The stakes of Trump's tax return case couldn't be higher
(CNN)After years of political wrangling and multi-front litigation, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday on the battle over President Donald Trump's tax returns. The stakes are enormous. The court will decide by the end of its current term not only whether Trump's tax returns ever see light of day, but also whether the President stands so far above the law that he cannot meaningfully be held accountable to other branches of government and the American public.
The primary issue in the cases involving House subpoenas is whether Congress had some legitimate legislative purpose for requesting the tax returns. Courts traditionally interpret this requirement broadly in favor of Congress, sensibly deferring to the legislative branch to decide its own legislative purposes in all but the most egregious cases. In both cases involving House subpoenas, the district courts and courts of appeals ruled that the House was well within its authority to seek Trump's financial information, which could inform various legitimate legislative purposes. The Supreme Court would have to twist itself into a legal pretzel -- essentially substituting its own legislative preferences for those of Congress -- to reach a contrary conclusion now.
The Supreme Court recently threw an unexpected twist into the proceedings when it requested additional briefings on whether the case presents a "political question unfit for judicial resolution." This could signal that the court is looking for some off-ramp, some way to rule, in essence, that it cannot rule. However, federal courts -- including all of the lower courts in the Trump tax returns cases -- routinely rule on the enforceability of congressional subpoenas. It would be an unconscionable cop-out by the court to suddenly change this precedent, essentially rendering the Judicial Branch an ineffectual bystander to core constitutional disputes between Congress and the Executive Branch.
If Trump's argument against the congressional subpoenas is weak, then his effort to block a prosecutorial subpoena from the Manhattan DA is downright monarchical. One district court judge rightly lambasted Trump's argument that he is immune from even being investigated while in office as "repugnant to the nation's governmental structure and constitutional values." Indeed, Trump's argument, if accepted, would place the President beyond almost any accountability, and would render law enforcement unable to even gather facts relating to potential crimes committed by the President while in office. Under Trump's reading, if he in fact shot somebody on Fifth Avenue (to use his own hypothetical), the police could not even investigate the crime scene as long as he held the presidency.
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(CNN)After years of political wrangling and multi-front litigation, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday on the battle over President Donald Trump's tax returns. The stakes are enormous. The court will decide by the end of its current term not only whether Trump's tax returns ever see light of day, but also whether the President stands so far above the law that he cannot meaningfully be held accountable to other branches of government and the American public.
The primary issue in the cases involving House subpoenas is whether Congress had some legitimate legislative purpose for requesting the tax returns. Courts traditionally interpret this requirement broadly in favor of Congress, sensibly deferring to the legislative branch to decide its own legislative purposes in all but the most egregious cases. In both cases involving House subpoenas, the district courts and courts of appeals ruled that the House was well within its authority to seek Trump's financial information, which could inform various legitimate legislative purposes. The Supreme Court would have to twist itself into a legal pretzel -- essentially substituting its own legislative preferences for those of Congress -- to reach a contrary conclusion now.
The Supreme Court recently threw an unexpected twist into the proceedings when it requested additional briefings on whether the case presents a "political question unfit for judicial resolution." This could signal that the court is looking for some off-ramp, some way to rule, in essence, that it cannot rule. However, federal courts -- including all of the lower courts in the Trump tax returns cases -- routinely rule on the enforceability of congressional subpoenas. It would be an unconscionable cop-out by the court to suddenly change this precedent, essentially rendering the Judicial Branch an ineffectual bystander to core constitutional disputes between Congress and the Executive Branch.
If Trump's argument against the congressional subpoenas is weak, then his effort to block a prosecutorial subpoena from the Manhattan DA is downright monarchical. One district court judge rightly lambasted Trump's argument that he is immune from even being investigated while in office as "repugnant to the nation's governmental structure and constitutional values." Indeed, Trump's argument, if accepted, would place the President beyond almost any accountability, and would render law enforcement unable to even gather facts relating to potential crimes committed by the President while in office. Under Trump's reading, if he in fact shot somebody on Fifth Avenue (to use his own hypothetical), the police could not even investigate the crime scene as long as he held the presidency.
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The stakes of Trump's tax return case couldn't be higher
Elie Honig writes the Supreme Court will decide by the end of its current term not only whether Trump's tax returns ever see light of day, but also whether the President stands so far above the law that he cannot meaningfully be held accountable to other branches of government and the American...
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