The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit has shut down former President Donald Trump’s latest effort to upend the $83.3 million defamation judgment in writer E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit, refusing to grant a rare full-court rehearing and keeping the eye-popping damages in place for now. The Manhattan-based court’s move edges the long-running fight closer to a likely showdown at the U.S. Supreme Court, capping years of litigation that began after Carroll went public with her allegations in 2019 and spiraled into multiple trials and appeals.
Appeals Court Refuses En Banc Rehearing
In a 5-3 vote, the Second Circuit declined Trump’s request for an en banc rehearing, the kind of full-bench do-over the court reserves for exceptional cases. Judge Denny Chin wrote separately to defend the earlier panel decision, pointing to a record that showed Trump repeatedly accusing Carroll over many years of lying for political and financial gain. Chin said those attacks left Carroll “harassed and humiliated,” according to The Associated Press.
Dissent Emphasizes Immunity Fight
Three judges, Steven J. Menashi, Michael H. Park and Debra Ann Livingston, broke with the majority and argued the full court should have stepped in. They contended the United States should have been substituted as the defendant after an attorney general certification and that presidential immunity could shield Trump. The dissenters also blasted the size of the verdict as “grossly excessive” and called for a new trial, a split detailed by ABC News.
How the Case Got Here
Carroll first publicly accused Trump in 2019. A federal jury in May 2023 found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded her roughly $5 million. A separate damages trial in January 2024 focused on Trump’s repeated defamatory statements and produced the roughly $83.3 million award, according to The Associated Press. The long appellate road that followed included a Second Circuit decision last September leaving the judgment intact, a turn chronicled when mammoth $83.3 million judgment became the headline number in the case.
What Comes Next
With en banc review now off the table, all eyes shift to the Supreme Court. The high court’s public docket shows that a petition in the related Carroll matter was filed on Nov. 10, 2025 and has been distributed for conference multiple times. The Supreme Court docket confirms the petition is still pending.
Reactions
Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said her client was “eager for this case, originally filed in 2019, to be over so that she can finally obtain justice.” Trump’s legal team, for its part, branded the litigation politically motivated and promised to keep pressing appeals, according to ABC News. The sharply divided ruling underscored a broader clash among judges over when and how presidential conduct can be dragged into civil court.
Legal Stakes
Beyond the headline-grabbing dollar figure, the case carries heavy legal weight. It tests the reach of presidential immunity, when the United States can be swapped in as the defendant after an attorney general certification, and how far punitive damages can go before courts step in. Those are the very issues the dissenters flagged, and ones that legal analysts say could prompt the Supreme Court to sketch out a broader rule on what counts as an official act. The Washington Post has noted that any ruling in this arena could reshape future lawsuits over statements by high-ranking officials.
For now, the massive damages award stands while the appellate and Supreme Court processes play out, keeping this yearslong New York civil saga very much alive and ensuring that the battle over immunity and defamation remains a closely watched test case in courts across the country. As the Supreme Court docket makes clear, the matter is still under active consideration at the nation’s highest bench.
