DL Open Thread: Friday, September 9, 2022

Some polling on the race:

A recent poll from EPIC-MRA found that Michigan voters favored this amendment by a gigantic 67-24 margin, but Michigan Right to Life has reserved $16 million in TV ad time to try to defeat it.

DOJ Offers Judge Cannon An Off-Ramp.  Will she take it?:

DOJ offered Cannon three arguments for why she should accept the deal:

1. If she doesn’t, DOJ will prevail in its appeal anyway, because no court could possibly conclude that Trump owns the 100 classified records, has a right to have them back or has any attorney-client or executive privilege claims that would prevent prosecutors from using them in their criminal investigation.

2. The judge’s order has threatened national security. The court’s ban on DOJ’s use of the records, the government said, has stymied the intelligence community’s “national security risk assessment of the possible unauthorized disclosure of the classified records and any harm that may have resulted” because the intelligence assessment is “inextricably linked” with the FBI’s criminal investigation. Cannon herself said she wanted that review to continue but the IC can’t do it without the cooperation of the FBI, which she seemingly banned from the process. The key here is that the IC needs to know if the classified documents “may have been accessed by others and compromised,” which is precisely what the FBI is investigating in its criminal probe.

3. Excluding the 100 classified documents from the special master process will cause no harm to Trump.

The Senate approved this idiot to this judgeship on Nov. 12, 2020, 5 days after the race was called for Biden.  12 D’s including our two bipartisan First State solons, voted for this Federalist Society stalwart.  Say, I’ve got an idea should the D’s maintain control of the Senate:  No Federalist Society members can be approved.  How about that, Chuck?

On Abortion, Ginni Thomas Is Both Ubiquitous And Omnipresent:

Ginni Thomas, the self-styled “culture warrior” and extreme rightwing activist, has links to more than half of the anti-abortion groups and individuals who lobbied her husband Clarence Thomas and his fellow US supreme court justices ahead of their historic decision to eradicate a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy.

A new analysis of the written legal arguments, or “amicus briefs”, used to lobby the justices as they deliberated over abortion underlines the extent to which Clarence Thomas’s wife was intertwined with this vast pressure campaign.

The survey found that 51% of the parties who filed amicus briefs calling for an end to a federal abortion right have political connections to Ginni Thomas, raising concerns about a possible conflict of interest at the highest levels of the US judiciary.

“The Thomases are normalizing the prospect of too close an association between the supreme court and those who litigate before it,” said Melissa Murray, a law professor at New York University and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny podcast. “This isn’t the first time that Mrs Thomas has had dealings with those who come before the court and seek her husband’s vote.”

The revelation that there is substantial overlap between Ginni Thomas and the anti-abortion lobbying effort focused on her husband and the other conservative justices will intensify the growing sense of unease surrounding her hyper-energetic conservative activism. In recent years she has placed herself in the thick of some of the most bitterly contested political controversies that have come – or could come – before the court.

B-b-but–that laptop!

Stoopid Suxco Shenanigans.  Goobers get the government they deserve:

In a move viewed by many as political, Sussex County Councilman Mark Schaeffer called on fellow Councilman John Rieley to resign at an Aug. 30 council meeting.

During councilmember comments, Schaeffer said he was distressed to learn Rieley admitted he accepted free dirt from a developer, as well as free labor and equipment to transport it his farm.

“I think that’s a huge issue and I think it reflects badly on Sussex County Council. I think it is unacceptable,” Schaeffer said. “I think it, quite frankly, rises to the level that Mr. Rieley should consider resigning from the council.”

Council President Michael Vincent and Council Vice President Doug Hudson made it clear they thought Schaeffer was being unprofessional and using the council dais to play politics. Vincent gaveled and chastised Schaeffer multiple times as he spoke; Hudson said at one point the discussion was “sad” and “ridiculous.”

As are the machinations of the Suxco Council.  Are there any remaining undeveloped parcels, or have the developers paved over the entire county?

What do you want to talk about?