Heidi Li Feldman
@heidilifeldman@mastodon.social  ·  activity timestamp last month

Folks here will notice that I’m less frequently detailing lower court opinions that attempt to stop the Trump regime’s lawless actions. This is because enough time has passed for enough appeals to reach the U.S. Supreme Court for U.S. to know that no matter how carefully a lower court judge explains and supports her rulings, the Supreme Court will act as lawlessly as the Trump executive. 1/

Tony Meredith
@Tony_Meredith@mastodon.me.uk replied  ·  activity timestamp 4 weeks ago
@heidilifeldman I'm sorry that circumstances and truth required you to write in these terms.
You'll know there are lessons from around the world about resisting oppression and, eventually, gaining a new political settlement. Violence is not the only answer when legal redress is denied.
I'm hoping that struggle and good trouble will come through for you.
J. "Henry" Waugh
@jhwgh1968@chaos.social replied  ·  activity timestamp 4 weeks ago
@heidilifeldman this is a bit surprising thing to me, because it seems to ignore what I consider the biggest guard rail on the Supreme Court:

Time itself

SCOTUS only takes up 2% of merits cases in any given year, because they cannot afford to. That means they don't rule on the question at all

For every case I've seen get headlines from the Shadow docket, I've found another where they just denied review even though the administration lost
Heidi Li Feldman
@heidilifeldman@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last month

From the outset, we knew that certain justices were wholly and irrevocably in the tank for Trump. I put Robert’s very close to this camp but thought his desire to preserve his standing with federal district court judges and lower federal appellate judges might temper the fealty he displayed when he wrote the majority opinion in the ignominious Trump v. United States. 3/
Heidi Li Feldman
@heidilifeldman@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last month

Had Roberts more commitment to rule of law and less regard for Republican Fascism, he might have been able to peel off Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, Barrett occasionally and get them to vote with Sotomayor and Jackson and sometimes Kagan. But it is clear that he has no interest in this role and the other far right justices definitely don’t. 4/
Heidi Li Feldman
@heidilifeldman@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last month

I know that brave lower court judges will continue to write well-reasoned important memoranda in support of their correct and significant decisions. I will continue to commend their efforts and sometimes explain them. But for all their skill and integrity, they won’t be able to prevent the worst effect of the Supreme Court’s perfidy: plaintiffs’ lawyers will stop bringing cases they clearly will lose on appeal. 5/
Heidi Li Feldman
@heidilifeldman@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last month

The lawyers who represent the plaintiffs in the cases against the Trump regime do not have the funds or the staff to litigate every instance of the regime’s lawlessness. They also do not want to litigate cases that will only serve to give the Supreme Court the chance to hand down a lawless diktat as though it should be treated as precedent. 6/
Heidi Li Feldman
@heidilifeldman@mastodon.social replied  ·  activity timestamp last month

So most plaintiffs’ lawyers will become ever more selective and careful in who they represent and the issues they put before the courts. This is natural and understandable. But it is also frightening. The actions of the U.S. Supreme Court play a direct role in sharply increasing the prospect of a hot civil war in the United States. 7/

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