The Daily Fuckup

On Nov. 22, 2022, the Supreme Court rejected Donald Trump’s emergency request to keep the House Ways and Means Committee from getting his tax returns. The justices denied his stay application and ended the temporary pause that had been in place while the dispute was pending.

The order did not decide the underlying legal fight on the merits. It dealt only with the emergency request to keep the records frozen while Trump continued to press his challenge. By turning down that relief, the Court left the lower-court rulings in place for the time being and removed the immediate barrier to disclosure.

The committee had sought the records as part of its oversight work, and Trump had argued the request was unlawful. That argument had already been rejected in the lower courts. The Supreme Court’s action meant the IRS could proceed with handing over the returns to the committee.

The decision was narrow, but its effect was direct: the last emergency stop sign came down, and the long-running fight over access to Trump’s tax records moved one step closer to a transfer from the IRS to House investigators.