Former President Donald Trump has tried every legal trick in the book to postpone his four upcoming criminal trials past election day.
But his master plan just ran into a big problem.
That’s because the Supreme Court showed it’s willing to move at lightning speed this week, when it agreed to fast-track an urgent request from Special Counsel Jack Smith about an issue that risks jamming up the legal works. In a system that can sometimes take years to reach resolution, the high court just got back to Smith in less than one day.
In other words, the Supreme Court just showed it understands the urgency of the situation. While this week’s action was only an early indicator and hardly a final decision on the merits of the pending appeal related to Trump’s Jan. 6 case, the court reacted with the kind of warp speed that suggests Trump’s attempt to bog things down could be doomed.
Notably this is just them agreeing to take the case, not ruling on it, so it’s still theoretically possible that they could rule in Trump’s favor, but it’s a good omen (as the article notes).
If they wanted to support Trump, their smartest move would’ve been to delay it. Taking the case and then ruling for Trump is just going to make them look even worse, and they seem to actually care about that.
I’m guessing Scalia and Thomas, who should recuse because of his wife, will support Trump here and hem and haw; the liberal justices will go against Trump; Roberts will go against Trump because legacy; and at least one of the Trump Three – Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett – will also go against Trump. Gorsuch seems like someone who actually sticks to his principles when they go against what a conservative is “supposed” to do, so my money’s on him.