WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court added two additional days to release opinions this week with decisions in nearly a dozen cases still pending.
According to the court’s website, SCOTUS will now announce decisions on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week. Previously, only Wednesday had been scheduled as an opinion day.
The court has yet to rule on a number of high-profile cases from this term, among them whether a federal law requiring hospitals that receive Medicare funds to provide abortions in cases of medical emergencies overrules an Idaho state law criminalizing most abortions. Other outstanding cases include a decision on whether the Biden administration censored protected speech on social media and whether to uphold a bankruptcy settlement with the makers of the opioid oxycontin that shields members of the Sackler family, which owns the company, from civil liability.
At the top of the SCOTUS watch list, however, is the court’s ruling on whether former President Donald Trump enjoys immunity from prosecution for acts while in office. Trump faces criminal charges in both D.C. and Georgia for alleged crimes committed as part of his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. The justices appeared roundly skeptical of his arguments that he should enjoy absolute immunity from all criminal prosecution during oral arguments in April, but also questioned whether they would be endorsing a trend of post-presidency prosecutions.
“Will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes us as a democracy?” Justice Samuel Alito asked.
Trump’s appeal to the D.C. Circuit and SCOTUS have already significantly delayed his D.C. trial, which was originally scheduled for March 4. A trial prior to the November election appears increasingly unlikely, even if SCOTUS’ decision in the case does not necessitate further hearings at the district level.
The high court is also considering an appeal to an obstruction statute used to charge hundreds of people, including Trump, in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. The challenger, former Pennsylvania police officer Joseph W. Fischer, contends the Justice Department improperly used a post-Enron law meant to criminalize evidence destruction to charge him and more than 300 people with obstructing the joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. The DOJ says its use of the statute is in line with how appellate courts across the country have interpreted it since it became law as part of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
SCOTUS begins announcing opinions at 10 a.m. each day. They are then posted to the court’s homepage with links to the full text of the decision.