As a young National Guard officer, my colleagues and I discussed the Posse Comitatus Act often. We always knew that as Guardsmen. we would be called up for national disasters. But, we all knew there were limits to out authority. We knew we could not perform law enforcement functions except in specific circumstances, such as
In the aftermath of the 2020 election, the MyPillow CEO, Michael Lindell lodged claims of fraud against Eric Coomer, former executive at Domino Voting Systems. Mr. Lindell was a very vocal supporter of Donald Trump’s claims that the 2020 election had been stolen. Cooper Then sued Lindell for defamation. In June, a jury agreed with
The American Bar Association has filed suit against the Federal government over Pres. Trump’s Executive Orders targeting big law firms. The suit accuses Pres.Ttrump of coercing law firms into forgoing certain types of legal work, and to abandon some clients, causes and policy positions. The suit was filed against the President and over two dozen
Judge Richard J. Leon, of the D.C. District Court granted a permanent injunction agsinst Pres. Trump’s Executive Order which targeted the big law firm, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr. I previously wrote about that Executive Order here. Judge Leon used twenty-six exclamation points in his order. The EO, said the Judge, had a
I wrote about the hearing regarding the lawsuit filed by the law firm, Perkins Coie here. The Judge was clearly flabbergasted by the Executive Order targeting two big law firms. She asked at that hearing if this EO was not like something from the Joe McCarthy era? Well, Judge Howell has now issued her
It is just totally weird that the Trump administration is targeting major law firms. I wrote about that odd new practice here. Pres. Trump has now targeted a handful of law firms. Two of those firms, Perkins Coie and Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr, have filed lawsuits seeking protection from these strange Executive
It is a strange world indeed in which we find ourselves. The Department of Justice, once the exemplar for competence and professionalism, now hires lawyers to political posts who do not respect the courts. At a recent hearing before Judge Paula Xinis regarding Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the DOJ attorney sat while speaking to the Judge.
Lawyers owe a duty of candor to the court. That means they cannot lie. Lawyers may not always tell the whole truth, but they cannot lie to a Judge. Even if that was not an ethical requirement, it is a practical requirement. Lawyering is one of the places where its participants must rely on the
Among the many strange practices of the Trump administration, perhaps the strangest is publishing Executive Orders that target specific law firms. The latest such EO targets the Big law firm of Jenner & Block. Among the firm’s many supposed sins: 1) re-hiring the former lead prosecutor, Andrew Weissmann, who served in the Mueller investigation of
The Trump legal world is simply bizarro. Judge Boasberg has asked for more definitive information regarding when immigration flights took off from Harlingen, Texas airport on March 15. The question is critical to whether the Trump administration deliberately violated Judge Boasberg’s orders. Judge Boasberg’s request came after a hearing on March 17 in which DOJ