The 2-1 ruling from the Eleventh Circuit was backed by two Trump appointees. Also: Special Counsel Jack Smith is happy to be out of Judge Aileen Cannon's court.
Every day that passes I'm watching as my government and legal system makes rapid steps towards making it illegal for me and my spouse to exist. Every day I get more and more exhausted as I come to terms with the fact that I'll never have the resources to flee the country and go to a safe place because most other countries that are "safe" are swinging to the right too. Every day that passes, I'm planning for an alternative to being arrested and being made a thing of abuse there. I'm just so exhausted. My spouse is exhausted. We need allies to save us because the government won't.
I am so sorry you're having to go through this. It burns the hell out of me that folks just living their best lives are being targeted solely because of religious ideology and Republican obsession with power.
Know that the country has a lot of people who have got your backs.
These rulings are chilling and affect literally MILLIONS of Americans. The Biden DOJ has worked mightily to defend liberty and the Constitution; but it is clear that the avalanche of damage done by the previous administration’s extreme rightwing judicial appointments will not be easily overcome. We will be years digging out - and we must elect Harris and Walz.
The Republicans practiced the long game and here is where we are. Unfortunately, all we can do is develop a long game of our own and fight for it with all our might. Tim Walz started with one of the best phrases of this election: none of this is our business. What happens between a person and their doctor is none of our damn business.
None of this is the government's business. We can't just depend on liberals, we have to remind the so-called conservatives that none of this is the government's business.
The problem with the Democratic party, as has been noted frequently, is we give up. We can't change things immediately...so we give up. No, this kind of damage was years in the making, and fixing it, will unfortunately, take years. All we can do is minimize the damage as much as we can.
Well-chosen and appurtenant citation of J. Brett Kavanaugh's 1998 Georgetown Law Journal article on the long history of Special Prosecutor appointments by the DOJ...when the 11th CA's decision over-ruling Cannon is appealed to Scotus, surely Kavanaugh won't recant his substantive views from 26 yrs ago...will he?
I doubt that SCOTUS would even grant certiorari. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch would have to get a third for their manic mouse club, and I don't see any of the other justices wanting to join this particular club.
Chris would have a better view on it. Just my guess.
Thank you Chris. Good points highlighted for us dummies. Joyce went into Jack Smith's response in significant detail tonight also. Smith makes a very well backed up case.
When in the appeals process does Smith have to decide whether to ask the case to be reassigned?
ETA: Obviously he can always request recusal on remand. I'm just curious as to what the norms are in this sort of instance. Is he expected to go back to Cannon and ask her to be less biased, or at least give her an opportunity to step aside voluntarily?
I "get" (in a deeply cynical way) how a state might want to "protect" minors from apparently invidious parents who want to force the kid to become another gender (what ELSE is there to protect them from?). Those same "parents" who apparently have the right to "protect" their darlings from hearing in the classroom or reading about things the parents don't like--by preventing ANY kid from hearing them.
But what exactly does a restriction on adult gender care protect? Keeps adults from insidious rogue doctors who prescribe things without their consent as manifested in writing? If the adult doesn't "consent" to the hormones he doesn't have to TAKE them. I presume the "consent" is about being sure the patient knows about side effects and dangers--but what is wrong with an email after the doctor explains all that in a telemed conference.
The statute seems designed to impede access to transgender care for adults for no rational purpose; even Florida couldn't bring itself to outright BAN it. The District court's thorough discussion of evidence for animus towards transgender individuals --not to mention passing a law based on RELIGIOUS convictions--was convincing at least to me, were I a juror. And isn't this a question of fact for the trier of fact to decide? And the District Court then cites several cases where that fact created the level of scrutiny used by the court.
Perhaps a key to this is in the comparison the District Court made early on--saying that to see this as just a matter of "regulating health care" is like saying Brown v Board was just about "regulating" schools. Because an increasing number of conservative judges really do seem to feel that Brown was wrongly decided.
On Cannon--glad to see that Smith emphasized what seemed to me the really obvious problem with Cannon's ruling--that it entirely depended on when HR decided that Smith was an "employee." Three minutes before he was appointed--good to go. Three minutes after, unconstitutional.
