Station Selected:
In ways obvious and discrete, explicit and implicit, the federal and state courts of America this week rejected two of the principal doctrines that have animated the litigation actions of Donald Trump—namely, that he is entitled to special treatment as a former President, including serial delays in the otherwise routine delivery of justice: From the unanimous ruling of the Supreme Court that the House Ways & Means Committee is legally entitled to examine the tax returns of the former President to the unfavorable reaction of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals to his attack on the investigation of the Mar-a-Lago documents matter, the highest courts in the land dealt serious blows to his legal status. Those were accompanied (all in this same week) by the near-conclusion of the criminal tax fraud trial in New York State of two principal Trump companies, the setting of a trial date in the somewhat-related civil properties valuation litigation prosecuted by the State Attorney General, the filing of a new lawsuit alleging sexual assault and battery by Mr. Trump in a Manhattan department store over 20 years ago, and the assumption of investigative (and perhaps prosecutorial) oversight of the Justice Department’s documents and January 6 insurrection work by the newly-designated Special Counsel. In that connection, as the jury deliberates on a verdict in the federal seditious conspiracy trial against the Proud Boys, the House Select Committee is preparing for the release its final report, memorializing factual findings and legislative recommendations based on its examination of the attack on the Capitol. In the realm of education-related civil litigation, a petition to the Supreme Court to overrule the decisions of lower federal courts invalidating President Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness initiative—and a $ 6 billion settlement in an action by students charging that they were defrauded by their colleges. And, finally, a decision by the State Department that the Saudi Crown Prince receive immunity in an American court for his alleged role in the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
An exceedingly busy time in our nation’s justice system, including a series of high-profile oral arguments in late November and early December on major cases pending before the Supreme Court, including one on immigration policy.
