Trump judicial appointee, continuing to judge others, faces parking lot confrontation charges
Judge Ryan Nelson, who has pleaded not guilty, was caught on tape. The Idaho State Journal brought us the story. And, for paid subscribers: Closing my tabs.
Over the past two months, U.S. Court of Appeals Judge Ryan Nelson has participated in arguments and issued opinions in his role as a judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
In recent days, however, the Idaho State Journal’s Jimmy Hancock reported that Nelson has been addressing his own criminal charges in Idaho during that time — misdemeanor charges of battery and malicious injury to property — for a confrontation that took place on April 2.
Nelson, a Trump appointee on the Western appeals court, has written one of the most aggressive (and careless) defenses of President Donald Trump’s effort to send the National Guard into American cities — a position that, in effect, was rejected even by this U.S. Supreme Court.
That aggression apparently transfers over into Nelson’s personal life.
The video, also obtained by the Idaho State Journal, is a parody of male rage, involving two oversized trucks and an apparently bad parking job by Nelson leading to an exchange of words that, within seconds, escalates to what appears to be Nelson throwing the other man’s sunglasses across the parking lot and later taking a swipe at his cell phone.
“He was trying to grab my phone,” the other man told the Idaho State Journal. “Which made no sense to me.”
Nelson’s lawyer, Curtis R. Smith of Smith Woolf Anderson & Wilkinson, told the Idaho State Journal: “Mr. Nelson maintains a presumption of innocence. He will work through the judicial system to resolve these personal charges which allegedly resulted in a pair of broken sunglasses and are unrelated to his professional position.”
Per the Idaho State Journal report, “According to the affidavit of probable cause filed in the 7th Judicial Court, the alleged victim told police that Nelson tried to challenge him to a fight, ‘asking him if he wants to go’“ during the April 2 confrontation.
On April 13, Nelson was in San Francisco for a pair of oral arguments in pending cases.
A week later, per the Idaho State Journal report, he was charged on April 22, with court records showing that Nelson “entered not guilty pleas to both charges May 13.”
Two days later, Nelson authored an opinion upholding Trump administration immigration rulings that would send Baljit Singh, who detailed past beatings and expressed fears of political persecution, back to India.
Nelson — affirming a decision of the Board of Immigration Appeals rejecting Singh’s claims — wrote that “none of these incidents [put forward by Singh], viewed individually or cumulatively, rises to the level of persecution.“ Of two assaults Singh cited, Nelson wrote, “On both occasions, Singh was beaten with sticks for one to two minutes but the only lingering injury he reported from these beatings was swelling.“
He continued:
Although we are concerned that Singh was knocked unconscious in the first assault, Singh apparently suffered no concussions, skull fractures, lacerations, or traumatic brain injuries. … The beatings Singh suffered were reprehensible. But they were not serious enough to compel us to reverse the agency’s conclusion as we have in other cases.
The next week, Nelson was back on the bench, overseeing appellate arguments in Pasadena.
“Another week without any hiccups,“ Nelson said in complimenting the court staff’s work.
Closing my tabs
For those who don’t know what this is, it’s my effort to give a little thank you to paid subscribers. “Closing my tabs” is, literally, me looking through the stories and cases open — the tabs open — on my computer and sharing with you all some of those I was unable to cover during the week but that I nonetheless want to let you know that I have on my radar. Oftentimes, they are issues that will eventually find their way back into the newsletter as a case discussed moves forward or something new happens that provides me with a reason to cover the story more in depth.
This Sunday, here are the tabs I am closing:
