The U.S. Supreme Court decided to dismiss a lawsuit that revolved around accessing records pertaining to the D.C. hotel previously owned by ex-President Trump.
The case was originally initiated by Democratic lawmakers, however, the lawsuit was later withdrawn by these members of Congress, according to a report from The Hill.
This prompted both parties involved in the case to propose to the Supreme Court that it be considered as moot.
The Supreme Court concurred with the suggestion and issued a succinct, unsigned order on Monday.
The order instructs the lower court to dismiss the case, effectively canceling the previous ruling.
Despite general consensus, left-wing Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stood against the majority.
She expressed a preference for using a different legal process to dispose of the case.
The case’s primary subject matter, the documents concerning Trump’s D.C. hotel, gradually lost relevance in the dispute.
It was noted that lawmakers had been able to obtain most of these documents through other avenues.
Despite this, the case had initially been poised to evaluate a pivotal issue regarding the power of Congress’s minority party to scrutinize a presidential administration.
This case also represented a potential legal challenge to a federal statute called the “Seven Member Rule.”
This rule grants the privilege to any seven members of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, or any five members of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, to request pertinent information from the executive branches, The Hill notes.
The Justice Department, under the Biden administration, had earlier appealed to the Supreme Court to clarify that the Democrats did not possess the legal standing to enforce the Seven Member Rule through a court case.
