Look, you can’t have transparency and luxury yacht vacations.
Two books about the workings of the Court that address some of these issues are The Brethren by Woodward and a co-writer, and more recently The Nine by Toobin (written before public wanking).
A twist on “signed first edition”!
My understanding is that the rule of four to grant cert has been in place for well over a century, from the time that the Congress amended the Court’s statute to give them control over their own docket.
It’s based on the idea that cert should be granted if a significant portion of the Court thinks so, but not necessarily a majority, because they want the difficult cases to come to them, ones that don’t have an obvious outcome. Giving a minority of judges that power advances that goal.
Wait, what? Clearly I am missing something crucial about trial preparation time because it seems to me like this is giving Trump extra time on account of all the extra time he’s had. Why is he being rewarded for deliberately causing a delay?
There’s no need to go through a bunch of time and expense if the appeal goes through or partially through which would put a wrench in things. It’s reasonable to wait for the results.
Or kill him in Washington DC.
So this is included in the timeline I posted above
Basically he’s been given three months of pre-trial preparation. But the clock on that was stopped when the appeal was accepted (cos you know why would you have to do pre-trial prep on a case that is clearly such a travesty of justice 
). So when shock horror the appeal is turned down by the SCOTUS the clock will be started again, leading to a trial starting in June-ish (assuming the SCOTUS doesn’t actually take the case)
Prepping for a Supreme Court appearance takes a lot of time, energy and dollars. He’s got a right to seek to appeal the decision. Telling him that he’s simultaneously going to be running a potential Supreme Court appeal, while also prepping for trial, would be an unusual requirement.
OK, it’s getting a bit late and I’m tired and I’m pretty sure the answer to this is going to have me face-palming and saying “Doh!”, but–
If the trial concludes in late October and Trump is found guilty, what then? The election is scheduled for Nov.5. Mail-in ballots will go out (I think) in late September. Early voting will start in (I think) early- to mid- October. Millions may already have voted by late October, and some of those millions will have voted for Trump.
Or will the election be delayed to some point in time after the verdict?
Constitutionally, I don’t believe you can delay an election.
Quite a few of those millions would vote for Trump even if he’s convicted of every charge against him.
Good question. First thought, is if DOJ would go forward with the trial on this timeline. Assuming a 3 month trial, it would start around August. It would be iffy if DOJ would do that as they have an unwritten rule not to interfere close to an election. I think the rule is 60 days prior which is a deadline of Sep 5.
Assuming the trial went forward, nothing would change. Trump would still be eligible to be elected President and people could and will vote for him.
This wasn’t part of your question but I’ll offer it anyways: The reality is he needs to be beaten politically. It would also be the most healthy for our democracy outcome. These cases are a sideshow - like an outrageous scandal that he seems fairly immune too regardless of the outcomes.
the 60 day thing is investigations and indictments. that bit is done.
this is in the hands of the court. ag garland said the timing is in the hands of the judge and the courts now .
Thanks, that makes sense. I saw Sep 5 on the timeline posted above and assumed the 60-day rule still applied (maybe ask for a continuance?)
But you’re right, the Court sets the schedule. And that’s that.
Trump immediately declares his innocence, files an appeal and the election goes ahead.
This the thing right, how does an appeal help him? People are implying that it’s a forgone conclusion that he’ll be let out pending appeal. But AFAIK that is very rare, the “great and good” are treated differently, true (they tend to get the option of voluntarily surrendering rather than being hauled off in a jump suit) but not to the point of being let out pending appeal. What basis is there for saying he would be?
I think there is a pretty good chance Trump will be in prison for a felony on election day and if he is that will most likely be enough to ensure he’s not elected. I said 10% in this thread, but I actually think thats pessimistic based on the rulings against him since then. I’d increase that to at least 1/3 now.
If he is convicted and elected (which while not super likely is horrifically more likely than it should be in any sane universe) the first thing we’ll see is whether the supreme court is in his pocket enough to allow him to pardon himself. If it is, that’s it: stick a fork in our democracy cos’ its toast.
I very much doubt he’ll be in prison by election day. At most he’ll be on some sort of house arrest at Mar-A-Lago.
On what basis? These are serious felony charges. If he’s convicted before the election, what would be the justification for allowing Trump (who may have already been convicted in the hush money case prior to the election interfence trial*) off with house arrest? AFAIK those kind of soft house arrest sentences are the result of plea bargains (e.g. Epstien’s notorious lenient deal), there is almost no chance of that happening here (before the election at least, would not bet against it if trump wins while the trial is still in progress, in fact that is possibly the best possible outcome at that point 
)
* - Though in that case I would not be shocked if he receives some manner of bullshit sentence for the hush money charge. Its a much less serious charge than the others.
I agree in the sense that if the majority of the electorate want a fascist dictator, we’re fucked regardless of anything else. But an essential part of that is whether the majority of the electorate still believe in the rule of law and whether overthrowing democracy to achieve your political objectives is okay. So the election is a vote on the trial as much as it’s a vote on Trump.
I also think there’s the critical issue that the biggest of the criminal trials on the core issue may be enough to pierce the propaganda bubble at the margin.