Updated 8:35 PM ET, Mon May 11, 2020
(CNN) After years of political wrangling and multi-front litigation, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday on the battle over President Donald Trump’s tax returns. The stakes are enormous. The court will decide by the end of its current term not only whether Trump’s tax returns ever see light of day, but also whether the President stands so far above the law that he cannot meaningfully be held accountable to other branches of government and the American public.
The dispute over Trump’s tax returns has been politically heated but, legally, this should be an easy call for the court. Trump has fought to the bitter end, though ultimately the law should give him no refuge: the tax returns must go to Congress, and even as a sitting president, he cannot be immune from investigation by prosecutors.
The Supreme Court will actually hear three separate cases that it has consolidated for argument (using its new remote live-feed). In two of those cases, Democratic-controlled House committees subpoenaed Trump’s private banks for his financial records, including tax returns. And, in the third case, the New York County (Manhattan) District Attorney served a grand jury subpoena on one of Trump’s financial firms, as part of a criminal investigation into hush-money payments to two women with whom Trump allegedly had affairs (Trump denies the affairs). Though not a party to the subpoenas, Trump nonetheless jumped in and tried to block them.
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Article URL : https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/11/opinions/trump-tax-returns-supreme-court-stakes-honig/index.html