Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/19-715_febh.pdf
Page Number: 23.0

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TRUMP v. MAZARS USA, LLP 

Opinion of the Court 

Indeed,  Congress  could  declare  open  season  on  the  Presi-
dent’s  information  held  by  schools,  archives,  internet  ser-
vice  providers,  e-mail  clients,  and  financial  institutions. 
The  Constitution  does  not  tolerate  such  ready  evasion;  it
“deals  with  substance,  not  shadows.”    Cummings  v.  Mis-
souri, 4 Wall. 277, 325 (1867). 

E 
Congressional subpoenas for the President’s personal in-
formation implicate weighty concerns regarding the sepa-
ration of powers.  Neither side, however, identifies an ap-
proach that accounts for these concerns.  For more than two 
centuries, the political branches have resolved information
disputes using the wide variety of means that the Constitu-
tion puts at their disposal.  The nature of such interactions 
would be transformed by judicial  enforcement of either  of 
the approaches suggested by the parties, eroding a “[d]eeply 
embedded  traditional  way[ ]  of  conducting  government.” 
Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co., 343 U. S., at 610 (Frankfur-
ter, J., concurring).

A balanced approach is necessary, one that takes a “con-
siderable  impression”  from  “the  practice  of  the  govern-
ment,” McCulloch v. Maryland, 4 Wheat. 316, 401 (1819); 
see Noel Canning, 573 U. S., at 524–526, and “resist[s]” the
“pressure inherent within each of the separate Branches to
exceed the outer limits of its power,” INS v. Chadha, 462 
U. S.  919,  951  (1983).  We  therefore  conclude  that,  in  as-
sessing whether a subpoena directed at the President’s per-
sonal information is “related to, and in furtherance of, a le-
gitimate task of the Congress,” Watkins, 354 U. S., at 187, 
courts must perform a careful analysis that takes adequate
account of the separation of powers principles at stake, in-
cluding both the significant legislative interests of Congress
and  the  “unique  position”  of  the  President,  Clinton,  520 
U. S., at 698 (internal quotation marks omitted).  Several 
special considerations inform this analysis.