Trump v. Vance

• Decision Date: 09 July 2020
• Docket Number: No. 19-635,19-635
• Parties: Donald J. TRUMP, Petitioner v. Cyrus R. VANCE, Jr., in His Official Capacity as District Attorney of the County of New York, et al.
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

140 S.Ct. 2412

207 L.Ed.2d 907

Donald J. TRUMP, Petitioner

v.Cyrus R. VANCE, Jr., in His Official Capacity as District Attorney of the County of New York, et al.

No. 19-635

Supreme Court of the United States.

Argued May 12, 2020

Decided July 9, 2020

Jay A. Sekulow, Washington, DC, Solicitor General Noel J. Francisco for the United States, as amicus curiae, by special leave of the Court, for Petitioner.

Carey R. Dunne, New York, NY, for Respondents.

William S. Consovoy, Alexa R. Baltes, Consovoy McCarthy PLLC, 1600 Wilson Boulevard, Ste. 700, Arlington, VA, Patrick Strawbridge, Consovoy McCarthy PLLC, Ten Post Office Square, 8th Floor South Pmb #706, Boston, MA, Jay Alan Sekulow, Counsel of Record, Stuart J. Roth, Jordan Sekulow, Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, P.C., 1701 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Ste. 200, Washington, DC, for president Donald J. Trump.

Caitlin Halligan, Ryan W. Allison, David A. Coon, Selendy & Gay PLLC, 1290 Sixth Avenue, New York, NY, Walter Dellinger, Duke University Law School, Science Drive &, Towerview Road, Durham, NC, Carey R. Dunne, Christopher Conroy, Solomon B. Shinerock, James H. Graham, Sarah Walsh, Allen J. Vickey, New York County, District Attorney's Office, One Hogan Place, New York, NY, for Respondent Cyrus R. Vance.

Jay Alan Sekulow, Stuart J. Roth, Jordan Sekulow, Constitutional Litigation and Advocacy Group, P.C., 1701 Pennsylvania Ave, NW, Ste. 200, Washington, DC, Stefan C. Passantino, Michael Best & Friedrich LLP, 1000 Maine Ave. SW, Ste. 400, Washington, DC, William S. Consovoy, Thomas R. McCarthy, Alexa R. Baltes, Jordan M. Call, Consovoy McCarthy PLLC, 1600 Wilson Boulevard, Ste. 700, Arlington, VA, Patrick Strawbridge, Consovoy McCarthy PLLC, Ten Post Office Square, 8th Floor South PMB #706, Boston, MA, for Petitioners.

Chief Justice ROBERTS delivered the opinion of the Court.

In our judicial system, "the public has a right to every man's evidence."¹ Since the earliest days of the Republic, "every man" has included the President of the United States. Beginning with Jefferson and carrying on through Clinton, Presidents have uniformly testified or produced documents in criminal proceedings when called upon by federal courts. This case involves—so far as we and the parties can tell—the first state criminal subpoena directed to a President. The President contends that the subpoena is unenforceable. We granted certiorari to decide whether Article II and the Supremacy Clause categorically preclude, or require a heightened standard for, the issuance of a state criminal subpoena to a sitting President.

I

In the summer of 2018, the New York County District Attorney's Office opened an investigation into what it opaquely describes as "business transactions involving multiple individuals whose conduct may have violated state law." Brief for Respondent Vance 2. A year later, the office—acting on behalf of a grand jury—served a subpoena duces tecum (essentially a request to produce evidence) on Mazars USA, LLP, the personal accounting firm of President Donald J. Trump. The subpoena directed Mazars to produce financial records relating to the President and business organizations affiliated with him, including "[t]ax returns and related schedules," from "2011 to the present." App. to Pet. for Cert. 119a.²

The President, acting in his personal capacity, sued the district attorney and Mazars in Federal District Court to enjoin enforcement of the subpoena. He argued that, under Article II and the Supremacy Clause, a sitting President enjoys absolute immunity from state criminal process. He asked the court to issue a "declaratory judgment that the subpoena is invalid and unenforceable while the President is in office" and to permanently enjoin the district attorney "from taking any action to enforce the subpoena." Amended Complaint in No. 1:19–cv–8694 (SDNY, Sept. 25, 2019), p. 19. Mazars, concluding that the dispute was between the President and the district attorney, took no position on the legal issues raised by the President.

The District Court abstained from exercising jurisdiction and dismissed the case based on Younger v. Harris , 401 U. S. 37, 91 S.Ct. 746, 27 L.Ed.2d 669 (1971), which generally precludes federal courts from intervening in ongoing state criminal prosecutions. 395 F.Supp.3d 283, 290 (SDNY 2019). In an alternative holding, the court ruled that the President was not entitled to injunctive relief. Ibid.

