Good things, as the English proverb reminds us, come to those who wait. That proverb aptly describes Tuesday’s 3-0 decision the United States Court of Appeal for the District of Columbia which artfully and emphatically rejected former president Donald Trump's claim that he is immune from prosecution for alleged criminal Acts he carried out while President.

Let’s not bury the good news: The panel took the time to write an opinion whose quality could render unnecessary Supreme Court review which would cost additional months of delay. The new ruling, which some legal experts worried was too long in coming, was actually speedy compared to ordinary timelines for resolving appeals.

And it delivered what The Atlantic’s George Conway called an “airtight” and devastating rebuke to the former president.

Importantly, the order accompanying the decision reinforced its message that Trump’s attempts to delay his election interference trial with untenable appeals may be short-lived. That order said that the stay of Trump’s trial in the district court would remain in effect only through February 12 unless Trump files a petition in the Supreme Court by that date. In other words, the court was whispering loudly in Trump’s ear, “We’re onto your game of delay, and we’ll have no part of it.”

That message is enormously significant to the health of American democracy. Voters have a right to know before they cast their November ballots whether one of the major party’s presidential candidates committed crimes as he sought to destroy the peaceful transition of power after his 2020 election defeat.

Cutting through the legalese in the court’s order, it shortens, potentially by months, the waiting time that ordinary appellate rules allow before a losing party must make its next move up the appeals court chain. The D.C.........

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