That is good to know, thanks @flurb.
FBI Search and Seizure at Trump's Mar-A-Lago Residence, August 8, 2022, Case Dismissed July 15, 2024
I can imagine a rather cool reception at the annual Christmas party.
Who would hire her after this? She’s already demonstrated that her judgment is flawed and her knowledge of the law is lacking.
I like the optimism that you think those are disqualifiers these days.
Aileen Cannon is guaranteed a government job with a LOT of power, or a high six-figure, low seven-figure (including partnership participation, etc) position for the rest of her life.
It was. I do love a well crafted ruling or pleading. And by “well crafted,” I mean one that states complex legal reasoning (equitable jurisdiction, e.g.) in ways that even a lay person can read them and catch the drift.
But here’s what troubles me. This was not – or should not have been – a hard call ruling. Not a knife’s edge case. Distilled down to its simplest terms, the case unfolded as follows:
Trump, to Judge Cannon: “The cops came and executed a lawful warrant for search and seizure on me! Sure, they do this every single day all over the country, but since I was a president, I should be treated in a special, different way!”
Judge Cannon: “You bet! What legal norms can I violate for you? How about a special master? That will slow them down!”
DOJ: “Hang on a minute. This isn’t the way the law works. Hey, Eleventh Circuit, I’m not really sure how you’re going to rule, so I’m going to carve out this little piece of the case relating to classified materials that I’m pretty sure even you guys aren’t willing to ignore, and see how this goes with you.”
Trump, to the Eleventh Circuit: “Garland is wrong! Fix this for me!”
Eleventh Circuit, to Trump: “No. And Judge Cannon, the DOJ is correct. Release those classified items to the DOJ and try again.”
Judge Cannon: “Hold my beer!”
DOJ: “Whew. You Eleventh Circuit folks aren’t as far gone as I worried you might be. Screw this, let’s appeal the entire case!”
Trump: “I have no legal arguments to make, but it’s just not fair that I am being treated like everyone else in the country!”
The Court, to Trump: “You’re wrong. This is bedrock legal principle on which the Constitution is based, and we’re going to make this crystal clear in our ruling so regular people will regain some faith in our legal system. Oh, and Judge Cannon, you’re full of shit.”
Here’s the thing. The judiciary in this country is so roiled, so out of whack, we had to wonder if the Eleventh would render a normal ruling. So did Merrick Garland. To me, that’s still really scary.
Procedural question: What’s to prevent Trump from going back to Cannon’s court, starting a new action, and getting a favorable ruling that forces the DOJ to follow a whole new appeal-and-overturn process? Even if the smackdowns start coming faster than the few months this one took, is there any reason Trump’s team can’t ride that carousel forever and drag things out for years and years? Is there any established legal mechanism by which Cannon can pre-emptively be excluded from any further involvement?
Edit to add: I’m not proposing that Cannon re-issue the same ruling that was overturned, in direct opposition to the higher court; I’m imagining that Trump’s team offers a new rhetorical hook on which to hang a new order with a superficially different basis (but with, of course, the same underlying effect).
Well, not quite. The final paragraph of the ruling (which I find delicious, even though it seems to be standard procedure):
The district court improperly exercised equitable jurisdiction in this case. For that reason, we VACATE the September 5 order on appeal and REMAND with instructions for the district court to DISMISS the underlying civil action.
So she gets to tell Trump and his Keystone Kounselors that their suit is triple-d-dead. Hope* her courtroom has a ketchup-proof shield.
* Not really.
So… to a layperson, it appears that her decision was so transparently and incredibly bad that it strains credulity to call it an innocent mistake or difference in legal philosophy. It looks straightforwardly as if she made a conscious choice to make rulings she knew the 11th Circuit would overturn, that would have had no effect other than to buy a few months in delaying these proceedings.
In other words it appears to me that reputational concerns don’t matter to this judge at all. Which, drifting into the realm of speculation, would mean she had reason to believe that her future career as a judge was not important to her.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you feel this decision is so obviously bad that it’s reasonable to conclude she’s secured some lifetime source of income and employment other than serving a lifetime appointment as a federal judge?
She undoubtedly has the gratitude of Donald Jedidiah Trump, which is rock-solid and good as gold. Well, gold-ish.
doubtful, considering she lost on appeal - she’s just another loser in the long line of losers that disappointed the orange one.
This is what I wondered, too. IANAL. Maybe his lawyers would get in trouble with the 11th Circuit if they returned to Cannon’s court with an argument that was still some variation of “This isn’t fair!”
I’m not sure if there’s some other angle they could try to pursue, but I’m guessing nothing about “I’m special” or “I need those documents” or “not fair” would be allowed…?
I don’t think that’s right. My understanding from the beginning was that the initial appeal was always just the “super obvious and incredibly urgent” bit while they took more time to write up the paperwork and process through the larger appeal. I don’t think breaking it up was some sort of test.
Trump won. I’ll bet he didn’t pay for the special master yet and now won’t. Or, he’ll demand his money back. That, to him, moneywise is a win. Also another month delay.
Wild applause for the plain talk from the court.
One could argue Trump ‘won’ in the sense that the whole requesting a special master stratagem served its intended purpose in this instance, and that is to delay. Maybe it didn’t buy as much time as hoped for but did, ultimately, buy some time. The next sentence in the TFG playbook reads “now find something else to help delay the proceedings further.”
Given the events of the past few years, I submit a possible press release from the future:
June 31, 2042
Supreme Court Chief Justice Cannon has ruled in favor of President Donald Trump Jr’s Executive Order to allow…(insert your own worst personal nightmare)
“…free cocaine for everyone” could be fun.
i agree. that final paragraph is basically, “look at this mess you made!” “oh, my! is that your nose rubbing it?!”.
most legal types were taken aback at judge cannon’s ruling, nearly everything they took exception to was in that ruling. thankfully the judiciary is holding to the rule of law, mostly.
You’re not wrong. And I didn’t realize until they rolled how nervous I was that they would fuck it up.
Ivanka Trump’s clones to serve as his cabinet as well as Speaker of the House of Trump and Trump Senate Majority Leader.