The Second Circuit met the District Court halfway. As to the dismissal, the Court of Appeals held that Younger abstention was inappropriate because that doctrine's core justification—"preventing friction" between States and the Federal Government—is diminished when state and federal actors are already in conflict, as the district attorney and the President were. 941 F.3d 631, 637, 639 (2019).

On the merits, the Court of Appeals agreed with the District Court's denial of a preliminary injunction. Drawing on the 200-year history of Presidents being subject to federal judicial process, the Court of Appeals concluded that "presidential immunity does not bar the enforcement of a state grand jury subpoena directing a third party to produce non-privileged material, even when the subject matter under investigation pertains to the President." Id. , at 640. It also rejected the argument raised by the United States as amicus curiae that a state grand jury subpoena must satisfy a heightened showing of need. The court reasoned that the proposed test, derived from cases addressing privileged Executive Branch communications, "ha[d] little bearing on a subpoena" seeking "information relating solely to the President in his private capacity and disconnected from the discharge of his constitutional obligations." Id., at 645–646.

We granted certiorari. 589 U. S. ––––, 140 S.Ct. 659, 205 L.Ed.2d 418 (2019).

II

In the summer of 1807, all eyes were on Richmond, Virginia. Aaron Burr, the former Vice President, was on trial for treason.³ Fallen from political grace after his fatal duel with Alexander Hamilton, and with a murder charge pending in New Jersey, Burr followed the path of many down-and-out Americans of his day—he headed West in search of new opportunity. But Burr was a man with outsized ambitions. Together with General James Wilkinson, the Governor of the Louisiana Territory, he hatched a plan to establish a new territory in Mexico, then controlled by Spain.⁴ Both men anticipated that war between the United States and Spain was imminent, and when it broke out they intended to invade Spanish territory at the head of a private army.

But while Burr was rallying allies to his cause, tensions with Spain eased and rumors began to swirl that Burr was conspiring to detach States by the Allegheny Mountains from the Union. Wary of being exposed as the principal co-conspirator, Wilkinson took steps to ensure that any blame would fall on Burr. He sent a series of letters to President Jefferson accusing Burr of plotting to attack New Orleans and revolutionize the Louisiana Territory.

Jefferson, who despised his former running mate Burr for trying to steal the 1800 presidential election from him, was predisposed to credit Wilkinson's version of events. The President sent a special message to Congress identifying Burr as the "prime mover" in a plot "against the peace and safety of the Union." 16 Annals of Cong. 39–40 (1807). According to Jefferson, Burr contemplated either the "severance of the Union" or an attack on Spanish territory. Id. , at 41. Jefferson acknowledged that his sources contained a "mixture of rumors, conjectures, and suspicions" but, citing Wilkinson's letters, he assured Congress that Burr's guilt was "beyond question." Id. , at 39–40.

The trial that followed was "the greatest spectacle in the short history of the republic," complete with a Founder-studded cast. N. Isenberg, Fallen Founder: The Life of Aaron Burr 351 (2007). People flocked to Richmond to watch, massing in tents and covered wagons along the banks of the James River, nearly doubling the town's population of 5,000. Burr's defense team included Edmund Randolph and Luther Martin, both former delegates at the Constitutional Convention and renowned advocates. Chief Justice John Marshall, who had recently squared off with the Jefferson administration in Marbury v. Madison , 1 Cranch 137, 2 L.Ed. 60 (1803), presided as Circuit Justice for Virginia. Meanwhile Jefferson, intent on conviction, orchestrated the prosecution from afar, dedicating Cabinet meetings to the case, peppering the prosecutors with directions, and spending nearly $100,000 from the Treasury on the five-month proceedings.

In the lead-up to trial, Burr, taking aim at his accusers, moved for a subpoena duces tecum directed at Jefferson. The draft subpoena required the President to produce an October 21, 1806 letter from Wilkinson and accompanying documents, which Jefferson had referenced in his message to Congress. The prosecution opposed the request, arguing that a President could not be subjected to such a subpoena and that the letter might contain state secrets. Following four days of argument, Marshall announced his ruling to a packed chamber.

The President, Marshall declared, does not "stand exempt from the general provisions of the constitution" or, in particular, the Sixth Amendment's guarantee that those accused have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses for their defense. United States v. Burr , 25 F.Cas. 30, 33–34 (No. 14,692d) (CC Va. 1807). At common law the "single reservation" to the duty to testify in response to a subpoena was "the case of the king," whose "dignity" was seen as "incompatible" with appearing "under the process of the court." Id. , at 34. But, as Marshall explained, a king is born to power and can "do no wrong." Ibid. The President, by contrast, is "of the people" and subject to the law. Ibid. According to Marshall, the sole argument for exempting the President from testimonial obligations was that his "duties as chief...