A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday ordered President Trump's longtime accounting firm to hand over stacks of financial documents to congressional investigators. When that dispute reaches the Supreme Court later this year, the justices will face a crucial choice: whether to schedule oral argument promptly and pave the way for a final ruling by summertime, or instead delay a decision until after next year's general election.

The high court should not let Trump run out the clock. But if a bare majority of the justices wished to, they could.

The case involves a subpoena issued April 15 by the House Oversight Committee to the president's accountants, Mazars USA, for financial statements they prepared on behalf of Trump, his trust and foundation and several Trump-owned businesses from 2011 through 2018. The subpoena also calls for "[a]ll underlying, supporting, or source documents and records" that the accountants used when producing those statements. That demand potentially encompasses Trump's long-elusive tax returns if Mazars relied on them when preparing his statements.

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