Trump asks Supreme Court for rehearings as odds remain slim

President Donald Trump and his legal team have filed petitions asking the Supreme Court to rehear two recent rulings: a June 30 decision that invalidated his executive order on birth-right citizenship and a lower-court judgment upholding a $5 million verdict in a defamation suit by columnist E. Jean Carroll. The petitions seek a rehearing within the 25-day window allowed by Court rules, but legal scholars note that the high court grants such requests only when new, material evidence emerges.

The June 30 ruling, decided 6-3, held that the executive order violated the 14th Amendment’s citizenship clause, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissenting on constitutional grounds but agreeing it was barred by immigration law. The last time the Supreme Court granted a rehearing of a decided case was in 1965, and the only instance it reversed its own decision after a rehearing occurred nearly a decade earlier.

"It is extremely rare for the court to grant reconsideration," said Michael Dorf, a constitutional law professor at Cornell Law School. "When it does so, it is typically because some vital information was not before it originally. Simple attempts to re-litigate a decided issue invariably fail."

Trump’s attorneys argue that the Court should not ignore the "grave and irreparable consequences" of enforcing the Carroll judgment, citing historical instances where the Court revisited denied appeals. A federal judge, however, ordered the payment to proceed, and a federal appeals court denied Trump’s request for immediate relief while it reviews a longer pause request.

The Department of Justice declined to comment on Trump’s intent to seek a rehearing. Lawyers for Carroll also declined comment.