Tag Archives: Bridgegate

Supreme Court Preview: October 2019 Term (Part IV) (EDIT — 10/5)

As noted in Part I, the Supreme Court has yet to issue the calendar for its January argument session.  However, for the first time in several years, the Supreme Court has ten cases left over after the December argument session; so there are enough cases already granted to fill the five days of argument in January 2020.  There is a chance that the Supreme Court might bump some of these cases to one of the later argument sessions, but — for each of these cases — it is more likely than not that they will be heard in January.

Among the cases set for argument, you have the following issues:  1) can the beneficiary of a pension plan seek relief for misconduct by the plan managers without first proving that they have suffered actual loss; 2) whether changes to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (governing when foreign governments can or can’t be sued in U.S. courts) are retroactive; and 3) whether federal employees claiming that the federal government discriminated against them due to age must — similar to private employees — prove that age was a “but for” cause of the adverse employment decision.

There are three potentially big cases for January.  First, there is Kelly vs. United States.  This is the “bridgegate” case from New Jersey.  The ultimate issue is whether a public official who uses false statements to create the pretense that their order to employees is legal is guilty of defrauding the government (by wasting public resources). Continue Reading...

Posted in Judicial | Also tagged , , , , , Comments Off on Supreme Court Preview: October 2019 Term (Part IV) (EDIT — 10/5)

Bridgegate — Who needs to be locked up?

For the past four months, Donald Trump has been leading chants of lock her up.  Who knew that the her was Chris Christie’s deputy chief of staff.  Earlier today, a federal jury found that Christie’s deputy chief of staff and his hand picked appointee to the New York Port Authority were found guilty of violating multiple federal laws in connecting with shutting down I-95 near Fort Lee, New Jersey.  Throughout the trial, the federal prosecutor’s laid out a convincing case that Chris Christie was aware of and approved of the decision to shut down I-95.  Of course, Chris Christie is also the person in charge of Donald Trump’s transition team if the country goes insane on Tuesday.  In what universe can anybody who knows anything about what is happening in this country think that Donald Trump — he of the multiple conflicts of interests who has never followed the rules in his life — and Chris Christie can be trusted to clean up corruption in government.  That’s putting the fox in charge of the hen house.

While it is probably too late to hope for one more piece of investigative journalism into the charade that is Donald Trump before the election, I can’t wait until some journalist after the election does a thorough analysis of Trump’s FEC reports.  Between designating Trump Organization employees to do work on campaign, assigning vacant Trump Organization office space to house the campaign, and holding multiple campaign events (doubling as free advertisement for the Trump Organization) at Trump Organization holdings, the FEC reports have shown and will continue to show a large amount of expenditures going to the Trump Organization.  How much (particular as a percentage of the amount that Trump “contributed” to his campaign) of the total campaign funds ended back in Trump’s pocket will be interesting to see.  Who knew that a business could make a profit running for president?

The shame with ninety-six hours or so left in the campaign is how much Trump’s blather and blatant falsehoods have sucked the air out of  the room for the issues that deserve serious debate.  “Repeal and replace” without any details about the replace is not a solution to what is wrong with out health care system.  Building a wall and deporting everyone is not a realistic plan for dealing with immigration.  Trickle down economics is not a program to reinvigorate the middle class.  Banning all Muslims is not a solution for terrorism.  This country deserved a real campaign.  Instead, we are focused on a person who is unfit to be President as a holding place for folks who are tired of gridlock in Washington but do not understand why (hint it’s the party of no) it exists.

Posted in Donald Trump, Elections, Rant | Also tagged , Comments Off on Bridgegate — Who needs to be locked up?