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solarbirdSo the weaponised DOJ and GOP Senate will spend the rest of the year making up crimes by Democrats to investigate. That'll be fun. How the Supreme Court comes down on the cases argued before it today will either extend a lifeline to the republic or end it, depending upon how willing the Republican majority is to say the President is above the law, as Donkeyballs' lawyer asked them to do, full stop. Can't wait for that decision to come down. (See also: Cascadia now.)
Also, various other articles that without Donkeyballs Donald and COVID-19 would be really, really big deals. But aren't in this context, I guess.
----- 1 -----
Michelle Goldberg
twitter.com/michelleinbklyn
12 May 2020
https://twitter.com/michelleinbklyn/status/1260190090757898242
Time was the president of the United States baselessly accusing a prominent journalist of murder would be a major news story instead of just Tuesday. The degree of national degradation we've experienced in three and a half years is unfathomable.
[QUOTED TWEET]
Donald J. Trump
twitter.com/realDonaldTrump
11 May 2020
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1260161295019630592
When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!
----- 2 -----
Geoff Bennett
twitter.com/GeoffRBennett
12 May 2020
https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1260283483370541066
NEWS: A senior intelligence official confirms that DNI Richard Grenell has declassified and handed over to the DOJ a list of former Obama administration officials involved in the "unmasking" of Michael Flynn in 2017, twitter.com/KenDilanianNBC reports
----- 3 -----
Republicans plan to spend at least $20 million to combat voting rights lawsuits in 2020
The GOP just upped its legal budget for the 2020 election to $20 million.
By Ian Millhiser
May 8, 2020
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/8/21251839/vote-by-mail-voting-laws-republicans-costs-supreme-court
The Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign have doubled their litigation budget to $20 million, Politico reported Thursday. RNC chief of staff Richard Walters told Politico that the GOP is prepared to sue Democrats “into oblivion” by spending “whatever is necessary” to prevail in legal fights against its rivals leading up to the November election.
As the Politico report made clear, Republicans expect to devote much of this legal war chest to litigation over whether Americans should be able to vote from home during a pandemic that could make it unsafe for them to cast in-person ballots at the polls this November. High-level Republicans have resisted efforts to expand voters’ ability to submit mail-in ballots, likely because higher voter turnout is widely believed to benefit Democrats.
----- 4 -----
The US House’s Supreme Court defense of its Trump investigation was a disaster
This should be a slam-dunk case, but the House’s lawyer seemed evasive and unprepared.
By Ian Millhiser
May 12, 2020
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/12/21255811/house-trump-supreme-court-mazars-deutsche-bank-vance
Trump v. Mazars and Trump v. Deutsche Bank should be very easy cases.
Both involve congressional subpoenas seeking, among other things, many of President Trump’s financial documents. The subpoenas target banks and an accounting firm that possess many of Trump’s documents; Trump sued them to prevent them from complying with the subpoena.
The Supreme Court has said repeatedly, over the course of many decades, that courts owe tremendous deference to congressional investigators. The Court held in Quinn v. United States (1955) that congressional power to conduct investigations is “co-extensive with the power to legislate.” Legislative subpoenas are permissible, the Court later explained, whenever that subpoena is “intended to gather information about a subject on which legislation may be had.”
And yet, at Tuesday’s oral arguments on both cases, a majority of the Court seemed concerned that the House has too much power to investigate the president. The Supreme Court appears likely to create a special rule for Trump — or, at least, for sitting presidents — that it wouldn’t apply to any other person.
Part of the story here is that Douglas Letter, the lawyer for the US House, delivered a disastrous performance at Tuesday’s oral argument. Not long after Letter began his argument, Chief Justice John Roberts expressed disagreement with the Court’s longstanding rule giving Congress broad power to conduct investigations, and asked Letter if he could suggest any limits on congressional investigatory power. Letter had no good answer to that question, and he stumbled over various versions of it again and again as the argument wore on.
For someone who cares about presidential accountability, or about precedent, or about the basic rule that no one should be above the law, it was a torturous spectacle. It’s clear that a majority of the Supreme Court believes that decades of prior decisions were wrongly decided, at least when President Trump is involved. And Letter did nothing to allay their concerns.
