After a flurry of activity surrounding the impending sentencing of President-elect Donald Trump, the U.S. Supreme Court has now weighed in and has declined to stay the proceedings.
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It’s been rather lively in the legal realm as President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration approaches, and those who’ve relentlessly hounded him with lawfare attempt to wring every last bit of juice they can out of their efforts before he takes the office they’ve fought so hard to keep him from.
On the criminal front, while (former) Special Counsel Jack Smith angles to release his Final Report on the two prosecutions he levied at Trump, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is barreling ahead with the effort to see Trump sentenced and, thus, formally and inarguably a “convicted felon” when he returns to the White House. And Judge Juan Merchan appears happy to oblige.
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Trump, of course, was found guilty by a Manhattan jury in May 2024 on 34 counts of falsifying business records (rendered felonious via some legal sorcery we’ve yet to fully grasp but may, someday, when/if the appeals on the merits ever wind up resolved). With post-trial motions in flux (some denied, some still pending), Merchan indicated last week that he intends to proceed with Trump’s sentencing on Friday (January 10), just 10 days ahead of the inauguration.
Trump’s legal team sprung into action, seeking first a stay from Merchan. Then, when that was denied, they appealed to the New York Appellate Division, which, on Tuesday, also declined to stay the proceedings.
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Trump’s lawyers then filed an emergency application directly with the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday morning, seeking a stay of the proceedings pending the resolution of his interlocutory appeals on the presidential immunity issue.
Trump’s legal team followed that up with a request to the New York Court of Appeals (the state’s highest court), which shot down the request Thursday morning.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor oversees the Second Circuit (which includes New York). However, she referred the application to the full court, which denied the application 5-4 (with Justices Thomas, Alito, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh indicating they would have granted the application). The court explained its decision thusly:
First, the alleged evidentiary violations at President-Elect Trump’s state-court trial can be addressed in the ordinary course on appeal. Second, the burden that sentencing will impose on the President-Elect’s responsibilities is relatively insubstantial in light of the trial court’s stated intent to impose a sentence of “unconditional discharge” after a brief virtual hearing.
With SCOTUS declining to intervene, Trump’s sentencing will proceed in Manhattan on Friday morning.
Editor’s Note: This article was updated post-publication for clarity and to include the court’s explanation of its ruling.
