Legal AF by MeidasTouch - Supreme Court Makes FIRST MAJOR RULING on Trump ACTS

Episode Date: February 22, 2025

The first case about Trump’s abuse of power has reached the Supreme Court and it’s a loss for Trump, for now. michael popok explains why the Supreme Court kept the head of the office of special counsel in his chair until next week’s trial court hearing, and what the strong dissents by Gorsuch and Alito mean for future cases to limit Trump’s corrupt abuse of power. Dose: Save 30% on your first month of subscription by going to https://dosedaily.co/LEGALAF or entering LEGALAF at checkout. Visit https://meidasplus.com for more! Remember to subscribe to ALL the MeidasTouch Network Podcasts: MeidasTouch: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/meidastouch-podcast Legal AF: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/legal-af MissTrial: https://meidasnews.com/tag/miss-trial The PoliticsGirl Podcast: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-politicsgirl-podcast The Influence Continuum: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-influence-continuum-with-dr-steven-hassan Mea Culpa with Michael Cohen: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/mea-culpa-with-michael-cohen The Weekend Show: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/the-weekend-show Burn the Boats: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/burn-the-boats Majority 54: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/majority-54 Political Beatdown: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/political-beatdown On Democracy with FP Wellman: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/on-democracy-with-fpwellman Uncovered: https://www.meidastouch.com/tag/maga-uncovered Coalition of the Sane: https://meidasnews.com/tag/coalition-of-the-sane Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for total fund savings adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. The United States Supreme Court has just ruled against Donald Trump and his efforts to remove from office the head of the Office of Special Counsel, Hampton Dellinger. What does it mean? What did I glean from the five pages? What does it mean from the future that Justices Alito and Gorsuch both opposed Justice Roberts

in allowing Hampton Dellinger to remain as the head of the Office of Special Counsel for at least five more days until the trial judge holds her hearing. I'm Michael Popock, you're on the Midas Touch Network with Breaking News and Legal AF. Now, let me give you a little bit of an aside what this is about and then tell you

I know Hampton Dellinger relatively well. He was appointed by Biden, by President Biden, to serve out a five-year term. He just got the appointment a couple of months ago to be the head of the Office of Special Counsel. That's a special creature. It's not what it sounds like. It's not an office devoted to prosecution like Jack Smith's Special Counsel. It's a term of art being used for an organization that's responsible for things related to the enforcement of laws related to federal workers, an important position nonetheless. Hampton Dellinger is overly qualified for the position. If you ever wanted an ethical, stand-up, trustworthy fellow or woman to take that position, you want somebody that looks and acts exactly like

Hampton Dellinger. But Donald Trump doesn't want Hampton Dellinger. He doesn't want independent watchdogs. He doesn't want anybody serving out a five-year term on his watch. And so he fired him without cause. And the problem is by firing him without cause, he violated the due process rights of one Hampton Dellinger who ran in on an emergency injunction and obtained it a temporary restraining order from a federal court judge in the District of Columbia and then went up to the DC Appellate Court and in a two-to-one ruling they said we don't have jurisdiction over temporary restraining orders. The way it works in court, a little bit of a legal breakout session, is if you have a temporary restraining order, which is only in place

for a short amount of time, in this case it's only in place for about five days, you wait until there's a preliminary injunction at which time then the courts of appeal have jurisdiction. They generally don't have jurisdiction over temporary restraining orders. Now, they tried to bring this case, the Trump administration, by claiming that the Supreme Court has power under what is referred to as the All Writs Act, but that's very narrow an application. It doesn't apply to the facts of this case. First stop on the train is Chief Justice Roberts. Why? Not just because he's the chief of the Supreme Court, but because chief of the Supreme Court, but because he, anything, any appeal that comes out of the DC appellate courts goes firstly to Chief Justice Roberts on an emergency

application. He could have denied this on his own, but he decided, I guess, anything related to Trump, he's gonna throw it back to the entirety of the nine justices of the panel. And there were at least five justices who said, let's hold this matter in abeyance until the 26th of February when the trial court judge hears the entirety of the case and rules on their preliminary injunction, which is one step up in the injunction food chain. All right, that's where we are so far.

Hampton Dellinger takes the appeal or the Trump administration takes the appeal and the response from Hampton Dellinger is, I got five days to get to a preliminary injunction. I just want to stay in my job. Korsach and Alito don't like it. They believe in the unitary power of the president. Their comment, and I'll read you from aspects of it, their comment in their order was a president shouldn't be forced to work with somebody for even five days that they don't want to work for. Oh, here we go. What about due process? What about the fact that the statute says you can't fire the guy or the person unless there's a for cause, meaning he did something wrong. He's done nothing wrong other than he's the wrong party.