----- 5 -----
U.S. judge puts on hold Justice Dept. move to dismiss Michael Flynn’s guilty plea to hear outside groups’ challenges
By Spencer S. Hsu and Carol D. Leonnig
May 12, 2020 at 5:39 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-judge-puts-on-hold-justice-dept-move-to-dismiss-michael-flynns-guilty-plea-to-hear-outside-groups-challenges/2020/05/12/2fb4e356-949d-11ea-82b4-c8db161ff6e5_story.html
A U.S. judge put on hold the Justice Department’s move to drop charges against Michael Flynn, saying he expects independent groups and legal experts to argue against the bid to exonerate President Trump’s former national security adviser of lying to the FBI.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said in an order Tuesday that he expects individuals and organizations will seek to intervene in the politically charged case. Having others weigh in could preface more aggressive steps that the federal judge in Washington could take, including — as many outside observers have called for — holding a hearing to consider what to do.
Sullivan’s order came after the government took the highly irregular step last Thursday of reversing its stance on Flynn’s charges.
The action by Sullivan, a veteran 72-year-old jurist with a national reputation for advocating defendants’ rights to full government disclosure of evidence, appears to rule out immediate action on the Justice Department’s decision to reverse course and throw out Flynn’s December 2017 guilty plea.
----- 6 -----
Family seeks answers in fatal police shooting of Louisville woman in her apartment
By Errin Haines | The 19th
May 11, 2020 at 7:07 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/11/family-seeks-answers-fatal-police-shooting-louisville-woman-her-apartment/
Breonna Taylor was working as an EMT in Louisville when the coronavirus pandemic hit the country, helping to save lives while trying to protect her own.
On March 13, the 26-year-old aspiring nurse was killed in her apartment, shot at least eight times by Louisville police officers who officials have said were executing a drug warrant, according to a lawsuit filed by the family, accusing officers of wrongful death, excessive force and gross negligence.
“Not one person has talked to me. Not one person has explained anything to me,” Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, said in an interview. “I want justice for her. I want them to say her name. There’s no reason Breonna should be dead at all.”
According to the lawsuit, filed April 27, Louisville police executed a search warrant at Taylor’s home, looking for a man who did not live in Taylor’s apartment complex and had already been detained when officers came to Taylor’s apartment after midnight. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was also in the apartment and, according to the lawsuit, shot at officers when they attempted to enter without announcing themselves. The lawsuit alleges that police fired more than 20 rounds of ammunition into the apartment.
----- 7 -----
US says Washington state overstepped with oil train law
By MATTHEW BROWN
11 May 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/u-s-says-washington-state-overstepped-with-oil-train-safety-rules/
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday moved to block a Washington state law that imposed safety restrictions on oil shipments by rail following a string of explosive accidents.
The Department of Transportation determined federal law preempts the Washington law adopted last year, which mandated crude from the oil fields of the Northern Plains have more of its volatile gases removed prior to being loaded onto rail cars.
The volatility of oil trains drew widespread public attention following several explosive derailments, including one in 2013 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec that killed 47 people. Washington’s law was aimed at boosting safety for schools and homes that are near passing oil trains.
With backing by the rail and oil industries, the attorneys general for Montana and North Dakota had argued the law effectively banned crude from their states. In July, they petitioned the Trump administration to overrule the law.
Federal officials said Monday that the removal of volatile gases was not a “statistically significant factor” in the severity of oil train crashes.
“A state cannot use safety as a pretext for inhibiting market growth or instituting a de facto ban on crude oil by rail within its borders,” wrote Paul Roberti, chief counsel of the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
----- 8 -----
Anti-LGBTQ Firm Tries to Disqualify Judge Because He Won’t Let It Misgender Trans Kids
By Mark Joseph Stern
May 11, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/alliance-defending-freedom-student-athlete-misgender.html
The nation’s most powerful anti-LGBTQ law firm took the extraordinary step on Friday of demanding the recusal of a federal judge—because he insisted that its attorneys respect transgender people’s gender identity in court proceedings.
That firm, Alliance Defending Freedom, is devoted to attacking the rights of LGBTQ people in court. In February, it filed a lawsuit challenging Connecticut’s policy of allowing trans athletes to compete with cisgender students. On behalf of three cisgender student athletes, ADF alleged a violation of Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs. Per ADF policy, its attorneys called transgender girls “male athletes” and referred to them with male pronouns. In April, U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny, the Bill Clinton appointee overseeing the case, ordered ADF lawyers to say “transgender females” instead in an effort to preserve “respectful, humane, intelligent, civil discourse.” In response, ADF accused Chatigny of displaying an “appearance of bias,” asserted a violation of its First Amendment rights, and asked the judge to disqualify himself.
Also, various other articles that without Donkeyballs Donald and COVID-19 would be really, really big deals. But aren't in this context, I guess.
