It's A Small, Small, Small World -- Why I Love To Blog -- Reason #36 -- June 25, 2020

This was sent to me on June 23, 2020. I did not post it. The article: appeals court hands President Trump another win. Appeals court says Trump administration can move forward with expanding fast-track deportations. 

Link here.

The decision was recorded as a 2 - 1 decision but in fact it was unanimous. Trust me. From the article:

In the 2-1 ruling, the majority wrote that a group of nonprofits had legal standing to bring the lawsuit but that immigration law granting broad authority to DHS makes their case unlikely to succeed.  

"There could hardly be a more definitive expression of congressional intent to leave the decision about the scope of expedited removal, within statutory bounds, to the Secretary’s independent judgment," Judge Patricia Millett wrote in the majority decision. 

Millett, an Obama appointee, and Judge Harry Edwards, a Carter appointee, were in the panel's majority. Judge Neomi Rao, appointed by President Trump, dissented, arguing the lawsuit should have been thrown out altogether. 

Let's repeat that in case you missed it the first time:

Millett, an Obama appointee, and Judge Harry Edwards, a Carter appointee, were in the panel's majority. Judge Neomi Rao, appointed by President Trump, dissented, arguing the lawsuit should have been thrown out altogether.

So that was that. Filed. Forgotten.

Until a reader spotted this. From the Washington Examiner the very next day: appeals court orders judge to grant motion to dismiss Flynn case.

Now what appeals court judge was that?

Yes, you are getting ahead of me. It was Judge Neomi Rao.

The two Republican appointees agreed that Sullivan should be ordered to dismiss the case, and the Democratic appointee dissented. Judge Neomi Rao, who was appointed by Trump in 2019, authored the appeals court opinion telling the lower court to dismiss the case and was joined by Judge Karen Henderson, appointed to the appeals court in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush.

By the way, I posted this earlier this morning:

US Senate confirms Trump's 200th judge; officially fills all appeals court vacancies;

I've been told that as much press as the US Supreme Court gets, it's really the appellate courts that have "all the power." That would be very, very true.  The US Supreme Court is very, very particular in which cases it will hear, and even if SCOTUS wanted to take on more cases, it simply could not due to the calendar and reality.

And appellate judges? Confirmed by the US Senate.

From The Hill, March, 2018:

President Trump mockingly thanked his predecessor former President Obama for leaving so many judicial posts vacant despite a Republican-controlled Senate slowing down confirmations during the last two years of the Obama administration.

“When I got in, we had over 100 federal judges that weren’t appointed,” Trump said during a speech in Ohio on Thursday. “I don’t know why Obama left that. It was like a big, beautiful present to all of us."