Special counsel Jack Smith on Monday asked the Supreme Court to decide whether Donald Trump has any immunity from criminal prosecution for alleged crimes he committed while in office – the first time that the high court will weigh in on the historic prosecution of the former president.

The extraordinary request is an attempt by Smith to keep the trial – currently scheduled for early March – on track. Smith is asking the Supreme Court to take the rare step of skipping a federal appeals court and quickly decide a fundamental issue of the case against Trump.

[This certainly offers the classic strategy for Gordian knots such as these — just hack right through it. Will the justices agree to hear the appeal this directly? Hopefully they will, since this is a key constitutional issue that will not grow more clear as it goes through the normal chain of appeals. Better to know now rather than waste months of prosecutorial effort only to discover that the Supreme Court would make it moot. — Ed]