The Supreme Court, in a single sentence decision without any noted dissents, denied Trump’s request to vacate an 11th Circuit ruling that reversed one part of the District Court Order appointing a Special Master. That part of the District Court order prohibited the feds from continuing to use the documents marked “classified” that were seized during the Mar-a-Lago Raid pending review by the Special Master.
The rest of the Order appointing the Special Master remains in place pending a separate appeal by the feds to the 11th Circuit. The 11th Circuit ruling had gone out of its way to point out it was limited and did not involve the ultimate merits. From the 11th Circuit Opinion (emphasis added):
Following the execution of a search warrant at the residence of Plaintiff-Appellee, former President Donald J. Trump, Plaintiff moved for the appointment of a special master to review the documents that Defendant-Appellant United States of America seized. The district court granted that motion in substantial part. Now, the United States moves for a partial stay of the district court’s order as it relates to the roughly one-hundred documents bearing classification markings. We decide only the narrow question presented: whether the United States has established that it is entitled to a stay of the district court’s order, to the extent that it (1) requires the government to submit for the special master’s review the documents with classification markings and (2) enjoins the United States from using that subset of documents in a criminal investigation. We conclude that it has.We stress the limited nature of our review: this matter comes to us on a motion for a partial stay pending appeal. We cannot (and do not) decide the merits of this case. We decide only the traditional equitable considerations, including whether the United States has shown a substantial likelihood of prevailing on the merits, the harm each party might suffer from a stay, and where the public interest lies.For the reasons we explain below, we grant the United States’s motion for a partial stay pending appeal.
We covered the application in Trump Files Emergency Supreme Court Application To Vacate 11th Circuit Order On Documents Marked Classified.
The SCOTUS Order provided:
The application to vacate the stay entered by the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on September 21, 2022, presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied.
This was the most likely outcome all along. It’s a tall burden to get a SCOTUS stay, particularly on what amounts to a procedural issue being handled by the lower courts.
Nonetheless, the NY Times sub-headlined it’s report that it was a “stinging rebuke” to Trump:
Without comment or any noted dissents, the court issued a one-sentence statement that amounted to a stinging rebuke to the former president.
Does this mean SCOTUS is legitimate again?
#TheResistance Twitter Lawyers have decided to call a one-day ceasefire:
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