Clarence Thomas has struck again.
To his impressive list of recent supreme court victories – abolishing the right to an abortion, eradicating affirmative action, undermining federal regulations, and more – the ultraconservative justice can now add thwarting the criminal prosecution of Donald Trump for hoarding classified documents.
On Monday, Judge Aileen Cannon astonished the judicial world by dismissing the case. She did so based on a widely discredited legal argument that the special counsel who brought the prosecution, Jack Smith, had been improperly appointed.
The argument, initially aired by the former US president’s lawyers, had received scant support in judicial circles, given that stretching back a quarter of a century it has been repeatedly rejected by the courts. But there was one jurist who encouraged Cannon to pursue such contrarian thinking: Thomas.
The article title is too early to be correct though. There is a good chance this decision gets judge Cannon removed from the case. Clarence may have made it much worse for Trump.
Even this supreme court is not going to allow the case to be dismissed over the appointment of a special counsel. No other judges joined Thomas’s concurrence because it was clearly wrong. He might pick up Alito when the district sides with Smith on appeal and Trump sends it back to SCOTUS. But 2 to 7 doesn’t give them the majority.
Smith may (and should) ask to have her removed over this and previous obvious bias/errors which I believe the district judges would also approve at this point.
All that is correct. But it’s a good reminder that the point of Cannon’s move is not to finally resolve the case. It has always been to delay the case until after the election. At that point, Trump will appoint an AG that will kill the case on day one.
Cannon also has one more goal - auditioning for a new job. I’m not a gambler, but if Trump wins I’d put money that the first open Supreme Court seat is hers.