Their religion is steeped in racism, bigotry and misogyny. It is about hate, control and power. These christian nut jobs think they're doing god's work - or, they literally don't even give a shit about that but just hide behind the facade of religion as a cover for their racism and bigotry. These people should have been wiped out during the Civil War.
Never should these religious zealots have even been allowed in the courts or in politics- this is not what our founding fathers wanted. They knew the dangers of allowing religion into government.
My mom told me the other day "If Trump was gonna destroy America, he'd have already done it! He was President once before!" The United States judiciary as a whole is proof that he ALREADY DID. His appointments to the courts have ground the wheels of justice to a halt, and even reversed them in many cases. We are losing previously held rights and precedents daily, at the mercy of a band of judicial rogues.
Everyday, every fucking day these radical judges are ruining this country, they have taken over, their fascist rightwing ideologies must be stopped. They just can't stay the fuck out of people's business- and who are they to tell an adult that they cannot get gender-affirming medical care.
How is Harris Waltz ever going to fix this when these damn judges are given lifetime appointments- we still have active judges that were appointed by Ronald Reagan.
Stacked courts in judge shopping is killing this country.
Can someone explain to me how Trump got so many judges appointed during the mere 4 years he was in the white house?
Were there that many retirements ?
Did he force several of them out?
How many judges did Trump appoint during his four years?
The amount of damage that that bastard Trump did in only 4 years is going to take us 40 years to dig out of, unless the president uses his new powers of immunity for an Official Act.
I swear every ruling I'm reading about from all over comes from Trump judges - I read one yesterday it came out of New York state which should be a safe state but no it is not, because every Republican judge has picked up the Republican trope of narrow and regressive ideology.
Approximately 1.6 million people over the age of 13 identify as transgender. Allies, please vote
Every day that passes I'm watching as my government and legal system makes rapid steps towards making it illegal for me and my spouse to exist. Every day I get more and more exhausted as I come to terms with the fact that I'll never have the resources to flee the country and go to a safe place because most other countries that are "safe" are swinging to the right too. Every day that passes, I'm planning for an alternative to being arrested and being made a thing of abuse there. I'm just so exhausted. My spouse is exhausted. We need allies to save us because the government won't.
I am so sorry you're having to go through this. It burns the hell out of me that folks just living their best lives are being targeted solely because of religious ideology and Republican obsession with power.
Know that the country has a lot of people who have got your backs.
Smith's language is mildly satisfying but at the end of the day it is just words.
Trump has repeatedly avoided justice. It's not very reassuring on a rule of law level.
Cannon abused her office.
These rulings are chilling and affect literally MILLIONS of Americans. The Biden DOJ has worked mightily to defend liberty and the Constitution; but it is clear that the avalanche of damage done by the previous administration’s extreme rightwing judicial appointments will not be easily overcome. We will be years digging out - and we must elect Harris and Walz.
The Republicans practiced the long game and here is where we are. Unfortunately, all we can do is develop a long game of our own and fight for it with all our might. Tim Walz started with one of the best phrases of this election: none of this is our business. What happens between a person and their doctor is none of our damn business.
None of this is the government's business. We can't just depend on liberals, we have to remind the so-called conservatives that none of this is the government's business.
The problem with the Democratic party, as has been noted frequently, is we give up. We can't change things immediately...so we give up. No, this kind of damage was years in the making, and fixing it, will unfortunately, take years. All we can do is minimize the damage as much as we can.
It was never about the children and I don't ever want to hear that it was about the children again.
Well-chosen and appurtenant citation of J. Brett Kavanaugh's 1998 Georgetown Law Journal article on the long history of Special Prosecutor appointments by the DOJ...when the 11th CA's decision over-ruling Cannon is appealed to Scotus, surely Kavanaugh won't recant his substantive views from 26 yrs ago...will he?
I doubt that SCOTUS would even grant certiorari. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch would have to get a third for their manic mouse club, and I don't see any of the other justices wanting to join this particular club.
