Supreme Court orders more arguments in case over Trump’s financial records

The Supreme Court on Monday asked the Trump administration and the House to further brief justices on whether the case over the president’s financial records can be decided by the courts.

The move comes two weeks before the justices will hear oral arguments over a set of subpoenas that House Democrats have issued to President Trump’s banks and accountants. The request indicates that at least some of the justices may believe that the judiciary is not fit to resolve the dispute.

“The parties and the Solicitor General are directed to file supplemental letter briefs addressing whether the political question doctrine or related justiciability principles bear on the Court’s adjudication of these cases,” the Supreme Court said in its order Monday morning.

The political question doctrine holds that the courts can only decide questions of law, not of politics, so general disputes between government branches are not fit for the judiciary.

Congress subpoenaed Deutsche Bank, the accounting firm Mazars and Capital One last year, prompting the president, in his personal capacity, to file a lawsuit to block them from complying.

His lawyers argue that the subpoenas are improper because they lack a legitimate legislative purpose and are only intended to harass the president. They are asking the Supreme Court to curtail the Congress’s investigative power.

But the House contends that it is exercising its constitutional duties to conduct oversight of the government and is investigating whether it needs to explore banking and ethics legislation.

The court will hear oral arguments by phone conference on May 12.