Donald Trump can be sentenced for his felony convictions, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday night.
The court's 5-4 ruling denied the president-elect's emergency request for a stay, allowing a scheduled sentencing hearing on Friday to proceed. Liberal justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Kentanji Brown Jackson were joined by Amy Coney Barrett and Chief Justice John Roberts in the majority.
In a request to halt Trump's impending sentencing, Trump’s attorneys accused the lower court of evidentiary violations and suggested that his sentencing on 34 counts of falsifying business records would interfere with the transition to the president-elect's second term. They claimed the hearing and sentence would impose “an intolerable, unconstitutional burden on him that undermines these vital national interests.”
The unsigned ruling on Thursday implored Trump to exhaust his state-level options, noting that his evidence concerns could be handled “in the ordinary course on appeal.” They also doubted that the sentencing would be a major imposition, as presiding Judge Juan Merchan has stated that he has no intention of sentencing the president to jail time.
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," the ruling reads.
In his order setting a date for the sentencing, Merchan said that vacating the conviction or further delaying the hearing “would constitute a disproportionate result and cause immeasurable damage to the citizenry's confidence” in the rule of law.
Several justices noted in the ruling that they would have granted Trump’s request. Justice Samuel Alito, who spoke privately with Trump in the hours before he filed his request to the court, came down on the side of the president-elect.
Trump said he "respect[s] the court's opinion" while meeting with Republican governors at Mar-a-Lago on Thursday night.
"We’ll see how it all works out," he said, per Fox News. "I think it’s going to work out well."
Trump’s sentencing hearing is slated for Friday, Jan 10 at 9:30 a.m.
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