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The Supreme Court will likely refuse to hear Donald Trump's presidential immunity case, a former federal prosecutor has said.
Writing on her Civil Discourse legal blog on Sunday, Joyce Vance said that the Supreme Court is taking a long time to decide whether to take the case, a sign that it is about to refuse Trump's petition. That's because the delay is likely caused by a dissenting opinion that is in favor of Trump's request to hear the case. Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email on Monday.
Trump has been refused presidential immunity by Tanya Chutkan, the judge in his election-interference case in Washington D.C and by the Washington D.C appellate court. He is now appealing to the Supreme Court to take the case. He has asked the Court to weigh in on his claim that presidential immunity should shield him from being tried in the Department of Justice case. This concerns his attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election results after he lost to President Joe Biden.
The DOJ probe focused on Trump's actions leading up to and during the January 6, 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol, when a group of his supporters violently protested the election, which Trump has said was stolen. Special counsel Jack Smith's investigation also looked into alleged efforts to submit false slates of pro-Trump electors to the Electoral College. Indicted on four felony counts, Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and maintains that he is innocent of any wrongdoing.
"We're still waiting on [the Supreme Court] on the presidential immunity appeal. If, as seems likely, one or more Justices are writing dissents to a decision by the Court to deny the stay or decline to take the case, we won't hear from the Court until they are done writing," Vance added.
"It seems less likely a Justice objecting to a decision by the Court to hear the case would take so long to write a dissent, since their goal would in part be to avoid further delay," Vance wrote.
A liberal Supreme Court justice unsympathetic to Trump, and who doesn't want to hear his case, would hurry up with their dissenting opinion because they would like to see him put on trial as soon as possible.
A conservative judge, in favor of Trump, would likely delay their dissenting opinion because they would agree with the former president's wish to have his election interference trial delayed for as long as possible.
Laurence Tribe, Harvard law professor, told Newsweek on February 21 that, while the Supreme Court's silence does not indicate how it will rule on the case, it does offer Trump good news as he tries to delay his trial until after the presidential election.
"Zero chance that the Supreme Court will rule in Trump's favor on the merits of his immunity claim, but a substantial chance that it will go along with his attempt to drag this out long enough to escape trial until after this November's election," Tribe said.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more