“We reaffirm that principle today and hold that the president is neither absolutely immune from state criminal subpoenas seeking his private papers nor entitled to a heightened standard of need.”
– John Roberts, Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, ruling against President Donald Trump in his ongoing effort to keep private his pre-presidential financial records.
Chief Justice John Roberts went on to state, “In our system, the public has a right to every man’s evidence,” and “since the founding of the Republic, every man has included the President of the United States.”
The 7-2 ruling is a staunch rebuke of Trump’s pathological arrogance in refusing to release all of his financial data; claiming an audit prevents it. Although it’s not law for presidential candidates to release financial documents, such as tax statements, it has been tradition for decades. Trump was the first presidential candidate in modern memory not only unwilling to release such records, but to flat out refuse to do so.
Chief Writing Wolf 