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Deep division supreme court The United States decided to allow New York to designate President-elect Trump as a convicted felon ten days before he enters the White House.
With Chief Justice John Roberts and Trump-appointed Justice Amy Coney Barrett joining the court's three progressives — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson — the court gave the green light to New York State Judge Juan Merchant's ruling on the president-elect at nine o'clock: 30 on Friday morning. The ruling came after a jury's conviction last May on 34 counts of falsifying business records brought by Manhattan's progressive Democratic prosecutor-elect, Alvin Bragg.
Four conservative justices — Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Trump appointees Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh — indicated they would have granted Trump's petition to delay the ruling.
Supreme Court denies Trump's attempt to halt rulings in New York against Trump
In a to rule last week, Trump's post-trial motions rejected Setting the sentencing date for Friday morning, Judge Merchan indicated that he would sentence Trump to unconditional release — meaning no jail time, no probation, no fine, and no post-sentence monitoring of any kind. Merchan also ruled that Trump would not need to attend the sentencing in person.
The president-elect announced that he will not attend the court hearing in Lower Manhattan on Friday. The referee will attend remotely to reduce the burden the proceedings will place on the ongoing transition process leading up to Inauguration Day on January 20.
The majority justified that Trump would not be significantly harmed by the ruling, for two main reasons. First, the court did not rule on Trump's claim Presidential immunity His right from criminal prosecution was violated by the Prosecutor's introduction at trial of evidence of his official presidential actions. This means that Trump will still be able to raise his immunity claim on appeal, along with various other claims of significant procedural error. The appeal cannot continue until Trump is sentenced and sentenced, so the sentencing will pave the way for that process.
Second, the court effectively bound Merchan to his stated inclination to grant Trump parole. In theory, Merchan's indication of that intent (in an opinion written last week) was not binding — technically, the judge is not supposed to decide the sentence until hearing from the parties in the sentencing proceedings, which won't happen until Friday morning.
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However, the Supreme Court majority's conclusion that the sentence poses a minimal burden on Trump's presidential transition hinges on Merchan's assertion that he is leaning towards a sentence of neither prison time nor probation. If Merchan changed his mind at this point and imposed a prison term, the Supreme Court would consider it treason. In practical terms, then, Merchan has no choice but to do what he has indicated he will do.
The majority also relied on Merchan's guidance that Trump need not attend the sentencing in person, meaning the proceedings should be brief and as minimally intrusive as possible. Trump's behavior during the presidential transition period.
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There is no dissenting opinion from the four conservative justices. Presumably, they concluded that the same considerations that led the Court to recognize presidential immunity in its July opinion (in Trump against the United StatesHe also upheld the immunity of elected presidents—essentially, the need for a president not to be distracted by the anxiety and stigma that accompany criminal proceedings while carrying out his unparalleled constitutional responsibilities. In presidential transitions, as Congress has emphasized at the legislative level, the president-elect is engaged in preparing to assume those responsibilities from the first hours of the new administration.
With the president-elect exhausting his means to prevent the ruling, the execution of the ruling will begin on Friday morning. Like a number of analysts. He saw There are multiple reasons to overturn Trump's convictions on appeal. The appeal process cannot begin until after the ruling is issued.
