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T.S. Eliot wrote that “April is the cruelest month.” Though a famed poet, Eliot clearly was not a lawyer watching the Supreme Court docket every day in June of an election year.
While April may mark the end of nature’s dying season and the transition to spring, for lawyers trying to protect democracy, that takes place when the Supreme Court term concludes at the end of June. Or at least, it is supposed to conclude at the end of June.
As June grinded by, lower courts continued to churn out mostly favorable decisions that will impact the way in which elections are conducted in November. But with each passing day, we watched to see what the Court would do in the high-profile cases piled up on its docket.
Then in the final week, even as the Court issued a flurry of decisions that will reshape the law in a myriad of ways large and small, it became clear that the court would not finish. Most importantly, we learned that the Court would delay issuing a decision in its most watched and politically significant case, Trump v. United States.
We end the month still not knowing if a president can assassinate his political opponent without legal consequence and if and when Trump will stand trial in his Washington, D.C. criminal case.
With the justices set to leave town for the summer on junkets and donor paid vacations, our collective attention turns to a busy four months of politics and elections.
As Eliot continued, in The Waste Land, “Summer surprised us.” And so, in this month’s Litigation Look Ahead, I try to anticipate the surprises in store for democracy in the month ahead. Let’s get started.
