Today, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in the cases of Trump v. Mazars, Trump v. Deutsche Bank, and Trump v. Vance, President Trump's challenges to House Democrats' and New York's subpoenas for his personal financial records:
New: Supreme Court agrees to hear Trump challenges to Mazars and Deutsche Bank congressional subpoenas for the president's financial and tax records. Arguments in March. pic.twitter.com/l9hsrq4Bm7
— Todd Ruger (@ToddRuger) December 13, 2019
House Democrats asked the Supreme Court earlier this week to allow them to enforce the subpoenas well before the 2020 election and suggested treating President Trump's request for a stay as a cert petition, to expedite proceedings. The multiple cases are expected to be argued in March:
The justices agreed to review three separate lower-court decisions that ruled against the president: Two of those decisions upheld subpoenas that would force the president’s accounting firm and lenders to turn over financial records that they have in their possession, while a third ordered the president’s accounting firm to provide prosecutors in New York City with his financial records, including his tax returns.
The subpoena to Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars, came from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, while the subpoenas to Deutsche Bank and Capital One, two of Trump’s lenders, came from the House Financial Services and Intelligence Committees. The committees said that they wanted the records as part of their work, but Trump argued that the subpoenas do not serve a “legitimate legislative purpose,” as the Supreme Court’s cases require.
The subpoena from Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance also went to Mazars. As Steve Vladeck has previously reported for this blog, Vance is seeking several years’ worth of Trump’s tax returns as part of a state grand-jury investigation. After the lower courts rejected his efforts to quash the subpoena, Trump went to the Supreme Court, arguing that the subpoena violates the president’s absolute immunity from state criminal proceedings while he is in office.
In a brief unsigned order this afternoon, the justices announced that they would take up all three cases and hear oral argument in the court’s March argument session. The justices consolidated two of the cases, involving the congressional subpoenas, for one hour of argument. They also took the somewhat unusual step of granting review in the Deutsche Bank case without receiving a formal petition for review. Instead, the justices treated Trump’s request to put the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit decision on hold, filed last week, as a petition for review, and they stayed the lower-court decision indefinitely.
President Trump's attorney, Jay Sekulow, responded to the grant:
Statement from Jay Sekulow, Counsel to the President:
— Jay Sekulow (@JaySekulow) December 13, 2019
“We are pleased that the Supreme Court granted review of the President’s three pending cases. These cases raise significant constitutional issues. We look forward to presenting our written and oral arguments.“