Brooklyn's Federal Trial Level Case Update: On Trump Muslim Ban 2.0...

As many recall, 45's Muslim Ban 2.0 is also the subject of various trial level federal injunction proceedings -- separate from the two cases on appeal on each coast. The more significant near term event -- as to this wholly-unconstitutional mess -- is the argument in the Ninth Circuit on this coming Monday. We will cover it, in just the same way we covered the one in the Fourth, this past Monday.

But overnight, in Brooklyn -- at the trial level -- settlement discussions reached an impasse, and the able Judge Amon has referred the case to a binding mediation. Here is that scheduling order, in full:

. . . .SCHEDULING ORDER: The Court shall hold a pre-mediation telephone conference on May 19, 2017 at 12:00 p.m. Defendants' counsel is requested to arrange and initiate the conference call at that time. After contacting plaintiffs' counsel, defendants' counsel shall call the Court at 718-XXX-XXXX.

The Court shall hold a settlement conference on May 26, 2017 at 11:00 a.m. in Courtroom 11A South of the United States Courthouse, 225 Cadman Plaza East, Brooklyn, New York. The parties shall exchange specific settlement demands and offers before the settlement conference. The parties shall fax ex-parte confidential settlement statements setting forth the legal and factual basis for their settlement positions and their most recent best faith demands and offers to the Court at 718-XXX-XXXX by 5:00 p.m. on May 22, 2017.

The parties are advised that they must contact each other before making any request for an adjournment to the Court. A request for an adjournment must be received in writing at least forty-eight (48) hours before the scheduled conference. Ordered by Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom on 5/10/2017. . . .

And so, once again Mr. Trump wastes significant taxpayer resources on goals that are simply beyond his grasp, as a matter of law -- even if we were to decide that his goal is wise -- he is not empowered by the Constitution to pursue it in the way he has. And it happens that the measure bears no rational relationship -- to his asserted goal, if we take his order(s) at face value. Truly a mess.

Just as his endlessly shifting stories on the dismissal of FBI Director (and former US Attorney, under Bush 43) James Comey have become. A mess -- but there "treason" -- as defined in the Constitution, and impeachable "high crimes and misdemeanors" may well lie. Now you know. Off now, on a sunny, fine and crisp Thursday afternoon!



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