All of a sudden, the Department of Justice doesn’t want to do its job.
More accurately, the DOJ wants to use the ongoing government shutdown to shut down court proceedings, claiming that they can’t possibly work during the furlough for… reasons. But judges aren’t buying it.
First, the DOJ tried to get Judge Amit Mehta to agree to postpone a final hearing in the government’s antitrust case against Google. Their motion in the Google case cited the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits the government from accepting voluntary services or expending funds without an appropriation “except for emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.”
Nah, said the federal judge, pointing out that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said no in a similar case in 2019 when President Donald Trump shut the government down back then.
And it’s not about being tough on Trump in particular or anything like that. A concurrence in that 2019 case noted that when the government shut down during Obama’s second term in 2013, the government made motions to stay oral arguments in at least 16 cases, all of which were denied.
Related | Trump team brags about forcing law firms to ‘bend the knee’
Mehta also pointed out that the DOJ’s own contingency plan for the shutdown says that most of the department’s employees aren’t subject to furlough because “a significant portion of the Department’s mission relates to the safety of human life and the protection of property, and primarily for this reason, the Department has a high percentage of activities and employees that are excepted from the Antideficiency Act .”
Watching the administration suddenly pretend to be concerned about the Antideficiency Act is cute, given that it is having the big law firms that bent the knee to Trump perform free legal work for the government, which actually does violate the Act’s prohibition on accepting voluntary services.
The administration tried the same argument in Washington, D.C.’s suit against the administration. Yes, the administration’s contention is that there’s no issue, appropriations-wise, with the costly efforts of keeping D.C. under Trump’s thumb, but having to go to court about it is a bridge too far, so the case should be stayed and the 2,300 troops currently in D.C. must stick around until the shutdown is done.
That didn’t work out for the DOJ so well, though they did manage to land a short extension on their briefing schedule.
The Trump administration is also trying to get a stay in wrongfully deported immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case, making the same loser argument they brought in the Google and D.C. cases.
The DOJ pretending to be just a widdle guy during the shutdown is also ridiculous because the agency, overall, only furloughed 11% of its workers. Now, agencies that conservatives hate, like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Departments of Labor and Education, all had over 75% of their employees slated for furlough.
It’s also fun to watch the administration pretend they suddenly care about violations of appropriations laws. Trump has illegally impounded funds because why not? He’s blocked at least $400 billion in spending and shows no sign of stopping.
The administration kept most DOJ employees on the rolls because that agency is critical to Trump’s retaliation jamboree and use of lawfare. If the DOJ was shuttered, who would help gin up criminal charges against Trump’s enemies?
However, protecting so many employees from furlough seems to have backfired for the DOJ. They didn’t furlough most of their employees, but then turned around and whined to the courts that the furloughs made it impossible to continue handling cases. That’s patently ridiculous, and it’s good that judges are calling it out.
Trump and his minions want to make the most of the shutdown they induced. He and his closest advisers have used it to threaten mass layoffs and to justify canceling $8 billion of green energy, with the latter only happening in Democratic states.
They seem to have counted on being able to use the shutdown to grind cases to a halt, but those pesky lower court judges just won’t let them. So just go to court and do your job.
All of a sudden, the Department of Justice doesn’t want to do its job.
More accurately, the DOJ wants to use the ongoing government shutdown to shut down court proceedings, claiming that they can’t possibly work during the furlough for… reasons. But judges aren’t buying it.
First, the DOJ tried to get Judge Amit Mehta to agree to postpone a final hearing in the government’s antitrust case against Google. Their motion in the Google case cited the Antideficiency Act, which prohibits the government from accepting voluntary services or expending funds without an appropriation “except for emergencies involving the safety of human life or the protection of property.”
Nah, said the federal judge, pointing out that the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals said no in a similar case in 2019 when President Donald Trump shut the government down back then.
And it’s not about being tough on Trump in particular or anything like that. A concurrence in that 2019 case noted that when the government shut down during Obama’s second term in 2013, the government made motions to stay oral arguments in at least 16 cases, all of which were denied.
Related | Trump team brags about forcing law firms to ‘bend the knee’
Mehta also pointed out that the DOJ’s own contingency plan for the shutdown says that most of the department’s employees aren’t subject to furlough because “a significant portion of the Department’s mission relates to the safety of human life and the protection of property, and primarily for this reason, the Department has a high percentage of activities and employees that are excepted from the Antideficiency Act .”
Watching the administration suddenly pretend to be concerned about the Antideficiency Act is cute, given that it is having the big law firms that bent the knee to Trump perform free legal work for the government, which actually does violate the Act’s prohibition on accepting voluntary services.
The administration tried the same argument in Washington, D.C.’s suit against the administration. Yes, the administration’s contention is that there’s no issue, appropriations-wise, with the costly efforts of keeping D.C. under Trump’s thumb, but having to go to court about it is a bridge too far, so the case should be stayed and the 2,300 troops currently in D.C. must stick around until the shutdown is done.
That didn’t work out for the DOJ so well, though they did manage to land a short extension on their briefing schedule.
The Trump administration is also trying to get a stay in wrongfully deported immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case, making the same loser argument they brought in the Google and D.C. cases.
The DOJ pretending to be just a widdle guy during the shutdown is also ridiculous because the agency, overall, only furloughed 11% of its workers. Now, agencies that conservatives hate, like the Environmental Protection Agency and the Departments of Labor and Education, all had over 75% of their employees slated for furlough.
It’s also fun to watch the administration pretend they suddenly care about violations of appropriations laws. Trump has illegally impounded funds because why not? He’s blocked at least $400 billion in spending and shows no sign of stopping.
The administration kept most DOJ employees on the rolls because that agency is critical to Trump’s retaliation jamboree and use of lawfare. If the DOJ was shuttered, who would help gin up criminal charges against Trump’s enemies?
However, protecting so many employees from furlough seems to have backfired for the DOJ. They didn’t furlough most of their employees, but then turned around and whined to the courts that the furloughs made it impossible to continue handling cases. That’s patently ridiculous, and it’s good that judges are calling it out.
Trump and his minions want to make the most of the shutdown they induced. He and his closest advisers have used it to threaten mass layoffs and to justify canceling $8 billion of green energy, with the latter only happening in Democratic states.
They seem to have counted on being able to use the shutdown to grind cases to a halt, but those pesky lower court judges just won’t let them. So just go to court and do your job.
