US supreme court to issue decisions with abortion and Trump immunity at stake – live

As president, Donald Trump created the conservative supermajority on the supreme court by appointing three rightwing justices who have since supported decisions overturning the constitutional right to abortion, and weakening firearm protections and environmental regulations.

When the court heard arguments over Trump’s petition for immunity from the federal charges against him for allegedly conspiring to overturn the election, those same justices seemed open to a ruling that will likely have the net effect of further delaying his federal trial, perhaps until after the November election. And after he was convicted last week of felony business fraud charges, the president openly appealed to the court to throw the conviction out. The Guardian’s Robert Tait has more:

Donald Trump has called on the US supreme court to step in and annul his guilty verdict in a hush-money trial that left him with the unwanted distinction of being the first former US president to be a convicted felon.

The 2024 presumptive Republican nominee made his plea in a typically florid post on his Truth Social site, highlighting that a sentencing hearing scheduled for 11 July falls just four days before the GOP’s national convention in Milwaukee, when his nomination is expected to become official.

“The ‘Sentencing’ for not having done anything wrong will be, conveniently for the Fascists, 4 days before the Republican National Convention,” Trump wrote. “A Radical Left Soros backed D.A., who ran on a platform of ‘I will get Trump,’ reporting to an ‘Acting’ Local Judge, appointed by the Democrats, who is HIGHLY CONFLICTED, will make a decision which will determine the future of our Nation?”

A jury in Manhattan found the ex-president guilty last Thursday on all 34 counts of falsifying documents to conceal a sexual liaison with an adult film actor, Stormy Daniels, in the run-up to the 2016 presidential election, which Trump won over Hillary Clinton.

The verdict, which Trump has pledged to appeal, raised the atmosphere in this year’s presidential campaign to fever pitch more than five months before polling day, with Republicans circling the wagons while Democrats sought ways to exploit it.