The U.S. Supreme Court rarely revisits its own decisions after turning away an appeal, and petitions for rehearing are typically denied without explanation. On August 17, the court did exactly that in Donald Trump’s challenge to E. Jean Carroll’s civil judgment, closing off another avenue in one of the highest-profile personal liability cases tied to a sitting president.
Supreme Court leaves $5 million Carroll verdict in place
The Supreme Court denied Trump’s petition for rehearing on August 17, according to the court’s docket in Trump v. Carroll, after it had already denied his petition for certiorari on June 29. The underlying case involved a New York jury’s 2023 decision awarding Carroll $5 million after finding Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The court’s order did not include a written explanation, which is standard for denials at that stage.
According to the Supreme Court docket, Trump’s original petition in that case was filed in November 2025, denied on June 29, 2026, and followed by a rehearing petition filed on July 8. The rehearing petition was then distributed to the justices before being denied in the court’s August 17 order list. Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement reported by the Associated Press that the jury’s unanimous verdict is now final and cannot be challenged in any court.
The practical result is that the $5 million judgment from the 2023 civil trial remains intact. The Associated Press reported that Trump paid the judgment shortly after the court first declined to hear the appeal in June. Trump has continued to deny wrongdoing.
Although the Supreme Court action came from Washington, the facts at the center of the case remain rooted in New York. Carroll testified that Trump assaulted her in the mid-1990s in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan, and the civil trial that produced the $5 million verdict was heard in federal court in New York. The verdict covered both the sexual abuse finding and defamation tied to Trump’s 2022 statements denying her account.
What is confirmed is the procedural posture of this specific case: the Supreme Court has now denied both review and rehearing, ending Trump’s challenge to that verdict. What is not yet resolved is Trump’s separate effort to overturn another Carroll judgment, an $83.3 million defamation award tied to his 2019 statements while he was president. The Associated Press reported that the justices have not yet acted on that separate appeal.
There is also no broader operational impact for New York residents in the way a business closure or regulatory ruling might create. Instead, the local significance is institutional: the Manhattan-based allegations, the New York federal proceedings, and the jury’s verdict now stand without further review from the nation’s highest court in this case.
Trump’s legal team had argued that the trial judge improperly allowed testimony from other women and additional evidence that they said should not have been presented to the jury, according to Reuters. That argument did not persuade the Supreme Court to take up the case in June, and it also failed to win the far narrower remedy of rehearing in August.
Legal analysts have described rehearing petitions at the Supreme Court as exceptionally difficult to win. Semafor, citing Georgetown law professor Stephen Vladeck, reported in July that the last time the Supreme Court granted rehearing in an argued case was in 1965. A Congressional Research Service report similarly states that the court seldom grants rehearing of any order, judgment or decision on a losing party’s request.
For readers, the immediate meaning is straightforward: the $5 million Carroll judgment is no longer subject to challenge at the Supreme Court in this case. The unresolved piece is the separate $83.3 million Carroll matter, which remains pending before the justices. As of August 17, the court’s docket shows no final action in that second appeal.