- Donkeyballs Donald accuses prominent journalist of murder
- Trump administration weaponises declassification
- Republicans plan to spend at least $20 million to combat voting rights lawsuits in 2020
- The US House’s Supreme Court defense of its Trump investigation was a disaster
- U.S. judge puts on hold Justice Dept. move to dismiss Michael Flynn’s guilty plea to hear outside groups’ challenges
- Family seeks answers in fatal police shooting of Louisville woman in her apartment
- US says Washington state overstepped with oil train law
- Anti-LGBTQ Firm Tries to Disqualify Judge Because He Won’t Let It Misgender Trans Kids
----- 1 -----
Michelle Goldberg
twitter.com/michelleinbklyn
12 May 2020
https://twitter.com/michelleinbklyn/status/1260190090757898242
Time was the president of the United States baselessly accusing a prominent journalist of murder would be a major news story instead of just Tuesday. The degree of national degradation we've experienced in three and a half years is unfathomable.
[QUOTED TWEET]
Donald J. Trump
twitter.com/realDonaldTrump
11 May 2020
https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1260161295019630592
When will they open a Cold Case on the Psycho Joe Scarborough matter in Florida. Did he get away with murder? Some people think so. Why did he leave Congress so quietly and quickly? Isn’t it obvious? What’s happening now? A total nut job!
----- 2 -----
Geoff Bennett
twitter.com/GeoffRBennett
12 May 2020
https://twitter.com/GeoffRBennett/status/1260283483370541066
NEWS: A senior intelligence official confirms that DNI Richard Grenell has declassified and handed over to the DOJ a list of former Obama administration officials involved in the "unmasking" of Michael Flynn in 2017, twitter.com/KenDilanianNBC reports
----- 3 -----
Republicans plan to spend at least $20 million to combat voting rights lawsuits in 2020
The GOP just upped its legal budget for the 2020 election to $20 million.
By Ian Millhiser
May 8, 2020
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/8/21251839/vote-by-mail-voting-laws-republicans-costs-supreme-court
The Republican National Committee and President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign have doubled their litigation budget to $20 million, Politico reported Thursday. RNC chief of staff Richard Walters told Politico that the GOP is prepared to sue Democrats “into oblivion” by spending “whatever is necessary” to prevail in legal fights against its rivals leading up to the November election.
As the Politico report made clear, Republicans expect to devote much of this legal war chest to litigation over whether Americans should be able to vote from home during a pandemic that could make it unsafe for them to cast in-person ballots at the polls this November. High-level Republicans have resisted efforts to expand voters’ ability to submit mail-in ballots, likely because higher voter turnout is widely believed to benefit Democrats.
----- 4 -----
The US House’s Supreme Court defense of its Trump investigation was a disaster
This should be a slam-dunk case, but the House’s lawyer seemed evasive and unprepared.
By Ian Millhiser
May 12, 2020
https://www.vox.com/2020/5/12/21255811/house-trump-supreme-court-mazars-deutsche-bank-vance
Trump v. Mazars and Trump v. Deutsche Bank should be very easy cases.
Both involve congressional subpoenas seeking, among other things, many of President Trump’s financial documents. The subpoenas target banks and an accounting firm that possess many of Trump’s documents; Trump sued them to prevent them from complying with the subpoena.
The Supreme Court has said repeatedly, over the course of many decades, that courts owe tremendous deference to congressional investigators. The Court held in Quinn v. United States (1955) that congressional power to conduct investigations is “co-extensive with the power to legislate.” Legislative subpoenas are permissible, the Court later explained, whenever that subpoena is “intended to gather information about a subject on which legislation may be had.”
And yet, at Tuesday’s oral arguments on both cases, a majority of the Court seemed concerned that the House has too much power to investigate the president. The Supreme Court appears likely to create a special rule for Trump — or, at least, for sitting presidents — that it wouldn’t apply to any other person.
Part of the story here is that Douglas Letter, the lawyer for the US House, delivered a disastrous performance at Tuesday’s oral argument. Not long after Letter began his argument, Chief Justice John Roberts expressed disagreement with the Court’s longstanding rule giving Congress broad power to conduct investigations, and asked Letter if he could suggest any limits on congressional investigatory power. Letter had no good answer to that question, and he stumbled over various versions of it again and again as the argument wore on.
For someone who cares about presidential accountability, or about precedent, or about the basic rule that no one should be above the law, it was a torturous spectacle. It’s clear that a majority of the Supreme Court believes that decades of prior decisions were wrongly decided, at least when President Trump is involved. And Letter did nothing to allay their concerns.
