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On Monday, writing for Slate, Supreme Court analyst Mark Joseph Stern broke down how Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan demolished an argument of intellectually dishonest posturing from fellow Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a Trump appointee, who ruled for the right-wing majority to sharply limit the holding of Ramos v. Louisiana, which prohibited convictions by a non-unanimous jury.
In this week's Edwards v. Vannoy decision, Kavanaugh held that the decision does not apply retroactively to people already locked up by non-unanimous convictions — and obliterated precedent that defendants can be granted new trials based on "watershed" changes to criminal procedure, ruling that watershed changes don't exist.
As Stern noted, Kavanaugh took a swipe at Kagan in his opinion for criticizing his ruling as detrimental to prisoners, pointing out Kagan had dissented from Ramos anyway and his decision still leaves more prisoners free than her past votes would have done. But in her last footnote, Kagan shredded that argument — and Kavanaugh's entire judicial philosophy underpinning it.
"It treats judging as scorekeeping — and more, as scorekeeping about how much our decisions, or the aggregate of them, benefit a particular kind of party," wrote Kagan. "I see the matter differently. Judges should take cases one at a time, and do their best in each to apply the relevant legal rules. And when judges err, others should point out where they went astray. No one gets to bank capital for future cases; no one's past decisions insulate them from criticism. The focus always is, or should be, getting the case before us right."
In other words, wrote Stern, Kagan is calling out Kavanaugh's practice of acting like his past decisions, and even his past empathy for defendants he rules against, gives him the political capital to make whatever decision he wants down the line, free of criticism and scrutiny.
"Kagan's dissent in Edwards confirms that the justices is done trying to nab Kavanaugh's vote by pulling punches," wrote Stern. "Indefinitely confined to a three-justice minority, Kagan knows her influence is largely limited to dissents. If she cannot bring Kavanaugh around to her side, she might as well show the rest of us the cynicism at the heart of his jurisprudence."
You can read more here.
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Busted Capitol rioter 'brought the clothes he was wearing on January 6' to his FBI interview
May 17, 2021
Like many others arrested for taking part in the Capitol riot, Hunter Palm of Colorado has been charged with a list of crimes including obstruction of Congress, unlawful entry and disorderly conduct.
But Palm stood out in the crowd as one of the most vocal intruders and he also made it into the offices of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. At the minimum, he was part of a group hurling some of the vicious threats and epithets of any of the insurrectionists -- even though the charges against him don't reflect that.
The FBI arrest complaint states that Palm admitted to agents that he entered the Capitol building -- he claimed "the police made a gap and allowed the crowd and Palm to enter the building" -- but his case was otherwise out of the ordinary. For one thing, according to the FBI, he provided a flash drive of videos he had taken off his cellphone.
In one video, the report says, Palm can be heard shouting "Stop the Steal!" In another, "the camera shakes as seen in the surveillance footage as if Palm is joining chants of "Whose house? Our house!"
The FBI complaint also stated:
"In another video Palm recorded, he and others walk through a hallway inside the Capitol, while some in the crowd call out for "Nancy," in an apparent reference to Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi. One individual shouts "Where are you?" and another can be heard stating "We're gonna kill her." Palm and the crowd approach a closed door marked "OFFICE OF THE SPEAKER.
"'In the video, other rioters open the door and someone shouts 'Come on you c*** Pelosi, get the fuck outta here.' Palm then enters the Speaker's Conference Room and can be heard asking, 'You guys want a tour?' Palm then walks around the conference room and records the screen of an open laptop sitting on a conference table.
"While approaching the laptop, Palm can be heard asking 'Who's good at hacking? Who's good at hacking?'"
The report also added this:
"Finally, Palm sits down at the head of the conference table, puts his feet up on the table and can be heard saying 'I think I like my new dining room. I pay for it!'"
In other videos, Palm can be seen standing on a Capitol terrace overlooking the East Mall and shouting down to fellow rioters, "Look out for the tear gas," according to the report.
In one other uncommon twist, Palm was reported to have "brought the clothes he was wearing on January 6, 2021, to the interview: a gray Levi- Strauss-branded hooded sweatshirt, with light blue jeans, a black hat with a white American flag with a blue stripe in the middle, and a blue and red flag with white stars and the words "TRUMP" and "Keep America Great."
Palm, whose address wasn't given but who has been ordered to report a probation office in Colorado Spring, CO, was apprehended by the FBI on a tip from a family member.
You can read the full FBI report here.
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Man who set up fake PAC to steal money from Trump supporters pleads guilty to wire fraud: report
May 17, 2021
On Monday, The Daily Beast reported that James Kyle Bell, who created the "Keep America Great Committee," is pleading guilty to wire fraud after tricking Trump supporters into donating $500,000 to his fake political group.
Bell, who attempted a similar scam on Biden supporters with the "Best Days Lie Ahead" to the tune of $100,000 but returned them after a problem with the hosting portal, reportedly vastly underreported these donations to the Federal Election Commission.
"The charge carries a maximum prison sentence of 20 years, but prosecutors stated in a letter to Bell's lawyer that they will seek between 78 and 97 months for Bell, along with a fine of $25,000 to $250,000," reported Justin Rohrlich. "As part of his plea, Bell also admitted to deceiving the government out of more than $1 million in phony Paycheck Protection Program loans intended to help employers avoid laying off staff due to the COVID-19 pandemic."
This comes shortly after John Lambert, a co-founder of the group "Students for Trump," was sentenced to 13 months in prison for a side hustle in which he pretended to be a patent attorney and scammed prospective clients out of more than $46,000 over two years.
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