As far as the federal court system is concerned, Trump’s suit to stop the Archives from turning over his papers to the 1/6 committee is flying through the system at warp speed.
It took less than a month for the circuit court to hear Trump’s case and issue a ruling that was both decisive, as well as not to gentle with trump. Basically, Get that lame shit outta here! And now it took less than a month for the appellate court to hear, consider, and be equally as cruel to Trump in showing what idiots Trump and his lawyers were to file this lame turd in the first place. The court attached a two week stay to provide time for Trump to appeal to the SCOTUS.
Which is no sure thing. Historically, all federal courts, including SCOTUS, are loath to get involved in pissing contests between co-equal branches of government. Also, SCOTUS likes cases where it resolves conflict in lower court ruling, being the ultimate arbiter. There is none of that here, both courts were in emphatic agreement in their written rulings. The court can choose to either hear the case, or decline to take it up, in which case the appellate ruling becomes the last word.
For a matter so mundane, this is actually a critical ruling. If SCOTUS declines to take up the case, or rules against Trump, then Trump and his lawyers aren’t the only ones that are boned here. Here’s why.
The entire crux of Trump’s case was that, as former President, Executive Privilege allowed him to control access to his documents. As the former executive, Trump is the only one who can exert that privilege.
But there are several sleazy Trump underlings such as Steve Bannon, Mark Meadows, Roger Stone, and Jeffrey Clark that are using Trump’s claims of privilege as a defense in complying with the committee’s subpoena’s. But if the appellate ruling stands, then their cases will be summarily dismissed, since they can’t claim to be honoring a privilege that the courts have already ruled that Trump doesn’t have.
Personally, I think that SCOTUS will decline to hear the case, for two reasons. First, they are going to be loathe to get their hands dirty on this, especially when the lower courts are in concurrence. Second, the reputation of the Supreme Court is shitty enough as it is right now. The last thing that Roberts needs is to take the case, and then sit back and watch Trump spend months trying to put pressure through the media for his justices to do the right thing. That would make the clamor for court reform only that much louder. Don’t touch that dial.
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The other thing is, that the former guy is the EX-president and has very limited claims to privilege, since he’s now an ordinary citizen, like about 330 million others. Certainly what privilege he still may have is less than Biden’s.
Since the deadline for the appeal is Dec 23, if they take it, the decision will probably be in January.
Something that happened a few weeks ago hasn’t been mentioned. Biden’s military upheld executive privilege in the case of some items in Espey’s new book. So, no one can say Biden doesn’t provide the cover of privilege when it is applicable.