When special counsel Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court to reject former President Donald Trump’s immunity claims there was an unmistakable hue of urgency to the request.
At the time, Smith cautioned the court against further “delay” more than a dozen times in his brief.
Now, two weeks after Trump asked the court to step into the charged dispute over whether he may claim immunity from prosecution – and eight days since all the necessary briefs were filed with the justices – court watchers are engaged in a pastime almost as old as the Supreme Court itself: trying to glean meaning from the timing and silence.
“The entire population is getting a bit of exposure to one of the perils of watching the court carefully, which is that an awful lot of what it does happens behind the scenes and in ways that can’t be easily predicted,” said Steve Vladeck, CNN Supreme Court analyst and professor at the University of Texas School of Law.
The court could deny Trump’s request to block a lower court ruling against his immunity claims, a move that would put Smith’s case back on track for a trial. It could grant Trump’s request and then hold arguments and decide the merits of the immunity issue – perhaps on an expedited basis. It might decide the issue without arguments. It could hand down an opinion explaining its decision, or not.
The Supreme Court can move quickly, at least by judicial branch standards. But most of its important cases take months to resolve. Even on the court’s emergency docket, disputes can take weeks to sort out.
What is clear is that the stakes of the timing are enormously high. Smith is eager for the court to resolve Trump’s immunity claim quickly so that US District Judge Tanya Chutkan can finish a trial on the former president’s election…
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