https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/19pdf/19-715_febh.pdfHeld: The courts below did not take adequate account of the significant separation of powers concerns implicated by congressional subpoenas for the President’s information
ROBERTS, C. J., delivered the opinion of the Court, in which GINSBURG,
BREYER, SOTOMAYOR, KAGAN, GORSUCH, and KAVANAUGH, JJ., joined.
THOMAS, J., and ALITO, J., filed dissenting opinions.
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d) The approach proposed by the House, which relies on precedents
that did not involve the President’s papers, fails to take adequate account of the significant separation of powers issues raised by congressional subpoenas for the President’s information. The House’s approach would leave essentially no limits on the congressional power to
subpoena the President’s personal records. A limitless subpoena
power could transform the established practice of the political
branches and allow Congress to aggrandize itself at the President’s expense. These separation of powers concerns are unmistakably implicated by the subpoenas here, which represent not a run-of-the-mill legislative effort but rather a clash between rival branches of government
over records of intense political interest for all involved. The interbranch conflict does not vanish simply because the subpoenas seek personal papers or because the President sued in his personal capacity.
Nor are separation of powers concerns less palpable because the subpoenas were issued to third parties
so uh, this appears like its a win for neither Trump nor Congress
Trump's side argued that the supreme court signs onto a stricter standard and block the subpoenas, the house argued they must allow the subpoenas under a looser standard
the court said they must... reconsider the standard?
vacated and remanded
so I guess it bounces back to the lower court, and gets appealed to scotus again if they go for it?
I'm not 100% on the implications here
from scotusblog:
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The Court has vacated the decisions below in Mazars, and it holds that congressional subpoenas may be enforceable but that the courts below did not take account of all the possible separation of powers concerns. The case will this go on. So this issue is back in the hands of the DC and Second Circuits for now.
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As Eric outlines below, this is basically a Goldilocks approach. The test proposed by the president and the SG is too tough. The House test is too lax. The court outlines a set of "special considerations" that the courts should take into account on remand and sends the cases back to the lower courts for further consideration. So I am going to take back my suggestion that this is more of a win for the president than Vance -- I think it's basically the same. In this set of cases and the Vance case, we are going to have more litigation, and no one is going to see any financial documents any time soon.
This post was edited by Goomshill on Jul 9 2020 08:30am