Dem
47
GOP
53
Donald Trump is trying very hard to corrupt both the law and the order portions of the legal system, so that he has carte blanche to do whatever he wants. Thus far, he's had some success with the "law" part, since he gets to appoint those folks AND he can fire them if they don't do his bidding. The "order" part is going far less smoothly for him, as several news items from yesterday illustrate.
The biggest news came from the courtroom of Judge Thomas Cullen (a Trump appointee, incidentally), who oversaw the patently absurd lawsuit that the White House filed against all 15 federal judges in Maryland, in an effort to limit those judges' power to intervene in immigration-related disputes. Cullen's 39-page ruling is unsparing. He writes:
Over the past several months, principal officers of the Executive (and their spokespersons) have described federal district judges across the country as 'left-wing,' 'liberal,' 'activists,' 'radical,' 'politically minded,' 'rogue,' 'unhinged,' 'outrageous, overzealous, [and] unconstitutional,' '[c]rooked,' and worse. Although some tension between the coordinate branches of government is a hallmark of our constitutional system, this concerted effort by the Executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it is both unprecedented and unfortunate.
That's actually a footnote. The main body of the ruling absolutely eviscerates the administration's entire argument. Needless to say, Cullen summarily dismissed the case.
A second bit of news comes from Washington, DC, which is currently the legal fiefdom of Fox entertainer and U.S. Attorney Jeannine Pirro. Pirro is the type to grossly overcharge offenses (in other words, to pursue a more harsh sentence than the facts would seem to support) because her primary interest is in pleasing Trump, and in making some headlines on Fox. And after D.C. resident Sydney Lori Reid got into an argument with ICE officers, and then resisted arrest (one agent got an owie on their hand), Pirro went for felony assault against a federal officer. Since there was no weapon involved, that would mean a sentence of up to 8 years. The facts of the case align much more closely with a charge of simple assault, which carries a maximum sentence of just 1 year.
The old saying, which we've repeated many times, is that a prosecutor can get a grand jury to indict a ham sandwich if they really want to. Well, it would seem that the grand juries of Washington are keeping kosher these days. Pirro's office went before one grand jury with the felony assault charge, and got the thumbs down. So, Pirro tried again, and yet again, and got two more rejections (proper term "no true bill"). That almost never happens, particularly three times on the same case. A prosecutor need only give evidence for the probable cause of a crime, with no arguments/pushback from the defense, and need only get the votes of a majority of the grand jurors. It's a low bar to clear, and Pirro and her team failed... three times.
How about one more? Since the White House militarized D.C., officers have been looking under rocks for people to arrest and charge. One such person is Torez Riley, who is Black, and who was clearly asking for trouble because he was walking the streets of D.C., in broad daylight, while... wearing a backpack. Given America's long and sordid history of crimes committed by people guilty of backpacking while Black (Blackpacking?), the feds decided they were justified in searching Riley. They found a couple of guns in his backpack, and since he has a weapons offense in his past, Pirro's office decided to throw the book at him.
If you know anything about the relevant law here, you will not be surprised to learn that U.S. Magistrate Judge (and former federal prosecutor) Zia Faruqui was not impressed by the arrest, to say the least. He said:
It is without a doubt the most illegal search I've ever seen in my life. I'm absolutely flabbergasted at what has happened. A high school student would know this was an illegal search. We don't just charge people criminally and then say, "Oops, my bad." I'm at a loss how the U.S. Attorney's Office thought this was an appropriate charge in any court, let alone the federal court.
Naturally, the Judge quashed the search. That means, with no evidence left, Pirro's office is going to dismiss the charges.
We had numerous items yesterday about the Trump administration's march toward fascism. This item, and the next, are useful reminders that at least some of the guardrails are holding reasonably well. (Z)