The decision by a left-leaning three-judge panel of the Second United States Appeals Circuit to uphold a $83 million defamation verdict against President Trump sets up a Supreme Court clash between the 47th president and the sex and romance advice writer E. Jean Carroll.

The ruling, which was unanimous and unsigned, preserved the judgment against Mr. Trump that was imposed by a trial judge, Lewis Kaplan, whom the president has called a “radical left lunatic.”The appellate court decided that “the degree of reprehensibility of Mr. Trump’s conduct was remarkably high, perhaps unprecedented.” Mr. Trump was also found also liable, in a separate case, for $5 million for defamation and sexual abuse against Ms. Carroll.

The columnist, now 81, accused Mr. Trump of raping her in a dressing room on the lingerie floor of an upscale Manhattan department store, Bergdorf Goodman, sometime in the 1990s. Mr. Trump denies her allegations completely, saying Ms. Carroll is “not my type” and “a total con job.” 

Mr. Carroll for her part has publicized her allegations in two memoirs. The first, “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal,” was publicized on the cover of New York magazine, setting a defamation trap for Mr. Trump: When he called her a liar, she sued. The second is titled, “Not My Type: One Woman vs. a President.” 

The panel that dealt Mr. Trump this latest setback comprised Judges Denny Chin, Sarah A.L. Merriam, and Maria Araújo Kahn. Judge Chin was appointed to the federal bench by President Obama — the other two owe their positions to President Biden. 

The New York jury found that Mr. Trump sexually abused Ms. Carroll but did not rape her. Judge Kaplan, though, wrote “that Mr. Trump ‘raped’ her as many people commonly understand the word ‘rape’ … the jury found that Mr. Trump in fact did exactly that.” He adds that “Mr. Trump deliberately and forcibly penetrated Ms. Carroll’s vagina with his fingers, causing … long lasting emotional and psychological harm.” Mr. Trump denies any memory whatsoever of Ms. Carroll.

The Second Circuit, which has already declined to overturn the initial $5 million verdict, which may also be heading to the Supreme Court, now finds that Mr. Trump “never wavered or relented in his public attacks” and construed Ms. Carroll as “a politically and financially motivated liar, insinuating that she was too unattractive for him to have sexually assaulted her and threatening that she would ‘pay dearly’ for speaking out.”

The Second Circuit reasoned that “the jury was entitled to find that Trump would not stop defaming Carroll unless he was subjected to a substantial financial penalty.” That penalty across the two civil cases has now climbed to some $88 million. Mr. Trump has vowed to appeal the $5 million verdict to the Supreme Court, and now could pursue a similar appellate course with respect to the $83 million judgment.

Mr. Trump could appeal to the Supreme Court directly, or first ask for a full, or en banc, hearing of the entire Second Circuit. The appellate court rejected such a request in the context of the $5 million verdict. A dissent from that denial came from Judge Steven Menashi, an appointee of Mr. Trump, who wrote that his colleagues “sanctioned striking departures” from legal precedent “to justify the irregular judgment in this case.” The Second Circuit also rejected Mr. Trump’s contention that  “presidential immunity forecloses any liability here and requires the complete dismissal of all claims.”

Judge Kaplan, whom Mr. Trump has called a “bully” and a “nasty guy” in addition to the “radical left lunatic” imprecation, determined that the immunity argument was unavailable to Mr. Trump because he did not raise it at an earlier juncture in the case. Judges Chin, Merriam, and Kahn held that the “district court did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s duly rendered damages awards were reasonable in light of the extraordinary and egregious facts of this case.”

Judge Kaplan, who oversaw both of Ms. Carroll’s defamation cases, prevented Mr. Trump from challenging the facts of the $5 million verdict during the $83 million trial. Mr. Trump — who at one point walked out of the courtroom in anger — was enraged he was not allowed to defend himself from the original accusation. 

Mr. Trump complained on Truth Social that Judge Kaplan “is abusive, rude, and obviously not impartial but, that’s the way this crooked system works!” He added that the judge “should be sanctioned for his abuse of power — No wonder our Country is going to Hell!”

The Supreme Court, though, could grasp the opportunity to revisit that claim. The Nine held in Trump v. United States that official presidential acts are presumptively immune from prosecution, while unofficial ones are bereft of such protection. Mr. Trump argues that because he denied Ms. Carroll’s claims using official White House channels, those statements fall under the protective umbrella of immunity.

The Supreme Court’s “Rule of Four” requires four Supreme Court justices to vote to grant certiorari for the case to be taken up. The Second Circuit also rejected Mr. Trump’s effort to swap himself out as the defendant in the case in favor of the Department of Justice.