1 of 2 | The Supreme Court will hear arguments relating to a case over Trump Old Post Office LLC. reaching an agreement with the General Services Administration to purchase the former postal building. In 2016, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, requested lease documents and expense reports from the purchase made by the former president (pictured, 2022). File Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI |
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May 15 (UPI) -- The Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments over whether Democrats can sue for records relating to a company owned by former President Donald Trump purchasing a Washington, D.C., post office and converting it into a luxury hotel.
The arguments will be heard during the court's next term in the case of Carnahan v. Maloney, which raises the question of whether individual members of Congress can sue an executive agency for information requested under Section 2954. The next term begins in October.
Section 2954 states that the Committee on Government Operations of the House of Representatives, seven members of the committee, the Committee on Governmental Affairs of the Senate, or five members of that committee can request information from an executive agency.
The case stems from the Trump Old Post Office LLC. reaching an agreement with the General Services Administration to purchase the building. In 2016, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. Elijah Cummings, requested lease documents and expense reports from the purchase.
The administration shared the unredacted documents in 2017, before declining a request for more information soon after. Democrats sued the General Services Administration, alleging that it violated the Freedom of Information Act.
If the Supreme Court weighs in on the case, it may further clarify the power of the minority party in the legislative branch to investigate the executive branch.
The case was tossed out in a lower court in 2020, and the U.S. Court of Appeals declined to rehear the case in 2022. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote in a court filing that the Supreme Court should not "referee" between branches of government, which would raise the "specter of judicial readiness to enlist on one side of a political tug-of-war."
Meanwhile, Trump's company sold the hotel last year. It has since reopened as a Waldorf Astoria hotel, owned by Hilton.
