Dear Commons Community,
The Supreme Court yesterday rejected a request from former President Donald J. Trump to intervene in the litigation over documents seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate, a stinging rebuke that blocked his effort to get access to classified documents found there by the F.B.I.
The court’s single-sentence order noted no dissents, and the court gave no rationale, saying only that his application to lift a stay issued by a federal appeals court was denied. As reported by The New York Times.
The Supreme Court’s order — the latest in a string of cases in which it has dealt Mr. Trump a legal setback — means that the special master in the case, and Mr. Trump’s legal team, will not have access to those documents.
The court’s order landed during a hearing of a House committee investigating Mr. Trump’s conduct in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol and not long before it voted to subpoena him.
Mr. Trump, who is engulfed in litigation, has had mixed success in the courts but has frequently been infuriated by what he sees as a lack of loyalty or deference to him by the Supreme Court, which has three justices appointed by him.
In January, for instance, the Supreme Court refused his request to block the release of White House records held by the National Archives concerning the Jan. 6 attack, effectively rejecting his claim of executive privilege. The court let stand an appeals court ruling that Mr. Trump’s desire to maintain the confidentiality of presidential communications was outweighed by the need for a full accounting of the attack.
Only Justice Clarence Thomas noted a dissent. It later emerged that his wife, Virginia Thomas, had sent a barrage of text messages to the Trump White House urging efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
Mr. Trump’s emergency application in the new case was directed to Justice Thomas, the member of the court who oversees the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, which had ruled against the former president. Justice Thomas referred the application to the full Supreme Court, and there was no indication that he disagreed with the order rejecting Mr. Trump’s request.
Sorry, Donald!
Tony
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