Of course he does
Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. temporarily halted the release of former President Donald Trump’s tax records to a congressional committee, and called for more briefing in the case by Thursday.
Without the Supreme Court’s intervention, the records were set to be turned over to the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday.
And we can’t have that, can we. Trump must be protected. Not that this has anything to do with partisanship at all.
By itself, the stay doesn’t necessarily mean anything. These stays are often issued routinely in cases where not granting the stay would render the dispute moot before the full Court gets a chance to decide what to do. It doesn’t necessarily indicate how even the justice issuing the stay will vote on the merits.
Recently Justice Thomas granted a stay of the order compelling Lindsay Graham to testify before a grand jury, but today the full Court issued an order denying the writ petition and dissolving the stay. There were no recorded dissents, not even by Thomas.
Also there was a recent example of Justice Kagan issuing a temporary stay in a politically high-profile case (I’m blanking on what it was) where you wouldn’t expect her to be on the petitioner’s side on the merits. Sometimes these things are just procedural.
But yeah, the delay is troubling in this case because Trump and the GOP are clearly trying to run out the clock here. The conservative justices could order a full briefing and hearing on the merits and then later dismiss the case as moot when the GOP takes over the House and rescinds the subpoena, and thereby get the result they want without ever having to issue a decision.
Thank you. Legal expertise always appreciated!