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Franklin López
Franklin López
@franklinlopez@kolektiva.social  ·  activity timestamp 7 hours ago

PRAIRIELAND TRIAL UPDATE - Trump appointed judge to lead jury selection aka voir dire

If you don’t know what voir dire is: it’s jury selection — the part where lawyers and the judge question potential jurors to uncover bias and weed out people who can’t be fair.

What’s normal: lawyers get real time to ask jurors questions (often directly), follow up, and build a record about bias. It’s messy on purpose, because bias is messy.

What’s happening here: Judge Pittman is running voir dire himself. Lawyers can only submit questions for him to maybe ask, and they can’t ask jurors directly. That’s a huge control point in a case where the entire fight is about narrative and political framing.

And it’s not just jury selection:

Opening statements: capped at 8 minutes per defendant

Trial time: capped at 35 hours TOTAL for all defendants (while the U.S. gets 35 hours)

That’s not “keeping things efficient.” That’s compressing the defense in a high-stakes case.

THIS IS NOT NORMAL.
@dfwsupportcommittee

Screenshot of a federal court document titled “ORDER” in a case captioned “Cameron Arnold, et al., Defendants.” The order sets the case for jury trial on Monday, February 23, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. in the fourth-floor courtroom of the Eldon B. Mahon Federal Courthouse, located at 501 W. 10th Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76102.

The order states that, due to other matters on the court’s docket, the court will limit the time for arguments, examining witnesses, and the number of witnesses called, to avoid “unnecessary expense or delay.”

It then lists specific rules:

Voir dire (jury selection) will be conducted by the Court (the judge), not by the attorneys. The parties must file a list of proposed jury questions under seal for the court to consider on or before February 20, 2026 at 12:00 p.m.

The parties’ trial time is limited, including: opening statements of 30 minutes for the United States and 8 minutes for each Defendant, and trial time of 35 hours for the United States and 35 hours total for all Defendants combined.

A footnote at the bottom cites criminal procedure and case law supporting the judge’s discretion in conducting voir dire and notes there is no constitutional right to attorney-led voir dire.
Screenshot of a federal court document titled “ORDER” in a case captioned “Cameron Arnold, et al., Defendants.” The order sets the case for jury trial on Monday, February 23, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. in the fourth-floor courtroom of the Eldon B. Mahon Federal Courthouse, located at 501 W. 10th Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76102. The order states that, due to other matters on the court’s docket, the court will limit the time for arguments, examining witnesses, and the number of witnesses called, to avoid “unnecessary expense or delay.” It then lists specific rules: Voir dire (jury selection) will be conducted by the Court (the judge), not by the attorneys. The parties must file a list of proposed jury questions under seal for the court to consider on or before February 20, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. The parties’ trial time is limited, including: opening statements of 30 minutes for the United States and 8 minutes for each Defendant, and trial time of 35 hours for the United States and 35 hours total for all Defendants combined. A footnote at the bottom cites criminal procedure and case law supporting the judge’s discretion in conducting voir dire and notes there is no constitutional right to attorney-led voir dire.
Screenshot of a federal court document titled “ORDER” in a case captioned “Cameron Arnold, et al., Defendants.” The order sets the case for jury trial on Monday, February 23, 2026 at 9:00 a.m. in the fourth-floor courtroom of the Eldon B. Mahon Federal Courthouse, located at 501 W. 10th Street, Fort Worth, Texas 76102. The order states that, due to other matters on the court’s docket, the court will limit the time for arguments, examining witnesses, and the number of witnesses called, to avoid “unnecessary expense or delay.” It then lists specific rules: Voir dire (jury selection) will be conducted by the Court (the judge), not by the attorneys. The parties must file a list of proposed jury questions under seal for the court to consider on or before February 20, 2026 at 12:00 p.m. The parties’ trial time is limited, including: opening statements of 30 minutes for the United States and 8 minutes for each Defendant, and trial time of 35 hours for the United States and 35 hours total for all Defendants combined. A footnote at the bottom cites criminal procedure and case law supporting the judge’s discretion in conducting voir dire and notes there is no constitutional right to attorney-led voir dire.
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