Supreme Court Rules Trump Can't Block Access To Tax Returns

WASHINGTON, DC — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that President Donald Trump cannot block New York state prosecutors access to his tax returns and other financial records. The 7-2 decision upholds a Manhattan District Attorney subpoena for 8 years of Trump’s personal and corporate financial documents.

While the ruling makes it more likely that Trump's tax returns are eventually made public, it's also likely the records will be shielded from the public under grand jury secrecy rules until after the November general election, The New York Times reported.

The decision also narrows a sitting president's immunity from criminal investigations.

In a separate 7-2 ruling, the justices kept a hold on banking and other documents about Trump, family members and his businesses that Congress has been seeking for more than a year, according to The Associated Press. The court said that while Congress has significant power to demand the president’s personal information, it is not limitless.

The ruling returns the congressional case to lower courts, with no clear prospect for when it might ultimately be resolved, AP reported.

In both cases, Trump nominees Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh joined the majorities. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito Jr. dissented.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote both opinions for the court.

"Congressional subpoenas for information from the President, however, implicate special concerns regarding the separation of powers. The courts below did not take adequate account of those concerns," Roberts wrote in the congressional case.

But Roberts also wrote that Trump was asking for too much.

“The standards proposed by the President and the Solicitor General—if applied outside the context of privileged information—would risk seriously impeding Congress in carrying out its responsibilities," the chief justice wrote.

The New York case, which will also be sent back to a lower court, originated after Cyrus Vance Jr., the Democratic district attorney for Manhattan, obtained a grand jury subpoena for Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA.

Mazars has indicated it would comply with a court order, AP reported. Vance said his investigation, on hold while the court fight played out, will now resume.

“This is a tremendous victory for our nation’s system of justice and its founding principle that no one — not even a president — is above the law, " Vance said.

The increasing likelihood that a grand jury will eventually get to examine his personal documents drove the president into a public rage.

Trump lashed out on Twitter, saying “This is all a political prosecution. I won the Mueller Witch Hunt, and others, and now I have to keep fighting in a politically corrupt New York. Not fair to this Presidency or Administration!”

Both cases originally were argued by telephone in May due to the the coronavirus pandemic.

Appellate courts in Washington and New York previously ruled that the documents should be turned over, but those rulings were put on hold pending a final ruling by the Supreme Court.

The appellate decisions dismissed the president’s broad arguments, according to AP, focusing on the fact the subpoenas were addressed to third parties asking for records of Trump’s business and financial dealings as a private citizen, not as president.

View the Supreme Court opinions on both decisions below.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.