Donald Trump’s winning streak at the Supreme Court has come to an end. On Thursday, the conservative-dominated panel announced it won’t block the president-elect’s sentencing in his New York criminal trial.
Trump was convicted in his hush money case in May. He was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records stemming from a payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels before the 2016 election so she would stay quiet about their alleged affair. Judge Juan Merchan is set to sentence the president-elect on Friday, 10 days before he once becomes America’s commander in chief.
Now that Trump has been elected president again, the judge has indicated he won’t receive a prison sentence because prosecutors no longer view such a sentence as “practicable.” Instead, Trump will likely receive an “unconditional discharge,” and avoid imprisonment, probation, and fines — but his conviction will stand.
The president-elect filed an emergency application with the Supreme Court on Wednesday to try to block his sentencing. The court denied Trump’s appeal by a count of 5-4 on Thursday.
The unsigned order from the court shows Trump received support from four conservative justices, Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the three liberal justices to deny 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.”
Alito reportedly spoke with Trump on Wednesday, shortly before the president-elect submitted the emergency application. The justice said the two did not discuss the New York hush money case and insisted the call was about his former law clerk, who is seeking a job in the second Trump administration.
The president-elect was uncharacteristically sedate in his response to the Supreme Court’s decision, as he wrote in a Truth Social post that he appreciated “the time and effort of the United States Supreme Court in trying to remedy the great injustice done to me.” He added that he intends to appeal the New York court’s sentencing for “the sake and sanctity of the presidency.”
Trump appointed three justices to the Supreme Court, and helped build a 6-3 conservative supermajority that could potentially last for decades.
Throughout the 2024 presidential campaign, the court issued a series of decisions that helped preserve and protect Trump’s candidacy.
First, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that states could not bar Trump from their ballots, after some states sought to do so citing the 14th Amendment, which prohibits insurrectionists from holding elected office.
Next, the conservatives on the high court granted Trump a sweeping immunity shield, ruling that presidents cannot be prosecuted for official acts committed while in office.
The court’s handling of the immunity case and its ultimate decision helped delay Trump’s federal criminal trials, which were subsequently abandoned after he won the 2024 election.
Trump sought to use the Supreme Court’s immunity ruling as a basis to block his sentencing in the New York criminal case. His lawyers asked the high court to consider “whether the trial court’s admission and use of evidence of President Trump’s official acts in a state-court jury trial on criminal charges violated the doctrine of Presidential immunity recognized in Trump v. United States.”
The court didn’t bite — though it could take up the case again at a later date.
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