Beyond the Federalist Society's handpicked Republican Supreme Court majority, the broader Federal justice system is skewed in just enough District Courts and Courts of Appeals by obstructionist, reactionary Republican appointees to cause chaos. Three examples pop up this morning:
Vaccine mandate
Challenges to President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate for private employers will be consolidated in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, a panel dominated by judges appointed by Republicans.
The Cincinnati-based court was selected Tuesday in a random drawing using ping-pong balls, a process employed when challenges to certain federal agency actions are filed in multiple courts.
The selection could be good news for those challenging the administration’s vaccine requirement, which includes officials in 27 Republican-led states, employers and several conservative and business organizations. They argue the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration does not have the authority to impose the mandate.
Tax cut rule in American Rescue Plan Act
A federal judge has blocked the U.S. Treasury from enforcing a provision of the American Rescue Plan Act that prohibited states from using the pandemic relief funds to offset new tax cuts.
U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler [George W. Bush appointee] ruled Monday in Alabama that Congress exceeded its power in putting the so-called tax mandate on states. He entered a final judgement in favor of 13 states that had filed a lawsuit and instructed the Treasury Department not to enforce the provision. The judge left the rest of the law in place.
The American Rescue Plan steered $195 billion in flexible relief funds to states but specified that states could not use it as a means to cut taxes by using the federal relief dollars to offset the revenue reduction.
The judge described the tax-cut restrictions as “a federal invasion of State sovereignty" that was “unconstitutionally ambiguous" — leaving states guessing as to whether their tax cuts would trigger a repayment of federal funds.
Trump's tax returns
During a hearing in a long-running lawsuit from the House Ways and Means Committee, U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden appeared concerned about the prospect of allowing the panel to obtain Trump's personal records.
During one exchange, he questioned the Biden administration's Justice Department lawyer over the agency's reversal in the case.
"If Congress changes hands in a couple years here and a Republican chairman of the Ways and Means Committee asks for Hunter Biden's tax returns, are we just going to say, 'Oh, sure. You know, we've got to defer to Congress. They've said they're interested in legislating on presidential families, therefore we've got to turn them over'? Is that going to be the administration's position?" McFadden said.
The judge indicated that he is also grappling with comments made by the committee's chairman, Rep. Richard Neal (Mass.), and other Democrats about seeking the tax returns that suggest "there's something else going on" other than a valid legislative purpose.
It's unclear how McFadden, a Trump appointee, might rule in the case or whether he believes Democrats' various political comments about the tax returns would outweigh any valid purpose for the request.
This is the culmination of a generation of right- wing focus on the courts as a final bulwark against majoritarian democratic government.
(Illustration: Daily Beast/ Getty)
