Bad News For The Donald: SCOTUS Finally Acts On Former President’s Tax Returns
February 22, 2021
AT LONG LAST
|The Supreme Court today paved the way for Manhattan’s district attorney, CYRUS VANCE, to obtain former PRESIDENT TRUMP’S tax returns and other financial records as part of a criminal investigation. After a four-month delay, the justices denied Trump’s motion to block the DA’s subpoena. The one-sentence order from SCOTUS came without comment or recorded dissents. Trump’s financial records will be subject to grand jury secrecy rules and so they aren’t supposed to become public as part of the investigation.
IF NOT NOW, THEN WHEN
|SCOTUS today also declined to take up cases from Republicans challenging a Pennsylvania Supreme Court decision that allowed ballots received after Election Day through mail-in voting to be counted. Pennsylvania extended its mail-in deadline in last November’s election due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Only about 10,000 ballots arrived during the extended time period, not nearly enough to have had any impact on PRESIDENT BIDEN’S victory in the state. Justices offered no explanation for why they rejected the challenges, but JUSTICES CLARENCE THOMAS, SAMUEL ALITO, and NEIL GORSUCH all dissented. Justice Thomas wrote, “These cases provide us with an ideal opportunity to address just what authority nonlegislative officials have to set election rules, and to do so well before the next election cycle. The refusal to do so is inexplicable.”
NO TIME LIKE THE PRESENT
|Michael Klarman argues in The Atlantic that if Democrats want democratic reforms to be at all successful, then the time is now to expand the Supreme Court. He writes, “Now in power, Democrats must work to remedy the antidemocratic tilt of the American political system. Doing so directly—by, say, ridding the country of the Electoral College or reapportioning the Senate according to population—is virtually impossible, though proposals for work-arounds, such as adding more states to the union and enacting the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, do exist and should be pursued. Constitutional amendments would be required to fundamentally alter these institutions, and amendments are practically unattainable when one of the two major political parties benefits from the status quo. Reforming the Supreme Court to undo its anti-Democratic bias, however, does not require a constitutional amendment; the size of the Court is set by statute, not the Constitution.”
OTHER NEWS
Garland Confirmation Is A Stage For 4 Of GOP's 2024 Hopefuls
POLITICO“Merrick Garland appears on track for an easy confirmation hearing this week. But the attorney general nominee’s moment in the spotlight will once again be affected by presidential politics — as four 2024 GOP contenders get a stage to catapult their national brands. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) all sit on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which on Monday starts its two-day hearing on Garland’s nomination to lead President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice.”
Judge Says Gunman Who Killed Her Son Also Targeted Justice Sotomayor
The Washington Post“A federal judge whose son was killed and whose husband was critically wounded in an attack at their home in New Jersey said in a televised interview released Friday that the gunman also had targeted Justice Sonia Sotomayor.”