No, you haven’t linked over to some satire piece from The Onion. And to paraphrase the 60s TV show intro ‘Do not adjust your computer screen.’ SCOTUS which for several years has usually given Trump whatever he wanted just told him ‘No, not on this stuff’ and it has implications larger than the case the produced the ruling.
SCOTUS has just thrown a monkey wrench into what’s becoming standard practice for Team Trump. As reported by Alternet they’ve just ruled that a ‘technicality’ as in the requirement that charges be brought in the jurisdiction where criminality is alleged to have taken place must be followed. More bluntly, what Trump, his DOJ and conservatives will no doubt decry as a ‘technicality’ has actual teeth. Big FANGS in fact and those fangs are turned loose to tear apart an awful lot of Trump ‘lawfare’ strategy.
Specifically the case involved is Abouammo v. United States. It was about a former Twitter employee who passed private information of Saudi dissidents to a staffer of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Sounds straightforward but for reasons not articulated in the linked article Team Trump decided to find a judge and courtroom they were sure would get them the verdict they wanted. They “Forum Shopped” and that’s a legal no-no that Trump and conservatives have gotten away with far too much. From where I sit it’s seemed at times Chief Justice Roberts has tried to keep SCOTUS out of this but incredibly the Court not only granted Cert, it ruled in favor of the defendant:
“We hold that a defendant charged with violating [18 U.S. Code § 1519] must be tried in the district where the falsification occurred; he cannot be tried in a different district where the investigation was located,” wrote Justice Elena Kagan, writing for the majority.
That short, simple (even to non-lawyers) to understand phrase is likely to have far broader implications. Frankly I hadn’t heard about this case until now. Some Xitter employee allegedly passing illegal to provide info. to some Saudi prince isn’t the kind of thing most of us would notice. However the ruling IS likely to have immediate implications in other cases. For example we’ve seen multiple stories lately about the DOJ going after Rhode Island Hospital’s records regarding gender affirming trans treatment. The hospital is in Rhode Island, yet the case was investigated under the supervision of a crazy Texas judge and now it’s over in Florida. If not tomorrow, then I’ll bet by Monday Rhode Island Hospital will file a brief citing the Abouammo v. United States ruling:
Slate legal analyst Mark Joseph Stern commented that it could impact the case involving the Rhode Island hospital, which refuses to turn over the personal details of patients being treated for gender issues. That case is currently in Texas, not Rhode Island.
“This may have implications for the Trump administration’s unlawful persecution of Rhode Island Hospital for treating transgender minors. DOJ has conducted this ‘investigation’ from Texas to get the assistance of a lunatic MAGA judge. But it’s not at all clear DOJ can charge the hospital in Texas,” said Stern.
This is a criminal case but I suspect it might wind up affecting privately brought cases conservatives and Trump want to see make it up to SCOTUS. The Mifepristone case comes to mind. It was if I’m not mistaken that asshat judge Kacsmaryk (yes, in Tex-Ass) who issued the ruling that the drug couldn’t be used for medical abortions. Much of the case hinges on the drug being used “off label” from what it was originally marketed for. As a result the credibility of the FDA and it’s approval process for use if Mifepristone, as well as subsequent reinforcement about it being both effective and safe is, according to the judge flat-out wrong. The thing is, the FDA isn’t located in Texas. (Nor is the CDC) The correct jurisdiction to bring a case that involves the FDA approval process is the District of Columbia. Not exactly conservative rubber stamp territory.
Roberts, having like others badly ‘misread the room’ (the entire country) on the Dobbs decision doesn’t want any part of this case and has engineered ways to avoid the Court having to slap the Texas court and anti-abortion zealots down. This might be a signal that’s about to change on this and other cases. I might be reading the tea leaves wrong but Roberts assigning Justice Kagan to write the majority opinion suggests he’s making a statement of his own. As in he’s carried a LOT of water for Trump and is getting tired of his branch of the government taking over legislative branch duties. Remember, this is a guy who started out (and until Trump continued) fighting to limit the number of cases SCOTUS heard. Now, as I just said Trump has SCOTUS being a de facto legislative branch and Roberts, having realized he’s screwed himself out of the legacy he’d dreamed of is trying to keep his tenure from being totally trashed by history.
Not that a single case will get Trump and whomever is AG while he’s still in office with his ugly face hanging over the entrance of the DOJ to back off with forum shopping. It will likely take another case or two to nail shut the coffin of Trump-style forum shopping. Well, we’ll have to wait on that.
One last intriguing point the article mentions at the end. Remember the classified documents criminal case judge Cannon wrecked? There was a serious discussion amongst Special Prosecutor Jack Smith’s team about whether to pursue charges in DC or Florida. Smith had defensible reasons for choosing to roll the dice in Florida since that’s where the refusal to return what was stolen took place. However as Alternet points out the documents were first stolen from the White House which is in DC. None of the crimes charged would have happened if Trump hadn’t taken classified material from the WH and refused (repeatedly) to return it:
Wendy Norris, associate professor of information science, asked legal analyst Chris Geidner whether “the Abouammo ruling have implications for an eventual prosecution of say … stealing classified documents from the White House, where the initial crime occurred, rather than where the documents were stored?”
Interesting question isn’t it? In the meantime I’m hoping this case will come up during confirmation hearings for Todd Blanche to become actual, instead of Acting AG. It would be fun to watch Senator Sheldon Whitehouse pin Blanche down on the issue of Forum Shopping!
Friends, I know everyone begs you for money. I promise, among all those asking for spare change, we are the smallest and the hardest working. We’re a group of old, disabled people, except for one writer in his mid-50s. The rest of us are in our sixties and seventies, and this is a labor of love. All we’re asking for is the chance to keep telling the truth about Trump and help ensure democracy survives. If you can help, please do. Thank you. Ursula
OOOOooooh, a possible serving of revenge, served DELICIOUSLY frozen!!!
I LOVE THE THOUGHT!!!