Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggests that the legal question raised by Schock may not be fully resolved.
The U. S. Supreme Court refused Tuesday to hear an appeal from indicted former U. S. Rep. Aaron Schock, who has insisted his prosecution violates the constitutional separation of powers.
Still, a statement from Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor suggests that the question raised by Schock — whether the judicial branch should be allowed to interpret rules adopted by the U. S. House of Representatives — may not be fully resolved.
“Although this question does not arise frequently — presumably because criminal charges against Members of Congress are rare — the sensitive separation-of-powers questions that such prosecutions raise ought to be handled uniformly,” Sotomayor wrote as she concurred with the decision not to hear Schock’s case. “It is not clear, however, that this case cleanly presents the question whether such orders are, as a general matter, immediately appealable.
