The conservative assault on the federal courts has been very substantial during the first two years of Trump’s presidency but things have still not broken irrevocably. On Friday, the Supreme Court declined to intervene on the administration’s behalf to stop a case asking Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross why he wants to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census questionnaire. The administration also lost a bid to get a stay on complying with disclosure requirements in the Emoluments case brought by the state of Maryland and the District of Columbia. The best part about the latter ruling is that involves one my favorite things, which is when judges cite the president’s own words and actions while slapping down his attorneys.
The Justice Department asked for the judge’s permission to appeal his rulings and to delay discovery in the meantime. But Judge Messitte said the department could follow the typical legal process and appeal when the case is over.
“If the president is permitted to appeal the court’s decisions in piecemeal fashion, ultimate resolution of the case could be delayed significantly, perhaps for years,” he wrote. “That, as a matter of justice, cannot be countenanced.”
The judge also dismissed the president’s argument that discovery would be unduly burdensome, noting that Mr. Trump had threatened to sue his former campaign chief and others. “The president himself appears to have had little reluctance to pursue personal litigation despite the supposed distractions it imposes upon his office,” he wrote.
For whatever reason, I find that sidesplittingly funny.
Naturally, the whole ball game in the Emoluments suit is about getting discovery. People deserve to know who is staying at Trump’s hotel while doing business at the White House, and they also need to see his tax returns. To avoid these disclosures, the Trump administration (using the resources of the Justice Department) will try to short-circuit the process by asking for an expedited appeal, perhaps directly to the Gorsuch-Kavanaugh Supreme Court. That might not sound very hopeful for the plaintiffs, but the Gorsuch-Kavanaugh Supreme Court just neglected to shield Wilbur Ross, so you never know, right?
Gorsuch, Alito and Thomas voted to delay the proceeding pertaining to Wilbur. No doubt Bart did, as well, but he didn’t publicize his vote. Clearly, Roberts is the thin read that is preventing an all out collapse into fascism. This is a frightening thought, to say the least.
I think the Roberts’ play maybe to spike early motions to dismiss suits such as the emoluments case or the youths’ climate case and then when the cases inevitably come back to the court give the plaintiffs a big F*ck you and rule for the Trumpistas. IOW, Roberts wants there to appear to be a deliberative process but like the VRA and Citizens United, it will be a foregone conclusion as it always is with the conservative perma-majority. Court packing will be necessary basically to save the republic.
Reed. Booman, an edit button would be fantastic considering how frequently iPhone autocorrect destroys the written language.
johnnie ball-n-strike & the boyz will do the heavy lifting when the time comes. it’s their turn.
Well, Roberts’ Repubs did previously overrule the lower courts and blocked Plutocrat Wilbur’s deposition. I’m not sure how the case can be going to trial when things like depositions haven’t yet been completed, but it seems it is. So on the crucial point of protecting a corrupt member of Crackpot Cabinet, Roberts’ Repubs did do Der Trumper’s bidding and stepped in. I guess the case will be tried without Wilbur’s testimony, so that seems like a loss to me.
It appears Trumper’s DOJ is basically seeking emergency relief on appeal after every adverse ruling, and that is SUPPOSED to be an extraordinarily difficult standard to meet. Unlike Alito, Thomas and now apparently Gorsuch, Roberts himself plays a clever game of seeking to present an appearance of impartiality, ruling every once in a while against the result desired by the “conservative” movement, so he can then feel free to rule the other 95% of the time for the legal result the “conservatives” desire.
After his public meltdown clearly demonstrating his utter inability to be an unbiased judge (let alone look like one), Justice Boofer now needs to play-act for a bit and rule a few times against Der Trumper’s DOJ. This is especially easy on such emergency requests, for which Trumper really has no objective legal ground to stand on. It’s likely that the deeply compromised Boofer will simply follow the lead of his old colleague Roberts, at least for a bit. Gorsuch had no such public meltdown before the senate and thus doesn’t have the same desperate need to present a (phony) appearance of impartiality like Justice Boofer, so Gorsuch has been free to rule as a “conservative” activist from day one.
There’s no doubt that our law-breaking Trumper is having a rocky time of it right now in the lower courts. Remember, however (as we saw with the Muslim Travel Ban) that the final result is what really matters, not the early rulings of the various lower courts–although I get that discovery may be very embarrassing for Der Trumper in his emoluments hotel bribery/skimming racket. But ultimately you can be fairly sure that Roberts and the ridiculous Justice Boofer will rule in favor of Trumper—just as corrupt “conservative” justices Alito, Gorsuch and Thomas already have done at the earliest possible moment at which they could.