United States – The US Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request by the state of Missouri to stop President Donald Trump’s imminent sentencing for his conviction in New York on felony offenses concerning payments to a porn star before his election and delayed a restraining order on speech until after the Nov. 5 presidential election.
The decision by the justices was made in relation to Missouri’s lawsuit, which claimed that the case against Trump interrupts the right of voters under the US Constitution to hear from the Republican presidential nominee who is seeking to recapture the White House, as reported by Reuters.
Justices’ Opinions
The Supreme Court’s order was unsigned. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito suggested they would have participated in Missouri’s appeal but clarified that they “would not grant other relief.
Trump was convicted in May of state charges of criminal falsification of business documents to conceal the payment of $ 130,000 to adult actress Stormy Daniels for her to keep silent over an alleged adulterous affair she had with Trump before the 2016 US presidential election. Prosecutors have said that the payment was made to ensure that Trump fared better in the 2016 election against the Democrat candidate Hillary Clinton.
Trump, the Republican candidate in this year’s election, has strongly denied ever having sexual relations with Daniels and promised to take his appeal after sentencing, which is expected before September.
Missouri’s Legal Challenge
On July 3, the Republican Attorney General of Missouri, Andrew Bailey, filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court against New York state for an injunction on Trump’s imminent sentencing and the gag order issued to him by New York state judge Juan Merchan, slated to begin on the same day.
International legal disputes are first filed directly with the Supreme Court.
Bailey concluded that the criminal case against Trump infringed with the provision of the Constitution that provides the citizens of Missouri the right to “vote for and hear from the president of their choice.”
“Instead of letting presidential candidates campaign on their own merits, radical progressives in New York are trying to rig the 2024 election by waging a direct attack on our democratic process,” Bailey said in bringing the case.
Support and Opposition
A legal brief supporting Missouri’s lawsuit was filed in the Supreme Court by Republican attorneys general from Florida, Iowa, Montana, and Alaska.
Trump also has federal and state criminal cases involving his bid to reverse his 2020 defeat by Joe Biden.
The Supreme Court, in a ruling made on July 1 supported by the new-found 6-3 conservative majority, extended considerable criminal protection to Trump for conduct committed in office. It practically guaranteed that Trump would not even be subjected to a trial in the federal election subversion case before the election.
Trump’s lawyers, without delay, tried to use the immunity ruling to get the hush money verdict thrown out. They claimed that the prosecutors erroneously used the tweets from January 2018 by Trump when he was still the president, which were referred to as official utterances, as reported by Reuters.
Upcoming Decisions
The judge in the case said that he would respond to Trump’s claims by September 6. Merchan added that if he maintained his conviction, TrumJohn Robertsp would be sentenced on September 18.
Last week, the New York state appeals court dismissed Trump’s appeal of his gag order. The verdict by the Appellate Division in Manhattan means that Trump, who accused all the criminal cases against him of being politically motivated, cannot speak publicly about the individual prosecutors and other parties in the case before his sentencing.