Dec 21 2023 20 mins
In November 2023, in his ongoing criminal case in the District Court for the District of Columbia, Donald Trump filed a motion to dismiss the case based on an assertion of immunity for his acts as President. The judge assigned to the case, Tanya Chutkan, denied this motion.
In early December 2023, Trump filed an "interlocutory appeal"- an appeal filed before final judgement of a case- to the DC Court of Appeals, arguing that the motion should have been granted. The effect of this appeal, by the rules of procedure for the Federal courts, is to halt most aspects of the ongoing criminal case in the DC District Court, while the appeal is heard.
Knowing that regardless of what result came out of the court of appeals, that the judgement would be appealed to the Supreme Court, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a petition to the US Supreme Court asking them for a "writ of certiorari before judgement", which is how the Supreme Court agrees to take up a case that has not yet been resolved in the lower courts. The Supreme Court will grant certiorari before judgement in cases of extreme importance that require prompt resolution.
Smith's request was filed and Trump responded with arguments asserting tha the Supreme Court should not issue a writ of certiorari before judgement, but should instead wait for the appeals process to be completed- which could take months, even years.
On December 21, 2023, Smith filed a reply to Trump's response, laying out the reasons why the court should take up the case immediately.
This episode is an audio narration of that reply. Please note that most citations are omitted or simplified for the sake of listenability. A link to the full document with all citations and footnotes is available in the show notes.
In addition, please note that in the audio, "Respondent" refers to Donald Trump, while "Petitioner" is the Special Counsel.
A link to the full petition document:
https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24234723/23-624-reply.pdf
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