Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart has directed the Department of Justice to produce a redacted version of the search warrant affidavit used to obtain the warrant for Mar-a-Lago. The government has done so and the mag has ordered its release by noon today.

A federal judge on Thursday ordered that a redacted version of the affidavit used to obtain a warrant for former President Donald J. Trump’s Florida residence be unsealed by noon on Friday — paving the way for the disclosure of potentially revelatory details about a search with enormous legal and political implications.

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Some rando jumped into my mentions on the twitters in reply to a twit of mine about student loan debt forgiveness with the riposte, “but what about PPP loans”? I blew it off because it was so monumentally stupid as to be unworthy of discussion. I mean, there was nothing about the PPP, the congressionally enacted Paycheck Protection Program, that bore any relation to presidential forgiveness of student loan debt under the guise of a national emergency response to COVID.

And then it happened. First, former Southern District of New York United States Attorney cum drug warrior and black man enslaver turned dream date of the chic left for being fired by Trump despite prisons filled with black and brown people for drugs, Preet Bharara. Continue reading →

In the scheme of Title IX suits brought in federal courts to challenge the outcomes of campus sex tribunals, pseudonymity has largely been the norm other than the few cases where the identity of the accused is so well and widely known that there’s no putting the toothpaste back in the tube. And, indeed, that was the analogy drawn by Judge Bruce Selya writing for the court in Doe v. MIT.

While the underlying facts of the case really aren’t relevant to the holding, the only issue being whether the plaintiff could proceed under the Doe ‘nym rather than in his true name, it’s helpful to briefly take note of the facts only to appreciate what’s at stake in these cases, and at risk of being turned into an untenable challenge because the accused would be burned at the stake once his name became known, and any eventual ruling in his favor would do little to unring the accused death knell. Continue reading →

Death tends to be something of an equalizer. Aside from someone so awful that death presents relief, most of us (Felicia Sonmez notwithstanding) defer to condolences or, at worst, silence. After all, don’t speak ill of the dead isn’t merely a well-established social norm (unlike the many invented last week and now being forced upon us), but a sound one.

Death is sad. Whether we love someone or not, loved ones are left behind who deserve some sympathy. When the death is tragic, what sort of animal would use the opportunity to attack the deceased? Continue reading →

I was informed by a gentleman whose mother was a Rockefeller that the only question that really mattered when meeting someone was whether they were the sort of person you would invite to dinner. This, some of you might remember, was what motivated Trump to run for office, as neither the old guard of New York nor Palm Beach would invite him to dinner, hurting his feelings and compelling him to prove his mettle by becoming someone “important,” in a Rooseveltian sort of way.

Trump ended up winning the election, but not a seat at the dinner table, for the very reason he was never a suitable dinner guest in the first place. He failed to grasp that being elected president didn’t make you important, but being the sort of person people respected enough to elect as president was the attribute. Continue reading →

The old saw is that the reason academic politics are so vicious is that the stakes are so small. But if George Santayana had anything on the ball, then his point that “those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is worth remembering even if it’s a little less snarky. History matters, or at least it did until historians broke it.

It began on August 17, when James Sweet, the president of the AHA, posted a mildly provocative article in the association’s house journal, Perspectives on History:

“IS HISTORY HISTORY?
Identity politics and Teleologies of the Present” Continue reading →

Scotland has enacted a law requiring that people who use menstrual products, formerly known as women, be given them free of cost.

Period products, including tampons and sanitary pads, are now free of cost in Scotland to anyone who needs them.

“Providing access to free period products is fundamental to equality and dignity, and removes the financial barriers to accessing them,” said Social Justice Secretary Shona Robison in a statement, calling the move “more important than ever” in an era of rising costs of living.

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People used to argue over this on twitter all the time, whether retwitting something meant you agreed with it or approved of it, the implication being that why would anyone amplify anything with which they didn’t agree or approve? The answer would often be it was interesting or thought-provoking. People disinclined to believe it tended not to believe it. And that was the case for Salma al-Shehab.

She told judges she had no idea that simply retweeting posts “out of curiosity and to observe others’ viewpoints,” from a personal account with no more than 2,000 followers, constituted terrorism.

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In the ordinary course of a pre-arrest search warrant, the application for the warrant, usually an affidavit or two and occasionally accompanied by an exhibit or two, is held under seal, not to be seen either by the eyes of the target or the media. And, indeed, the idea of motions, amici, and more motions by random intervenors, was unheard of. Not this time.

Ruling from the bench, the judge, Bruce E. Reinhart, said it was “very important” that the public have as “much information” as it can about the historic search at Mar-a-Lago, Mr. Trump’s Florida residence. He noted later in a written order that the government “had not met its burden of showing that the entire affidavit should remain sealed.”

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Ed. Note: Our intrepid TV and Movie Critic, Harris County Public Defender Alex Bunin, reviews the final episode of Better Call Saul, which turned out to be a TV show and not a completely unethical actual lawyer. My bad. But I digress.

As someone who practiced in the federal courts for many years, the final episode of “Better Call Saul” (BCS) was somewhat disappointing. It was not the resolution that bothered me, just some basic misunderstandings of how federal criminal cases are disposed. Spoilers will follow. Continue reading →