Now I know Hampton Dellinger reasonably well. I just happened to be wearing my Duke Law Polo shirt today. I played pickup basketball with Hampton Dellinger at Duke, not because he went to Duke. And talk about the intersection of law and politics. Hampton Dellinger is the product of the intersection of law and politics. Hampton Dellinger is the product of the intersection of law and politics. His mother, the late Ann Dellinger, was a Titan in the world of the

school of government at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. For those that are sports fans, you're not going to believe that there was a Duke professor and a UNC professor who lived together happily in Chapel Hill and gave birth to Hampton Dellinger. She's passed, but she was a Titan and a very nice person. We had a number of parties and picnics at her house when I was in law school. Walter Dellinger, the late Walter Dellinger, was not only my constitutional law professor

and taught me everything I need to know about con law at the time, but he was also the Solicitor General of the United States under Clinton. He was the head of the White House Counsel's Office. So Hampton Dellinger has this law and politics in his veins and in his blood. And he is unassailable in terms of character, in terms of the exact person that you would want. If you were being independent and fair minded, you'd want Hampton Dellinger on that wall. You need Hampton Dellinger on that wall, not to be removed. Now, let me read to you from the actual order, which we just got our hands on.

Although it is acknowledged, this is from Robert's writing for the court, although it is acknowledged that this court typically does not have appellate jurisdiction over temporary restraining orders, the government urges us, that's Trump, to construe the TRO as a preliminary injunction. In his opposition, Dellinger repeatedly notes that the TRO will expire by its own terms in eight, now five days and last only a very short duration. In light of the foregoing, this is the ruling of the court in Bessent versus Dellinger, Bessent being the office of the Secretary of the Treasury, which is where that office sits. In light of the foregoing,

the application to vacate the order of the United States District Court, the District of Columbia, the DC trial judge, TRO, presented to the Chief Justice and by him referred to the court is held in abeyance until February 26 when the TRO presented to the Chief Justice and by him referred to the court is held in abeyance until February 26th when the TRO is set to expire and then will consider it again here at the court. That wasn't good enough for Gorsuch and Alito. Gorsuch and Alito wrote that he was removed, that Dellinger was removed on February 7th, that Mr. Dellinger sought interim equitable relief, restoring him to his post while the

lawsuit unfolds, and that he obtained a temporary restraining order as a result. It says, they then go on to say, as a starting point, and here's on page three, as a starting point in that review, consider what we know about the remedy the district court ordered. The court effectively commanded the president and other executive branch officials, that would be the Treasury Department, to recognize and work with someone whom the president sought to remove from office. Whether labeled a TRO or a preliminary injunction, that order provided an equitable remedy. Then they go over the court's precedent stating back to a case from 1999 and what

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One dose for your liver shot is equivalent to 17 shots of turmeric juice. Dose is gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free, and vegan. Save 30% on your first month of subscription by going to DoseDaily.co. slash Legal AF or entering Legal AF at checkout. That's D-O-S-E-D-A-I-L-Y.CO slash Legal AF for 30% off your first month subscription. What they're arguing is that the president, regardless of what the statute says, regardless of the four cause requirement, regardless of the term of office, regardless of the independence,

that the president of the United States can fire anybody they want without a due process consideration. That is a scary world to occupy. Right now it's occupied by Gorsuch and Alito out loud in their dissent. I'm sure it'll be joined by Kavanaugh. We know that Katanji Brown Jackson and Kagan would vote against it, so that's two votes.

I'm not sure about Roberts. And then there's always Amy Coney Barrett, who's the swing vote on this court. Will she side with the democratically appointed wing of the Supreme Court or will she side with her right-wing brethren? Not this issue. That's why I wanted to bring this to your attention. It's not just about Donald Trump gets first loss in Supreme Court for now. We'll have to pick up with it again in five days. But what

does this mean in the language that they're using and the analysis that they're, and the way their mind is working for future cases? You've got the pro-president group who's all about unitary power in the hands of the president, who there's no such thing as any independent part of the executive branch, Department of Justice, FBI, any other agency, all reports up to the president. See, regardless of our traditions of separating some of these powers to stop a criminal president or a rogue president. And you see where their minds are at. Of course, Stitch and Kavanaugh worked in the office of the president in the White House for other presidents. This is how their mind works. Roberts too. I'll continue to follow it all right here on Midas Touch. The week that Midas Touch

became number one, not because of them, a little bit, but because of you. Because of the audience's commitment to our programming, to our independent voice, independent reporting, Legal AF as well. Right here on the Midas Touch Network, proud to be here contributing with you. We're building this network with our bare hands with you, completely independent. We're people powered here on Midas Touch. Let's continue to grow. Let's get the 5 million in the shortest amount of time ever

from Midas Touch while we grow Legal AF, the YouTube channel to 1 million. Shout out to Hampton Dellinger. Haven't spoken to you in a while. You had a mean layup and jump shot back in 1989 and 1990 at the bubble. He'll know what I'm talking about. At Duke Law School across from the parking lot, when you used to come over from North Carolina where you were taking classes. Appreciate you, followed your career closely, and I support you as does the Midas,

Mighty, and the Legal AFers. Until my next reporting, I'm Michael Popock. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro-democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legal AF MTN. That's at Legal AF MTN. Bet MGM is an official sports betting partner of the National Hockey League and has your back all season long.

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