I think this is true. They crafted their original appeal very narrowly on issues they knew the Eleventh would have a very hard time going against well-established case law. Plus it was the most urgent stuff, to do with protecting highly classified material.
In their ruling on the above, the 3-member panel, 2 of whom were Trump-appointed judges, went far out of their way to telegraph their thinking on the whole matter to DOJ.
So even if the worst situation imaginable arises from DOJ’s filing the whole appeal, meaning 3 different Trump-appointed judges sit on this appeal and do crazy things, DOJ can simply appeal to the entire Eleventh en banc, and they should prevail. (6 Trump judges, 5 other-appointed judges, but at least 2 of the Trump-appointed have already indicated their support for DOJ’s position.)
The only somewhat scary proposition is what the SCOTUS will do when Trump inevitably appeals to them. Even if they ultimately rule as the Eleventh presumably will, they have the power to delay the ruling for… well, a really long time.
This article raises interesting points on whether past presidents should have access to the highest level of currently classified information. Or if this case may change that. I cannot say whether this article is fully accurate, and I do not want to hijack this discussion. Still, I post it for those interested.
Think of it this way. Presume the court already has a full docket. Why does this case - or any other specific case - take priority such that it should “jump the line” - potentially causing delay in all of the other cases?
And how much time do you think the parties ought to take to draft something, or the court to review and decide? If this is important enough that it got to be expedited, then I suggest it is important enough that everyone involved ought to take SOME time to express their position well. Not saying TFG’s team’s submissions suggest any careful deliberation…
In my long experience in federal courts, 5 business days is a bout the shortest anything gets done in terms of pleading. Heck, 10 days is so short there is a rule on how to count up to 10.
Especially since the 11th Circuit already dealt with the major issue on a really, really expedited basis, the issue of classified/national security docs.
Now that issue is out of the way, the urgency for the rest goes done a fair bit.
Finally (appealing jurisdiction)! Holy hell! Of course the classified documents were the most important and I’m so glad the 11th slapped down Loose Cannon’s ridiculous ruling on that. But somebody needs to pull the rest of the case out of that biased hack’s hands. What is in it for her? I’ve tried to think that maybe she just wanted everyone to see that T was not being railroaded, but that’s hard to believe. She’s totally on Team Cheeto.
There doesn’t seen to be an air of urgency in finding out where the documents are that are missing from their folders. Does CFSG have to actually be on trial before they can deign to ask him about them? I know there’s a good reason why the criminal can’t be interrogated like anybody else, but these are supposedly dangerous documents that are unaccounted for, and he’s the most likely to have an idea.
I can only hope that the US government is aware of exactly which, if any, documents are unaccounted for. If there is no way for the government to be aware of this, then the US government keeps fewer controls over classified information than my manufacturing job does over drill bits issued from the tool crib.
You do have to cut them some slack. IIRC, they were pretty busy stealing furnishings from their offices as they left. I seen to recall busts and fancy lamps were popular.
This could be interesting. I think a lot of people would like to see those, I know I would.
I not sure I understand what they mean by privileged here. Personal? Should be with NARA? Classified? Which court, the Special Master or the Trump-appointed judge? Sorry, I’m blanking on her name.
