The Supreme Court will decide how quickly Donald Trump is prosecuted
“THE SUPREME COURT”, Donald Trump tweeted in December 2020, “has a chance to save our country from the greatest election abuse in the history of the United States.” America’s justices declined pleas from Mr Trump and his allies to pilfer the 2020 election on his behalf. But as the 45th president competes in the 2024 contest his fortunes may again rest on the court he helped shape.
On December 11th Jack Smith, the special counsel prosecuting Mr Trump for extra-legal attempts to overturn the last election after dozens of far-fetched lawsuits failed, filed what he acknowledged was an “extraordinary request” at the Supreme Court. Mr Smith asked the justices to resolve “as promptly as possible” whether former presidents are “absolutely immune from federal prosecution for crimes committed while in office”—a claim Mr Trump has been pushing in the run-up to his trial. The request was for “certiorari before judgment”, a rare attempt (more common in recent years) to short-circuit the usual appellate path by asking the justices to weigh in before the circuit court has completed its review.
The Supreme Court agreed to hasten its consideration of Mr Smith’s request hours after it was filed, giving Mr Trump’s lawyers until December 20th to write a response. After another brief from Mr Smith, the court will then decide whether to hear the case. If it does, the oral argument could be held in January with a ruling arriving before March 4th, the scheduled start date for Mr Trump’s trial in the district court located less than a mile away from the Supreme Court in Washington, DC. This schedule, Mr Smith observed, would approximate to that of the accelerated decision in 1974 requiring Richard Nixon to turn over tapes and documents related to the Watergate scandal.
2023-12-12 08:00:36
Source from www.economist.com
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