A WIN FOR COURT TRANSPARENCY | Live Audio Of 2nd Circuit Argument Over Trump’s Financial Records
October 22, 2019
WHEELIN' & DEALIN'
|“The fight over access to PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S tax returns could be fast-tracked to the Supreme Court in time for a decision before next fall’s election, under an agreement struck Monday between Trump’s attorneys and a local prosecutor in New York.” Josh Gerstein with POLITICO reports on the deal in which Trump lawyers agreed that if they lose in the court battle scheduled for argument Wednesday at the New York-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, they will move quickly to appeal the loss to the Supreme Court. In exchange, lawyers from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s office agreed to hold off trying to enforce a grand jury subpoena issued to one of Trump’s accounting firms in August. Gerstein notes that the office’s investigation relates to the Trump Organization’s role in alleged hush money payments to adult film star STORMY DANIELS, as well as other matters.
TUNE IN TO THIS
|Speaking of Wednesday’s argument, a team effort of C-SPAN, Fix the Court and the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press (RCFP) successfully got the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals to agree to offer live audio of the court’s hearing tomorrow on the effort to force PRESIDENT TRUMP to release his financial records.
POLL DU JOUR
|A new survey from by the Marquette University Law School found that a majority of Americans disapprove of PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S handling of appointments to the U.S. Supreme Court and doubt he would pick the “right kind of person” to fill the next opening on the high court. The survey also found that 73 percent of respondents said it was “the wrong thing to do” when the Senate blocked PRESIDENT OBAMA’S Supreme Court nominee in 2016, JUDGE MERRICK GARLAND. Craig Gilbert and Richard Wolf with USA Today report.
OUT AND ABOUT
|Marcia Coyle with The National Law Journal reports that JUSTICE BRETT KAVANAUGH will headline the Federalist Society’s annual dinner next month in Washington, following in the footsteps of his conservative colleagues, JUSTICES THOMAS, ALITO and GORSUCH.
OTHER NEWS
Supreme Court Error Has A Long Shelf Life
The National Law Journal“Justice George Sutherland entirely misread Chief Justice John Marshall’s sole-organ speech in a 1936 Supreme Court decision, leaving room for various levels of the executive branch to cite Sutherland’s erroneous dicta to expand presidential power in foreign affairs over time.”
Will The Supreme Court See Through Trump’s War On California?
Slate“In September, President Donald Trump unleashed a barrage of environmental policies and sanctions to punish California for pollution (or for attempting to regulate pollution). He claimed the actions were necessary either because California wasn’t doing enough to regulate pollution or because there was too much regulation of pollution. The attacks on California present the same legal issue that has arisen time and again since Trump became president: Can the administration lie about its reasons for pursuing a given policy?”