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RSB
7 hours ago
Well Cannon has things going for her here:
1) Justice Thomas concurrence, which she quoted from and based her ruling on. And Thomas doesn't write that if he doesn't have at least 5 votes behind it. It was basically what he did when he used opinion writing to beg for a Chevron case.
2) 11th Circuit is not a leftist sinkhole. And...it's SCOTUS supervisory justice is Thomas.
3) Jack Smith is unique in that he was a private citizen and not an already in place US Attorney. Without the Independent Counsel statute being in effect there was no authority to just appoint a private citizen to these powers without Senate approval.
4) In addition to the Immunity concurrence, the ruling that revoked Chevron plays here as it directly refutes deference to DOJ interpretation of its regs.
I think ultimately she gets upheld here. And that SCOTUS takes it even if a Trump election "moots" it so they can make a definitive ruling. //
DaveM Benito
7 hours ago edited
That's the issue. The Statute authorizing the DOJ to appoint Special Counsels expired many years ago and was never renewed.
The current trends of the court here indicates that their interpretation is that an agency can not by itself decide it has authority. Only Congress can grant it to them. The fact that the previous authorization expired without being renewed indicates Congress withdrew that authority.
From what I read yesterday- Smith is using Stare Decisis as his argument-i.e previous courts have upheld the appointment of SCs therefore it is decided law. It's dangerous to try to predict what the court will do in a particular case but in general that argument will not looked upon with favor by this court. This court has repeatedly ruled that unconstitutional behavior by an agency is unconstitutional behavior by an agency- whether it as been previously upheld in the courts or or not. //
The Viking RSB
6 hours ago
Prior to his appointment, every other SC had gone through the approval process in one form or another, as either head of the FBI (Mueller) or as a US Attorney, such as Durham and Hur.