And he’s so obviously right, this is incredible.
She did buy President Drink Bleach time though, and that’s good for their fascist cause. But there’s also a part of me thinking she could have dragged this out much longer. Maybe I’m wrong though.
The smarter people seem to be saying it’s a mixed bag. She could have dragged the case out for more months, maybe even years. Or she could have seated a jury and done a different kind of dismissal thing that isn’t appealable.
This path let’s Jack Smith appeal to the 11th circuit (I think) immediately and they’re the ones who rebutted her pretty soundly the last time she ruled on a Trump case. We can probably expect a reasonable ruling from them.
However, here’s the rub. After 11th circuit or whatever has their say Trump can appeal to the Supreme Court. In their recent Presidential Immunity ruling there was a long response by Clarence Thomas that included a section questioning the legality of Jack Smith’s appointment. Which is the same reasoning Cannon gives in her ruling. It’s pretty clear that Thomas was signalling that he would rule in favor of Trump for that same reason if/when an appeal got to him.
It’s not clear whether the rest of the conservatives on the court agree with Thomas but it all suggests this will go to the Supreme Court and at least one member has already signalled how they would rule. For the time being, Trump continues to prove that he is, in fact, above the law.
I feel like the only way this dismissal makes sense is if there have been back room conversations between Cannon and SCOTUS indicating that there is a majority to overturn any 11th circuit ruling. Cannon wouldn’t have dismissed unless the outcome was in some way guaranteed because the outcome of seating a jury, then dismissing was absolutely guaranteed.
In their recent Presidential Immunity ruling there was a long response by Clarence Thomas that included a section questioning the legality of Jack Smith’s appointment. Which is the same reasoning Cannon gives in her ruling.
The dissenting opinion in their recent Chevron Deference ruling criticises Thomas and others for using this tactics repeatedly to overturn laws they don’t like. They write opinions about one thing but include a bunch of questions about something only tangentially related. Then they’ll suddenly take up a case that seems to centre exactly around that question they had. A case that was only filed after the initial ruling.
Cannon using Thomas’ words is no mistake. It’s the way these judges have been legislating from the bench.
Wait wait wait are you saying that Republicans crying about “activist judges ruling from the bench” for the last 20 years was just more projection!?
Say it ain’t so! Republicans projecting their intent? Never!
Yeah I’m sure she could have dragged it out even more if she really wanted to, but according a whole slew of current and former prosecutors, the motions she was putting off were things she should have decided on the spot. And any experienced judge not purposefully delaying things would have had no trouble ruling on those things from the bench. Instead, she sat on motions for months, chose to set ridiculous deadlines and hold separate hearing on issues that had already been decided elsewhere. She even accepted amicus briefs and had mini oral arguments for issues that she had no business ruling on (the legality of Smith’s appointment being one of them). Those types of hearings are super rare in a lower court and a case like this.
She’s wildly inexperienced and obviously corrupt, which is a pretty dangerous combination.
will no one rid us of these meddlesome corrupt judges…
This country is a fucking joke, I hate it.
What’s a realistic timeline?
ETA- i realize the real answer is never, but if we had a competent, unbiased judicial system, what would it look like?
If we had a competent unbiased judicial system he’d be in jail for this already.
If we had a real justice system, we never would have heard of what happened. Trump would have “retired” somewhere nice and warm and no one would hear from him again, like Cuba or the Chagos Islands.
And when it goes through–which it will, since the appeals court has already told Cannon to cut her shit out–move to have her removed from the case. The downsides of delaying or having a pissed off judge don’t matter anymore.
