{"id":1477845,"date":"2024-07-16T18:25:00","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T22:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1477845"},"modified":"2024-07-16T18:25:00","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T22:25:00","slug":"this-is-how-republics-collapse-another-adverse-decision-sends-press-pundits-into-hair-pulling-meltdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/this-is-how-republics-collapse-another-adverse-decision-sends-press-pundits-into-hair-pulling-meltdown\/1477845\/","title":{"rendered":"“This Is How Republics Collapse”: Another Adverse Decision Sends Press & Pundits Into Hair-Pulling Meltdown"},"content":{"rendered":"

“This Is How Republics Collapse”: Another Adverse Decision Sends Press & Pundits Into Hair-Pulling Meltdown<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Authored by Jonathan Turley,<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how republics collapse.\u201d<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0Those ominous words<\/a>\u00a0captured the hand-wringing, hair-pulling reaction to the dismissal of the Florida case against Donald Trump by Judge Aileen Cannon.<\/p>\n

It was not just that she reached a conclusion long supported by some conservative lawyers and a Supreme Court justice.<\/p>\n

To rule in favor of Trump in such a dismissal is, once again,\u00a0the end of Democracy as we know it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The\u00a093-page order<\/a>\u00a0methodically goes through the governing cases and statutes for the appointment of prosecutors.<\/strong> There has long been a debate over how an attorney general like Merrick Garland can circumvent the constitutional process for the appointment of a U.S. Attorney and unilaterally elevate a citizen to wield even greater power.<\/p>\n

With the expiration of the Independent Counsel Act in 1999, attorneys general have long relied upon their inherent authority to appoint \u201cinferior officers\u201d to special counsel investigations. The issue has never been conclusively ruled upon by the Supreme Court, even though lower courts have rejected this challenge.<\/p>\n

The Trump ruling is certainly an outlier and the odds favor prosecutor Jack Smith on appeal. Many point to a challenge in 2019 in the D.C. Circuit to the\u00a0appointment of Robert Mueller<\/a>. The court found that \u201cbinding precedent establishes that Congress has \u2018by law\u2019 vested authority in the Attorney General to appoint the Special Counsel as an inferior officer.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is the view of many lawyers and judges. However, Judge Cannon disagreed and found a lack of clear authority for both the appointment and the appropriations used for Smith.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, legal experts were incredulous and irate. Jed Shugerman, a Fordham Law professor, is\u00a0quoted<\/a>\u00a0as expressing shock that Judge Cannon is essentially saying, \u201cI\u2019m not bound by the DC Circuit, and I think they misinterpret this.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that it showed an \u201castonishing level of dismissiveness.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, in point of fact, Judge Cannon is not bound by the D.C. Circuit. As a federal judge in Florida, she is bound by the 11th Circuit and, of course, the Supreme Court. She is allowed to reach a different conclusion on a matter of law.<\/p>\n

Laurence Tribe, a law professor at Harvard University, declared that \u201cJudge Cannon just did the unthinkable,\u201d He added, \u201cThis finally gives Jack Smith an opportunity to seek her removal from the case. I think the case for doing so is very strong.\u201d (Tribe\u00a0previously declared<\/a>\u00a0that he was certain \u201cwithout any doubt, beyond a reasonable doubt, beyond any doubt\u201d that Trump could be charged with the attempted murder of former Vice President Michael Pence).<\/p>\n

It does not matter to these critics that other lawyers and judges agree with Judge Cannon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Justice Clarence Thomas recently expressed the same view in the Trump immunity decision in his concurrence. He did not view this as a settled question and wrote \u201cif this unprecedented prosecution is to proceed, it must be conducted by someone duly authorized to do so by the American people. The lower courts should thus answer these essential questions concerning the special counsel\u2019s appointment before proceeding.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yet these experts believe that a judge without a direct controlling case on the question should be removed for reaching the same conclusion as a member of the Supreme Court and at least two former U.S. Attorneys General.<\/p>\n

Of course, these experts would be aghast at any suggestion that D.C. District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan should be removed after being reversed by the Supreme Court in the recent immunity opinion.<\/p>\n

Such experts are not raising questions of bias over Chutkin\u2019s rulings in favor of Smith or the similar pattern of Manhattan Judge Juan Merchan.<\/p>\n

Yet Cannon is viewed as not simply wrong, but partisan in ruling for Trump.<\/strong><\/p>\n

How do republics collapse?<\/h2>\n

When judges are pressured or removed for ruling against favored parties.<\/em><\/p>\n

When the system is undermined by leading political leaders who go to the steps of the Supreme Court to threaten justices that they \u201cwill pay the price<\/a>\u201d for ruling against one side.<\/em><\/p>\n

When\u00a0law professors call the courts the \u201cenemy\u201d<\/a>\u00a0and push to cut off air conditioning to coerce them to resign.<\/em><\/p>\n

Alexander Hamilton once said that the Republic is preserved \u201cthrough the medium of courts of justice, whose duty it must be to declare all acts contrary to the manifest tenor of the Constitution void.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

That does not mean that the trial courts are always right. That is why we have appellate courts. However, conflicting decisions are the norm in cases that make it to the Supreme Court. Indeed, the justices often wait for such divisions to occur before they finally resolve long-standing questions.<\/p>\n

These demands for the removal of Judge Cannon are simply extensions of the same group think culture of the \u201cdefenders of Democracy.\u201d<\/strong> This Republic will not \u201ccollapse\u201d if Judge Cannon is right or if she is wrong. It is safe as long as judges are able to rule according to their understanding of the law, regardless of the demands of the perpetually and emphatically enraged.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nTue, 07\/16\/2024 – 14:25<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/political\/how-republics-collapse-another-adverse-decision-sends-press-pundits-hair-pulling-meltdown<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“This Is How Republics Collapse”: Another Adverse Decision Sends Press & Pundits Into Hair-Pulling Meltdown Authored by Jonathan Turley, \u201cThis is how republics collapse.\u201d\u00a0Those ominous…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1477846,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1477845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1477845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1477845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1477846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1477845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1477845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1477845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}