The Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with former President Donald Trump, issuing an order temporarily shielding his tax returns from beind turned over to the House Ways and Means Committee.
The order, issued by Chief Justice John Roberts, calls for the House panel to issue a response by Nov. 10.
In his emergency appeal filed Monday, Trump said that without the court's intervention, the handover could have happened as soon as Thursday.
Lower courts ruled that the committee has broad authority to obtain tax returns and rejected Trump's claims that it was overstepping. The order does not weigh in on the merits of Trump's request, but rather keeps a lower court ruling on hold while the Supreme Court considers the former president's appeal.
Trump had most recently sought the justices' intervention in a legal dispute stemming from the search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August. The court rejected that appeal.
With this action, Trump could potentially delay a final decision until the start of the next Congress in January. If Republicans recapture control of the House in the fall election, they could drop the records request.
The House Ways and Means panel and its chairman, Democrat Richard Neal of Massachusetts, first requested Trump's tax returns in 2019 as part of an investigation into the Internal Revenue Service's audit program and tax law compliance by the former president. A federal law says the Internal Revenue Service "shall furnish" the returns of any taxpayer to a handful of top lawmakers.
The Justice Department, under the Trump administration, had defended a decision by then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to withhold the tax returns from Congress. Mnuchin argued that he could withhold the documents because he concluded they were being sought by Democrats for partisan reasons. A lawsuit ensued.
After President Joe Biden took office, the committee renewed the request, seeking Trump's tax returns and additional information from 2015-2020. The White House took the position that the request was a valid one and that the Treasury Department had no choice but to comply. Trump then attempted to halt the handover in court.
Then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. obtained copies of Trump's personal and business tax records as part of a criminal investigation. That case, too, went to the Supreme Court, which rejected Trump's argument that he had broad immunity as president.