The Supreme Court s Shortcut to Stop Trump – WSJ

Judge Ho specifically references a Tuesday Journal op-ed from former federal district judge and now University of Utah law professor Paul Cassell, who wrote:

The Supreme Court held last week that the government needs to provide more notice to alleged alien enemies before deporting them. The 7-2 ruling& wasn t itself a surprise; the court had already signaled skepticism of the president s use of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. But in the unsigned opinion, the justices did an injustice to James Wesley Hendrix, the presiding judge in Lubbock, Texas.

The high court accused Judge Hendrix of inaction of failing to act quickly enough and thereby denying the aliens due process. In dissent, Justice Samuel Alito (joined by Justice Clarence Thomas) said this accusation was unfair and that we should commend the judge s careful approach. The dissenters are right. Judge Hendrix s service was exemplary. The majority was wrong to malign this judge and sent a disturbing message about procedural norms.

That s for sure. Mr. Cassell reviewed the sequence of events:

At 12:34 a.m. on April 18 Good Friday the ACLU submitted an emergency motion for a temporary restraining order. The motion included no deadline by which a ruling was needed.

According to the Supreme Court, Judge Hendrix s timeline to address the motion began 34 minutes after midnight. That s unreasonable. Judge Hendrix had no idea when or if an emergency motion would be filed. Was he expected to wait up all night to check if any motions came across the docket?

We can safely assume that Judge Hendrix didn t see the emergency motion until his workday began on Friday. He later wrote that he was working with utmost diligence to resolve these important and complicated issues as quickly as possible and planned to rule by noon Saturday after receiving a government response. But he didn t have a chance. At 12:48 p.m. on Friday, the ACLU demanded an emergency status conference and said if the court didn t rule by 1:30 p.m., it would seek emergency relief from the Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Judge Hendrix was unable to resolve these complex issues in 42 minutes. No judge could have thoughtfully done so.

Now Judge Ho states:

We seem to have forgotten that this is a district court not a Denny s. This is the first time I ve ever heard anyone suggest that district judges have a duty to check their dockets at all hours of the night, just in case a party decides to file a motion.

If this is going to become the norm, then we should say so: District judges are hereby expected to be available 24 hours a day and the Judicial Conference of the United States and the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts should secure from Congress the resources and staffing necessary to ensure 24-hour operations in every district court across the country.

via www.wsj.com

Paul Cassell (who would be my pick for the next SCOTUS slot available, but I’m prejudiced) points out very clearly the deception involved in the Supremes’ slap down of a Texas federal judge in a big Alien Enemies Act case.

I’m getting a bad feeling about this court but I always get bad feelings about courts.