bloomberg Law reports that even though SCOTUS has halted its oral arguments, the Supreme Court still demands the timely delivery of hard copy briefs and other filings. Robinson writes, “The Supreme Court has robust and exacting requirements for hard copy printing. Most briefs require 40 copies. Not only are there rules regarding timing (90 days to file a petition seeking Supreme Court review), but there are also requirements as to font (Century Schoolbook), binding (booklet format), quality of paper (not less than 60 pounds in weight), and even color (orange for a brief in opposition, for example). All of these requirements remain in effect during the Covid-19 outbreak with much of Washington under a D.C.-government imposed stay-at-home order.”
TOP-ED
|“If the Supreme Court allows the termination of DACA during this pandemic, the work of our hospitals will suffer a critical blow at exactly the moment when we can least afford it.” That’s Bill Aseltyne, Beth Essig, Debra L. Zumwalt and Abbe R. Gluck writing in The New York Times in defense of Dreamers — particularly the estimated 29,000 who are front line medical workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic. They urge, “At a time when the importance — and scarcity — of our medical resources has never been clearer, neither our institutions nor the nation can afford a disruption to the health care work force. We desperately need all hands on deck for this fight.”
CASE RUNDOWN
|In the ABA Journal, Erwin Chemerinsky reviews the recent Supreme Court decision in Comcast v. National Association of African American Owned Media. He notes that because he was the losing attorney in the case, he puts criticism aside to focus squarely on what the case did and why it matters.
BATTLE FOR THE CONSTITUTION
|“We are living in post-legal times. The new conservative majority on the Supreme Court, and the carefully screened cadre of far-right judges in lower courts, are poking hungrily not only at venerable precedents but at the notion of precedent itself.” That’s Garrett Epps arguing in The Atlantic that common-good constitutionalism is an idea as dangerous as they come.