----- 5 -----
U.S. judge puts on hold Justice Dept. move to dismiss Michael Flynn’s guilty plea to hear outside groups’ challenges
By Spencer S. Hsu and Carol D. Leonnig
May 12, 2020 at 5:39 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/us-judge-puts-on-hold-justice-dept-move-to-dismiss-michael-flynns-guilty-plea-to-hear-outside-groups-challenges/2020/05/12/2fb4e356-949d-11ea-82b4-c8db161ff6e5_story.html
A U.S. judge put on hold the Justice Department’s move to drop charges against Michael Flynn, saying he expects independent groups and legal experts to argue against the bid to exonerate President Trump’s former national security adviser of lying to the FBI.
U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan said in an order Tuesday that he expects individuals and organizations will seek to intervene in the politically charged case. Having others weigh in could preface more aggressive steps that the federal judge in Washington could take, including — as many outside observers have called for — holding a hearing to consider what to do.
Sullivan’s order came after the government took the highly irregular step last Thursday of reversing its stance on Flynn’s charges.
The action by Sullivan, a veteran 72-year-old jurist with a national reputation for advocating defendants’ rights to full government disclosure of evidence, appears to rule out immediate action on the Justice Department’s decision to reverse course and throw out Flynn’s December 2017 guilty plea.
----- 6 -----
Family seeks answers in fatal police shooting of Louisville woman in her apartment
By Errin Haines | The 19th
May 11, 2020 at 7:07 p.m. PDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/05/11/family-seeks-answers-fatal-police-shooting-louisville-woman-her-apartment/
Breonna Taylor was working as an EMT in Louisville when the coronavirus pandemic hit the country, helping to save lives while trying to protect her own.
On March 13, the 26-year-old aspiring nurse was killed in her apartment, shot at least eight times by Louisville police officers who officials have said were executing a drug warrant, according to a lawsuit filed by the family, accusing officers of wrongful death, excessive force and gross negligence.
“Not one person has talked to me. Not one person has explained anything to me,” Tamika Palmer, Taylor’s mother, said in an interview. “I want justice for her. I want them to say her name. There’s no reason Breonna should be dead at all.”
According to the lawsuit, filed April 27, Louisville police executed a search warrant at Taylor’s home, looking for a man who did not live in Taylor’s apartment complex and had already been detained when officers came to Taylor’s apartment after midnight. Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, was also in the apartment and, according to the lawsuit, shot at officers when they attempted to enter without announcing themselves. The lawsuit alleges that police fired more than 20 rounds of ammunition into the apartment.
----- 7 -----
US says Washington state overstepped with oil train law
By MATTHEW BROWN
11 May 2020
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/u-s-says-washington-state-overstepped-with-oil-train-safety-rules/
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration on Monday moved to block a Washington state law that imposed safety restrictions on oil shipments by rail following a string of explosive accidents.
The Department of Transportation determined federal law preempts the Washington law adopted last year, which mandated crude from the oil fields of the Northern Plains have more of its volatile gases removed prior to being loaded onto rail cars.
The volatility of oil trains drew widespread public attention following several explosive derailments, including one in 2013 in Lac-Megantic, Quebec that killed 47 people. Washington’s law was aimed at boosting safety for schools and homes that are near passing oil trains.
With backing by the rail and oil industries, the attorneys general for Montana and North Dakota had argued the law effectively banned crude from their states. In July, they petitioned the Trump administration to overrule the law.
Federal officials said Monday that the removal of volatile gases was not a “statistically significant factor” in the severity of oil train crashes.
“A state cannot use safety as a pretext for inhibiting market growth or instituting a de facto ban on crude oil by rail within its borders,” wrote Paul Roberti, chief counsel of the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.
----- 8 -----
Anti-LGBTQ Firm Tries to Disqualify Judge Because He Won’t Let It Misgender Trans Kids
By Mark Joseph Stern
May 11, 2020
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/05/alliance-defending-freedom-student-athlete-misgender.html
The nation’s most powerful anti-LGBTQ law firm took the extraordinary step on Friday of demanding the recusal of a federal judge—because he insisted that its attorneys respect transgender people’s gender identity in court proceedings.
That firm, Alliance Defending Freedom, is devoted to attacking the rights of LGBTQ people in court. In February, it filed a lawsuit challenging Connecticut’s policy of allowing trans athletes to compete with cisgender students. On behalf of three cisgender student athletes, ADF alleged a violation of Title IX, which bars sex discrimination in federally funded educational programs. Per ADF policy, its attorneys called transgender girls “male athletes” and referred to them with male pronouns. In April, U.S. District Judge Robert N. Chatigny, the Bill Clinton appointee overseeing the case, ordered ADF lawyers to say “transgender females” instead in an effort to preserve “respectful, humane, intelligent, civil discourse.” In response, ADF accused Chatigny of displaying an “appearance of bias,” asserted a violation of its First Amendment rights, and asked the judge to disqualify himself.
