I’ll not try to describe everything that’s terrible about the decision handed down by Trump-appointed, Trump-shopped federal Judge Aileen Cannon. Legal experts from every place on the ideological map have been shredding that decision on point after point in the several days since the abominable decision became public.
Instead, I’ll weigh in on the decision now facing the Department of Justice as to whether to go along with that execrable decision, and try to make the best of it, or whether to appeal to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to have Judge Cannon’s decision set aside, or modified into something less damaging to the rule of law and to national security.
I say: don’t accept, appeal.
Acceptance legitimizes the illegitimate. It gives the most transparently corrupt judicial move respect that can only damage our legal system.
Some worry about the time an appeal might take.
I wonder: when there’s clear evidence that there are urgent national security interests at stake — not just the investigation of the crimes of the former President, who appointed this “judge” — is there not as compelling a reason for expediting the appeal process as any case could have?
Some worry also that Judge Cannon’s corrupt decision might be upheld by Trump-appointed judges further up the line (a panel from the 11th Circuit Court, the full 11th Circuit, all the way up to the Supreme Court).
I wonder: How reasonable is that fear in view of the record of Trump-appointed judges during the aftermath of the 2020 Presidential Election. Some eight Trump-appointed judges heard some of those 60 cases that Trump brought trying to overturn the election— and they found them as meritless as did all the other judges. And neither did the Supremes — with their three Trump appointees — come to aid Trump in his illegal pursuits.
If the lifeline Judge Cannon has tried to throw Trump is as much of a legal atrocity as everyone agrees, will it not get rejected (or neutered) as decisively as Trump’s illegitimate efforts to use the courts to hold onto power that he’d lost fair and square?
I’ll admit that people with greater legal expertise than I are regarding the DOJ’s decision as a difficult one. But, having heard their concerns, I know where I come down.
Fight this thing!