(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals sends a warning to the rest of the judiciary about Trump [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2023-12-08 Federal appellate court decisions are never “off the cuff.” Every word is vetted, multiple times. In a case involving a former president currently under indictment, that vetting is even more intensive. There is not a word, not a cite, not a punctuation mark misplaced. And for the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — historically and traditionally regarded as a natural stepping stone to the Supreme Court — that rule is doubly important. Daily Kos community member Commander Ogg has a succinct and important post up about the D.C. Circuit Court’s decision to uphold (for the most part) Federal District Judge Tanya Chutkan’s gag order pertaining to Donald Trump. Portions of the Court’s opinion are included in that post. But I want to focus on one, singular word in the Circuit Court’s opinion, which I think speaks volumes and sends a clear message to the rest of the entire federal judiciary about the threat that Trump represents. The word is “perverse,” and it crops up late in the opinion, after the court has already exhaustively set forth most of its reasons for modifying (in part) the gag order imposed by Judge Chutkan. It arises when the court addresses the apparent strategy of the Trump legal team which is to delay the entire proceeding (in the D.C court as well as -- implicitly-- in all of the other venues where Trump is currently a defendant) as long as possible. The clear implication is that, in the event Trump wins re-election, some unspoken measures, be they by fiat, willful disregard, or even by violence, will be taken to neuter the judicial process in all of the multiple proceedings currently pending against him. The Circuit Court’s Order is here. Buried deeply within the painstakingly crafted opinion, at page 47, is this statement, addressing Trump’s desire to postpone the trial until after the 2024 election, in which he will be the presumptive Republican nominee: Delaying the trial date until after the election, as Mr. Trump proposes, would be counterproductive, create perverse incentives, and unreasonably burden the judicial process. (emphasis supplied) Here the court is sending a message not only to Judge Chutkan, who must address Trump’s “delay, delay, delay” strategy firsthand, but also to the Supreme Court, which will have to consider Trump’s inevitable appeal of the Circuit Court’s Order. And more broadly, this Court of Appeals is sending a blaring warning signal to the entire judiciary, the third component of our constitutional system’s so-called “separation of powers.” The word they choose to describe what Trump apparently intends by his delay tactics is “perverse,” and more specifically “perverse incentives,” colloquially understood as opportunities that, when taken advantage of, produce results exactly contrary (and often disastrous) to their original intent. The Court here acknowledges the “perverse incentive” of granting Trump’s continual and deliberate tactic of inevitably and inexorably delaying his actual trial by the legal process until after he is conceivably re-elected. Because they understand that continued, unreasonable delay would "incentivize" for him a perversion of that constitutionally mandated separation of powers. What they are communicating — to the Supreme Court and the rest of the federal judiciary — is that Trump, by delaying his trial until he presumably has the power to ignore or overrule any rulings against him, intends to wholly usurp the power of the judiciary. And they are implicitly challenging the judiciary to respond to that threat. “Perverse” is not a word chosen lightly. “Perversion” in its strict sense connotes distorting, twisting or corrupting something into a form that is false and unrecognizable. The Court, by referencing the “perverse incentives” for Trump’s delaying of his multiple trials -- leading to an outcome that would refute or repudiate judicial oversight -- is implicitly asking the rest of the judiciary, with whom it holds such affinity, if this is really what they want their institution to succumb to. They are essentially laying it on the line for the Supreme Court. They are asking them, “Do you want to risk having the institution of the judiciary supplanted and its constitutional functions neutered by this man?” Because that’s clearly what Trump intends to do, and once that is done, there is no going back. The judiciary will have seen its entire power disabled and delegitimized by the power of the Executive branch. That is the perverse result that Trump evidently seeks. The Circuit Court of Appeals had identified the threat that Trump represents. Now we simply have to wait and see if the rest of the judiciary will respond. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/12/8/2210589/-D-C-Circuit-Court-of-Appeals-sends-a-warning-to-the-rest-of-the-judiciary-about-Trump?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/