Will the Supreme Court protect the rule of law, or Donald Trump?

[mystery-ak]

Will the Supreme Court protect the rule of law, or Donald Trump?
By James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor — 12/16/19 01:30 PM EST

The Supreme Court has agreed to take up three cases involving the congressional and grand jury subpoenas served on President Trump’s company, his outside accounting firm and one of his lenders, Deutsche Bank. The subpoenas demand his financial records and tax returns over the past eight years, including five years when he wasn’t president. At issue also are grand jury subpoenas served by Cyrus Vance, New York County’s district attorney, requesting similar information.

Oral arguments before the high court will occur in March, with a decision expected before the end of June.

Chief Justice John Roberts has said repeatedly that his is a court of law – not a Democratic court or a Republican court – but the Roberts court has signaled that it is in serious danger of tilting in a supremely partisan direction. Roberts and his conservative colleagues will have difficulty convincing anyone that a reversal of every federal court that has looked at these three cases is anything other than a partisan decision — in short, another Bush v. Gore decision. (The late Justice Antonin Scalia, who voted with the majority in Bush v. Gore, said that case was sui generis, or “in a class of its own,” while Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, also in the majority, said it was a vote she always regretted.)

more
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/474749-will-supreme-court-protect-the-rule-of-law-or-donald-trump

[skeeter]

False dilemma.

But of course they are going to try.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

Will the Supreme Court protect the rule of law, or Donald Trump?
By James D. Zirin, Opinion Contributor — 12/16/19 01:30 PM EST

The Supreme Court has agreed to take up three cases involving the congressional and grand jury subpoenas served on President Trump’s company, his outside accounting firm and one of his lenders, Deutsche Bank. The subpoenas demand his financial records and tax returns over the past eight years, including five years when he wasn’t president. At issue also are grand jury subpoenas served by Cyrus Vance, New York County’s district attorney, requesting similar information.

Oral arguments before the high court will occur in March, with a decision expected before the end of June.

Chief Justice John Roberts has said repeatedly that his is a court of law – not a Democratic court or a Republican court – but the Roberts court has signaled that it is in serious danger of tilting in a supremely partisan direction. Roberts and his conservative colleagues will have difficulty convincing anyone that a reversal of every federal court that has looked at these three cases is anything other than a partisan decision — in short, another Bush v. Gore decision. (The late Justice Antonin Scalia, who voted with the majority in Bush v. Gore, said that case was sui generis, or “in a class of its own,” while Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, also in the majority, said it was a vote she always regretted.)

more
https://thehill.com/opinion/judiciary/474749-will-supreme-court-protect-the-rule-of-law-or-donald-trump

The question is whether there is a legitimate law-enforcement justification for the information, or whether they are trying to use the justice system for purely partisan reasons.  From what I've seen, they really just want to see -- and then illegally leak -- his tax returns so they can mock him.  Given that federal law expressly prohibits the unlawful disclosure of tax returns, the Supreme Court is right to view this skeptically.