On Saturday, Manhattan-based District Judge Paul Engelmayer issued a sweeping emergency injunction essentially removing the authority of Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessett over the Treasury Department. The injunction blocks the Secretary and any political appointees from accessing records within the Treasury Department. The injunction also blocks any ‘special appointee’ of President Trump from having access records within the Treasury Department and demands that all information previously extracted be destroyed. What the judge is essentially saying is that the Treasury Secretary is not allow to look at the Treasury records nor is he or the President allowed to hire anyone to look at those records. This is an amazing combination of chutzpah, arrogance, ignorance of the U.S. Constitution, and stupid. I expect the ruling to be overturned quickly.<\/p>\n
On Saturday, Legal Insurrection<\/a> reported:<\/p>\n It was an unusual procedural context. I\u2019ve reviewed the court\u2019s electronic docket, and it appears to have been ex parte. <\/em>There\u2019s no indication of notice to the government and opportunity to be heard before the Judge ruled. The procedure was a Proposed Order To Show Cause<\/a> including a Temporary Restraining Order. It\u2019s the type of procedure used in only the most extreme emergencies (the OSC is not unusual, but including an ex parte<\/em> TRO is unusual).<\/strong><\/p>\n What was the emergency that couldn\u2019t wait until the next day for the government to have a chance to be heard?<\/strong><\/p>\n It was a Friday night move to deny access that, by the papers submitted, had been going on for over two weeks. The 60 page Complaint<\/a>, and 40 Page Memorandum<\/a> (plus a short Affirmation<\/a>) obviously took a long time to prepare, arguing against an emergency so dire and time sensitive on a Friday night the court couldn\u2019t even wait until the next morning for the government to be heard. It also reeks of judge shopping, because plaintiffs would have known who was the emergency duty judge so by going in on a Friday night they evaded the normal random assignment system for this purpose.<\/strong><\/p>\n Whatever the ultimate merits, depriving the Secretary of Treasury of the ability to run the Department of Treasury as he deems proper is not something that should have been decided this way, even temporarily. I understand that litigants play these games, but it\u2019s a bad look that damages faith in the judiciary when a court allows it.<\/strong><\/p>\n The short version of the complaint and claims is that Secretary Bessent violated various procedural requirements and that there is a threat that sensitive private information could be exposed. Considering that the Chinese government thoroughly hacked<\/a> the Treasury computer systems under Biden, it\u2019s odd that the mere possibility that DOGE might mishandle the information required a Friday night court intervention. I think there are serious \u2018standing\u2019 issues with the states bringing the case as well as the harm being speculative.<\/strong><\/p>\n The article also notes:<\/p>\n I can\u2019t really assess the underlying merits on such short notice, other than it seems like what it is, a political objection in search of a legal theory. The Executive Branch gets to run the Executive Branch, and this seems like an overstep by a different branch of government.<\/strong><\/p>\n This seems to be a repeat of 2017, where the Resistance had good luck with District Court Judges, less luck with Appeals Court Judges, and very little luck with Supreme Court Justices. But that\u2019s besides the point, this is all about slowing down the Trump agenda, and wasting months or years before a final resolution is reached. Democrats don\u2019t have to win in the end to achieve Democrats\u2019 goals.<\/strong><\/p>\n It is telling that there was less fuss when the Chinese hacked into the system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On Saturday, Manhattan-based District Judge Paul Engelmayer issued a sweeping emergency injunction essentially removing the authority of Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessett over the Treasury Department. The injunction blocks the Secretary and any political appointees from accessing records within the … Continue reading