We had warned you that he might look for a way to favor Tangerine 2.0 (even by manipulating the procedural rules) -- and tonight, he did. Despite clear contrary black letter law,
he has largely "invented" several factual disputes, which in his opinion require a full blown evidentiary hearing, and because he
then resolved one factual dispute in favor of Trump [the claim that "
some" (but by no means not many, even in Trump's telling) USAID employees are "
defying orders"], he says Trump may begin the "
pencils down" pause (to enable an audit) while evidence is being collected.
He punishes all -- for the acts of a very few -- if they even be that.
And all of this sort of misses the point:
Trump has no authority to stop payments mandated by the US Congress. That comes from a statute. See,
Marbury v. Madison.
Here's
Nichols' order.
I think it is fatally flawed in its reasoning. But the evidence
will eventually come in in favor of the USAID employees, and he will end up granting them back pay, front pay and reinstated positions -- and filling in all these missing payments a month or two from now. This much is clear, this is not a real win for Tangerine -- the plaintiffs will be able to show he acted lawlessly here.
Disappointing, but onward, resolutely -- just the same.
नमस्ते
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