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The court will also decide whether former Trump adviser Steve Bannon can stay out of jail while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction for defying a subpoena from the House committee investigating the Capitol attack.
Those cases are among a dozen major controversies dealing with abortion, homelessness, the power of federal regulators, the opioid epidemic and social media platforms that the justices have left to decide as the traditional end of their terms nears.
Taken together, the three cases involving the former president could fuel narratives about the court and its conservative majority, which includes three justices appointed by Trump and two other justices, Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, who have rejected calls to recuse themselves from January 6 cases over questions about their impartiality.
From the perspective of Trump and his allies, the results could provide more credence to their claims that the Justice Department has treated those accused of the Capitol riots unfairly. The riots resulted in more than 1,400 criminal cases, in which 200 people were convicted and more than 850 pleaded guilty to crimes.
That hasn’t stopped Trump and his allies from arguing that the Justice Department has treated those charged in the Capitol riots unfairly. The results of the cases could give them more reasons to condemn the charges.
The court’s handling of the immunity issue has already drawn criticism, both that the justices have taken up the issue at all — especially given a unanimous federal appeals court ruling that rejected Trump’s claim — and more recently that they still haven’t decided it .
Even if the court limits Trump’s immunity or rejects his claims entirely, allowing his election-meddling trial to proceed in Washington means “it is unlikely that a verdict will be handed down before the election,” University of Michigan law professor Leah Littman wrote in New York Times.
Although the court moved faster than usual in the immunity case, it has moved much faster in other epic cases involving presidential power, including the Watergate tapes case.
Nearly 50 years ago, the court ruled 8-0 just 16 days after hearing arguments that Richard Nixon should have turned over tapes of Oval Office conversations, rejecting his request for executive privilege.
In March, the justices took less than a month of arguments to unanimously rule that the post-Civil War constitution’s “insurrection clause” could not be used by states to oust Trump from the presidential race.
Riots, violence and deaths after storming the Capitol
The court almost always completes its work by the end of June, but it is not certain that will happen this year.
The court will issue a decision on Wednesday.
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