Appeals court stacked with Democrat-appointed judges rules Congress can seek 8 years of President Trump's tax returns

A U.S. appeals court ruled Thursday to allow Congress to gain access to eight year's of President Trump's tax returns in a case that will likely reach the Supreme Court.

The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit rejected the president's request to rehear a previous ruling by a three-judge panel that allowed Congress to subpoena the president's tax records. In March, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee filed the subpoena.

The president's lawyers had asked that the full D.C. Circuit court reconsider the case, and on Wednesday the court voted 8-3 in favor of letting the earlier ruling stand.

According to an NPR report, of the 11 judges on the panel, seven were appointed by Democratic presidents:

Seven of the eight judges were appointed by Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, both Democrats. The eighth was appointed by President George W. Bush, a Republican. The three dissenting judges — those who sided with the president — were all Republican appointees. Two were appointed by Trump and the third by President George H.W. Bush.

The ruling comes alongside a federal appeals court ruling in a separate case on Nov. 4 stating that the president must turn over eight years of personal and corporate tax returns to Manhattan prosecutors.

The president's lawyer, Jay Sekulow, said after losing the New York tax returns fight that "the issue raised in this case goes to the heart of our Republic. The constitutional issues are significant."

According to NPR, Sekulow will be seeking review at the Supreme Court.

The Trump legal team is arguing that Trump should be granted presidential immunity, previously writing that a sitting president can not be criminally investigated.