Perspectives: The Supreme Court and Trump's Tax Returns

Remember President Trump’s tax returns? It seems like a relic from the distant past, but only last December, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a trio of cases on whether the president could block his accounting firm and two of his banks from turning over eight years of tax returns and other financial records to Democratic-led House committees and New York City prosecutors. Trump’s lawyers have offered an extraordinarily expansive vision of his power as president, arguing that as chief executive he is immune from criminal investigations and congressional...

The U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments yesterday in Trump v. Mazars, a case which asks whether the House Committee on Oversight and Reform overstepped its legal authority in 2019 when it subpoenaed Mazars USA, Donald Trump's longtime accounting firm, demanding eight years of financial records pertaining to Trump and several of his business entities.

In Barenblatt v. United States (1959), the Supreme Court held that "Congress may only investigate into those areas in which it may potentially legislate or appropriate." In Eastland v. U.S. Servicemen's Fund (1975), the Court...