“In light of this Justice Department’s highly irregular conduct, courts now recognize that it no longer deserves the presumption of regularity in certain categories of cases, and in particular in those against the president’s perceived enemies,” the lawsuit reads in part.
TBF, that is a pretty wild thing to include in a legal brief. It sounds benign and frankly pretty mild compared to the way any cogent and remotely attentive to what’s happening in the world. But, for anyone who has worked closely with the courts, it is a wild thing to include in a filing.
To put things in perspective, anyone who has had dealings with the police or worked in the legal system (or just reads anything other than fox news) know that police regularly lie in order to get convictions. Despite this, no attorney is going to attack the general credibility of the police in a criminal proceeding. Even in areas where there have been numerous proven cases of police misconduct, they enjoy an assumption of truth and respect in the courts.
The fact that so many courts have found the administration to be acting out of malice and that litigants believe that pointing this out will work to their favor is kind of wild. It shouldn’t be, but it is. I hope that if we somehow dislodge these fascists from our government the courts don’t forget that the systems they’re using were not put in place in January, 2025 and won’t have disappeared when the figureheads have been replaced.
The question is whether the courts will take real action or stick with the Susan Collins performative bullshit. I’m betting on the bullshit.
Oh, I’d count on the latter rather than the former, but it’s still a very abnormal situation. Do I expect the system to do literally anything other than protect its continued existence? Absolutely not.