President Donald Trump on Friday asked the Supreme Court to vacate a ruling by a federal appeals court that affirmed a decision by a federal judge in Florida dismissing his lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and several others. The suit alleges “a coordinated scheme … to undermine his candidacy and Presidency through fabricated accusations of Russian collusion.” U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks had also ordered Trump and his attorney, Alina Habba, to pay nearly $1 million in sanctions.
Trump filed the lawsuit in March 2022. In addition to Clinton, the defendants included the Democratic National Committee and the law firm Perkins Coie. Middlebrooks dismissed the lawsuit, finding (among other things) that Trump had brought his claims too late, and that many of the statements alleged to have been made by the various defendants were “plainly protected by the First Amendment.”
Trump appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, which upheld Middlebrooks’ decision. Chief Judge William Pryor largely agreed with the defendants that Trump’s claims were “untimely and otherwise meritless,” and it affirmed the sanctions orders.
After the full 11th Circuit turned down his request to reconsider the ruling, Trump came to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to weigh in on two questions: whether the time to file Trump’s claims should have been extended because of his unique role and responsibilities as president, and whether a court can fine the president and his lawyers for making the “substantial, unresolved argument” that the time to file Trump’s claims should have been extended.
Trump’s lawyer, Richard Klugh, told the justices that the lower court’s ruling “wrongly forces Presidents to choose between their public responsibilities and private claims.” Moreover, he added, its decision “violate[s] this Court’s precedents and undermine[s] the adversary system by improperly sanctioning lawyers and their clients for reasonable constitutional advocacy.”
Clinton’s response to Trump’s filing will be due 30 days after his petition is officially docketed, although she may seek additional time in which to respond. The court is likely to act on Trump’s petition for review sometime this winter.