Trump’s Financial Records Before SCOTUS Tomorrow, Be Sure To Listen In Live
May 11, 2020
THE MAKINGS OF A MINISTER
|This is the last week of oral arguments for the term, and this morning the justices heard arguments remotely in two different disputes. The second case heard this morning concerned whether lay teachers at parochial schools are exempt from the nation’s fair employment laws. Nina Totenberg with NPR writes that although the case focuses on teachers at religious schools, the Supreme Court’s decision in the matter could have far-reaching implications for millions of other employees who work for religiously affiliated institutions. Totenberg explains, “For decades, lower courts have recognized an exception to the nation’s employment laws for ministers. The purpose is to protect leaders of the faith, and their religions, from interference by the government. The exception extends to religiously affiliated institutions when they fire employees who serve in a religious capacity akin to that of a minister. But how do we define who is a minister and who is not?”
WHERE RULES DON'T APPLY
|David Savage with the LA Times reports on the story of KRISTEN BIEL, who taught fifth grade at a Catholic school in Southern California and was fired after telling her principal that she needed time off to undergo surgery and chemotherapy for breast cancer. Biel filed a federal lawsuit for disability discrimination. Although she passed away last summer, her story is at the heart of the dispute that came before the Supreme Court this morning. Lawyers for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles and the Trump administration urged SCOTUS to throw out Biel’s suit, and a second similar action from a former teacher in Hermosa Beach.
THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND
|The other case SCOTUS heard this morning stemmed from a Native American man’s challenge to his conviction of raping, molesting and sodomizing a little girl. Jimcy McGirt asserts that Oklahoma state prosecutors lacked jurisdiction because his crime occurred on tribal land. Lawrence Hurley with Reuters reports, “At issue is whether the Muscogee (Creek) Nation territory where the crime was committed should be considered a Native American reservation or whether Congress eliminated that status around the time when Oklahoma became a state in 1907. If the justices side with McGirt, that effectively would recognize for the first time much of eastern Oklahoma, including the entire city of Tulsa, as reservation land.”
THIS IS GONNA BE YUGE
|Tomorrow, the justices will hear oral arguments concerning PRESIDENT TRUMP’S financial records. Richard Wolf with USA Today explains that the arguments “could result in historic rulings on a president’s immunity…or not.” He notes that last month SCOTUS asked both sides fighting over congressional subpoenas for the president’s records to address whether this is a “political question” beyond the reach of federal courts. That request could be a sign that the justices are looking for an off-ramp from having to make a real decision in the cases.
TOP-ED
|Timothy L. O’Brien writes in Bloomberg Opinion that he’s seen DONALD TRUMP’S tax returns and thinks the American people deserve to see them too. “While I can’t disclose specifics, I imagine that Trump is hesitant to release them now because they would reveal how robust his businesses actually are and shine a light on some of his foreign sources of income.” O’Brien reviews the disputes that will come before SCOTUS tomorrow and argues why financial transparency from our presidents should be required. He even references recent tweets from Trump in which the president has been pushing for the economy to reopen and asking his followers to visit one of his golf courses. “Is Trump pushing businesses to reopen despite ongoing perils attached to the coronavirus because it’s best for the country? Or is it because Covid-19 has battered his family’s fortunes? Or is it simply because he has the upcoming presidential election in mind? Who knows. But we are more than three years into this presidency and the same questions that have hung over Trump from the moment he launched his bid for the White House still linger: What are the contours of his personal finances and how do they inform his actions and policies?”
WHAT'S AT STAKE
|Tessa Berenson with TIME explains just how consequential the Supreme Court’s ruling in the cases concerning PRESIDENT TRUMP’S tax returns could be. “What the Supreme Court decides could have major ramifications for presidential power. In each case, Trump’s lawyers have made sweeping arguments about presidential immunity from congressional oversight and criminal investigation, a position critics say places a sitting president above the law. Trump has already been stymied six times in the three linked cases: in each case, a district court ruled against the president, and an appeals court affirmed that decision.”
LET'S BE HONEST
|The sound of a toilet flushing during the Supreme Court’s oral arguments last week is hardly the worst of the court’s problems, argues Irin Carmon in the Intelligencer. She discusses just how far gone are notions of SCOTUS being beyond the grip of politics, and that any concern for the “misadventures” of the court teleworking are dwarfed by previous grievances the justices have made against their own impartiality to partisanship. She writes, “You could date the court’s abandonment of any pretense of being a high-minded, neutral, and apolitical arbiter to years before Roberts arrived — Bush v. Gore comes to mind. But nothing in the modern era has stripped the court down to a game of raw force more effectively than the humming partnership of MITCH MCCONNELL and DONALD TRUMP, who offered, in order, SCALIA’S seat as a bargaining chip, the blunt promise of overturning of Roe v. Wade, the tremulous rage of BRETT KAVANAUGH at his confirmation hearings, and any number of youthful warriors to fill the lower courts.”
A LISTENER'S GUIDE
|Tucker Higgins with CNBC provides a breakdown for how tomorrow’s remote oral arguments will go. He provides background on the first argument over investigations being carried out in the House of Representatives into DONALD TRUMP’S financial records, as well as background on the second which concerns subpoenas sent by the Manhattan district attorney.
DON'T MISS A MOMENT
|Fix the Court has rounded up links for each of the remaining oral arguments so you can listen live. The last of this term’s arguments take place tomorrow and Wednesday. Be sure you don’t miss out on listening live to history in the making.