It Turns Out That Texas State Lawyers / Gov. Abbott Filed A Fifth Circuit Request IN THE WRONG FEDERAL CASE JACKET. Denied. Hilarious!!

We mentioned this morning that it wasn't clear quite precisely. . . why the trial had been postponed (from this Thursday) in the floating razor wire case -- and discovery reopened.

Now we know. Texas filed a motion to have the full Fifth Circuit re-hear an agrument Texas lost, on navagibility. But Texas filed it under the wrong case number. So quite correctly, the Fifth Circuit said it will take no action.

Then, this morning, at a hearing, the trial court in West Texas reopened discovery itself, to hear evidence on whether future navigability can be established, among many other issues. The State of Texas filing contains numerous obvious grammatical errors and typos. It was clearly filed in extreme haste. And it has failed. Even so, it does obliquely explain why the trial date has been pushed off, thus:

. . .At the conference, the district court refused to rule on which opinion from the en banc Fifth Circuit controls proceedings on remand, even though trial was scheduled to begin in days, and the district court had previously indicated that it would “‘need to make a ruling on’” which opinion controls “‘prior to trial.’” See State’s Motion to Clarify, United States v. Abbott, No. 1:23-cv-00853, ECF 250 (W.D. Tex. Nov. 1, 2024) (quoting the district court). Instead, the district court sua sponte continued the trial, which the United States had never requested. It sua sponte re-opened discovery on all issues, which again the United States had never requested, and the court had previously assured “will not happen.” And it directed the United States to offer evidence about the future navigability issues that the United States -- the plaintiff in this case -- had expressly abandoned. . . .

On September 20, 2024, the panel issued a published decision in this case refusing to the [sic] correct the denial of Texas’s jury demand. See In re Abbott, 117 F.4th 729 (5th Cir. 2024). . . . [That request for an en banc rehearing was also denied this morning.]

MAGA Gov. Greg Abbott and his AG Ken Paxton (and appointed minions) clearly are the gang that couldn't shoot straight. Hilarious!

नमस्ते