I was hoping that -- once confronted with the fact that she was going to potentially get nearly a half-billion documents submitted (from the feds, alone -- more, from Texas!) in response to her sua sponte "discovery" order -- she'd return to what is bedrock black letter law, in the federal courts and ask for a handful of representative emails.
Erh... nope.
Tonight, she entered a new order which, in truth, will also immensely burden the State of Texas government attorneys, for the next few months. But it now seems plain that her main objective is to drag her feet (by insisting on ridiculous, non-rules compliant, abusive discovery / production -- which will take months, if not a half year to complete). . . all while as she puts it, she keeps the federal government enjoined from removing the clearly unlawful land based razor wire barriers.
She's moved back the dates, and now says she'll "discuss" an elongated time line for deliveries, but she's insisting on getting a review of 26,000 employees' emails -- any of which might mention concertina wire or razor wire, for the last three years. As the border patrol custodian of records pointed out, this will generate responsive documents into the middle hundreds of millions.
And this is before the State of Texas pulls all their records -- likely of similar volume. So. . . a billion or more emails, in some small portion of which the two sides are likely snippy with one another. Charming.
But the TRO can be -- and ought to be -- decided by looking at the federal statutes, alone. Those grant the federal government agencies exclusive control over border matters. Not not not the state level Texas Rangers. This is plainly "lawfare" -- by a GOP federal judge -- all while claiming NOT to pre-judge an outcome. It is purportedly a burning emergency hearing, according to Gov. Abbott. . . so if he is genuinely interested in a decision, he too should vigorously resist having to spend months and months, and millions of dollars in Texas taxpayer funds, to wade through his own millions of emails.
But we will bet you a Buffalo Nickel he'll. . . clam up. He will let the delay she's engineered for him play out. [And it seems clear she's thinking/betting Tangerine will win (HAH! Not a chance!) in 2024, and she'll have been a hero -- for throwing sand in the gears of more humane federal border enforcement polices, at the federal level.] Damn -- read this two pager end to end, tonight -- but here is the most preposterous bit:
. . .It is FURTHER ORDERED, for the parties' understanding, that the Court orders document production because the Court does not wish to presume one way or another about the evidence; because of testimony of one of the Defendants' witnesses at the November 7, 2023 preliminary injunction hearing; and because the Court cannot decide this motion without the ordered documents;
It is FURTHER ORDERED that the parties tentatively have until November 21, 2023 at 12 p.m. to produce the documents that the Court ordered on November 9, 2023 to be produced, as modified by this order, through a virtual link that the Court shall send to the parties;
It is FURTHER ORDERED that, because the parties are amenable to a second hearing on November 27, 2023, the Court shall hold a virtual conference with the parties on either November 16, 17, 20, or 21, 2023, to discuss allowing the Defendants more time to produce documents, extending the temporary restraining order, and rescheduling the second hearing; and
It is FURTHER ORDERED that the parties consult each other to identify mutually convenient dates and times for the virtual conference, and to inform the Court of same as soon as possible. . . .
This is simply. . . beyond the pale. It's all dressed up as being careful -- when in fact, it is transparently obstructive -- of federal statutory rights. And I'd expect the feds (and maybe even Texas) will say so, on the 27th. Yikes.
नमस्ते
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