Chris would have a better view on it. Just my guess.
Thank you Chris. Good points highlighted for us dummies. Joyce went into Jack Smith's response in significant detail tonight also. Smith makes a very well backed up case.
can you explain why he did not call for Cannon to be recused?
That's not where the case is at this point. Right now, Smith is working on reversing Cannon's decision.
When in the appeals process does Smith have to decide whether to ask the case to be reassigned?
ETA: Obviously he can always request recusal on remand. I'm just curious as to what the norms are in this sort of instance. Is he expected to go back to Cannon and ask her to be less biased, or at least give her an opportunity to step aside voluntarily?
I don’t know if the venn diagram of Trump appointed judges and reactionary rulings is a perfect circle but it must come pretty close.
I "get" (in a deeply cynical way) how a state might want to "protect" minors from apparently invidious parents who want to force the kid to become another gender (what ELSE is there to protect them from?). Those same "parents" who apparently have the right to "protect" their darlings from hearing in the classroom or reading about things the parents don't like--by preventing ANY kid from hearing them.
But what exactly does a restriction on adult gender care protect? Keeps adults from insidious rogue doctors who prescribe things without their consent as manifested in writing? If the adult doesn't "consent" to the hormones he doesn't have to TAKE them. I presume the "consent" is about being sure the patient knows about side effects and dangers--but what is wrong with an email after the doctor explains all that in a telemed conference.
The statute seems designed to impede access to transgender care for adults for no rational purpose; even Florida couldn't bring itself to outright BAN it. The District court's thorough discussion of evidence for animus towards transgender individuals --not to mention passing a law based on RELIGIOUS convictions--was convincing at least to me, were I a juror. And isn't this a question of fact for the trier of fact to decide? And the District Court then cites several cases where that fact created the level of scrutiny used by the court.
Perhaps a key to this is in the comparison the District Court made early on--saying that to see this as just a matter of "regulating health care" is like saying Brown v Board was just about "regulating" schools. Because an increasing number of conservative judges really do seem to feel that Brown was wrongly decided.
On Cannon--glad to see that Smith emphasized what seemed to me the really obvious problem with Cannon's ruling--that it entirely depended on when HR decided that Smith was an "employee." Three minutes before he was appointed--good to go. Three minutes after, unconstitutional.
Their religion is steeped in racism, bigotry and misogyny. It is about hate, control and power. These christian nut jobs think they're doing god's work - or, they literally don't even give a shit about that but just hide behind the facade of religion as a cover for their racism and bigotry. These people should have been wiped out during the Civil War.
Never should these religious zealots have even been allowed in the courts or in politics- this is not what our founding fathers wanted. They knew the dangers of allowing religion into government.
Good overview. Gods, there's so much going on now. You must be exhausted.
My mom told me the other day "If Trump was gonna destroy America, he'd have already done it! He was President once before!" The United States judiciary as a whole is proof that he ALREADY DID. His appointments to the courts have ground the wheels of justice to a halt, and even reversed them in many cases. We are losing previously held rights and precedents daily, at the mercy of a band of judicial rogues.
Everyday, every fucking day these radical judges are ruining this country, they have taken over, their fascist rightwing ideologies must be stopped. They just can't stay the fuck out of people's business- and who are they to tell an adult that they cannot get gender-affirming medical care.
How is Harris Waltz ever going to fix this when these damn judges are given lifetime appointments- we still have active judges that were appointed by Ronald Reagan.
Stacked courts in judge shopping is killing this country.
Can someone explain to me how Trump got so many judges appointed during the mere 4 years he was in the white house?
Were there that many retirements ?
Did he force several of them out?
How many judges did Trump appoint during his four years?
The amount of damage that that bastard Trump did in only 4 years is going to take us 40 years to dig out of, unless the president uses his new powers of immunity for an Official Act.
I swear every ruling I'm reading about from all over comes from Trump judges - I read one yesterday it came out of New York state which should be a safe state but no it is not, because every Republican judge has picked up the Republican trope of narrow and regressive ideology.