Washington.- The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a bold Missouri lawsuit asking the justices to intervene in the New York hush money case in which former President Donald Trump was convicted of falsifying business records.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey asked the court to delay Trump’s sentencing, scheduled for Sept. 18, until after the election and lift a gag order limiting what he can say.
The Supreme Court’s brief order did not state the court’s reasoning. Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito said they would have allowed the state to bring the suit but did not express an opinion on whether it had merit.
Bailey told the justices that her “modest request imposes no harm on New York State, but ensures that voters in Missouri and across the United States can make their voices heard this November without one state interfering with the ability of all others to hear a major party candidate’s campaign.”
In response, Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, wrote that the lawsuit was flawed at least three times. Missouri had not suffered the kind of harm that gives the state the right to sue, she wrote. New York was not a proper defendant, she added, since the case against Trump was brought by an elected district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who had exercised independent discretion. And there were, she wrote, other forums in which the questions raised by Missouri can be adjudicated.
James added that trial judge Juan M. Merchan had substantially reduced the gag order.
In suing New York directly in the Supreme Court, Missouri invoked a clause in the Constitution that gives the court “original jurisdiction” to hear disputes “to which a state shall be a party.” In such cases, usually over boundary disputes or water rights, the Supreme Court acts much like a trial court, appointing a special master to hear evidence and issue recommendations.
Although the Constitution appears to require the court to hear cases brought by states, the court has ruled that it has discretion to reject them and often does so.
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