Jonathan Mitchell, the TX #lawyer, is representing #Trump on Thurs as he asks #SCOTUS to toss a ruling from #Colorado’s high court disqualifying TFG from returning to the White House because of his actions before & during the #Jan6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.
Jason Murray, the lead #attorney for the Colorado #voters behind the #lawsuit, is deeply familiar w/the #historical record in the case after handling part of the argument before the CO Supreme Court.
Murray’s Denver-based law firm, a small national #PublicInterest firm w/a bench of experienced fmr SCOTUS law clerks, opened just 6 mos ago. The firm filed the lawsuit on behalf of the #ColoradoVoters the next day.
In 2017, Murray wrote an opinion piece in support of #Trump’s nomination of #Gorsuch. He emphasized the similarities between his 2 fmr bosses despite their different #politics. “Both Gorsuch& #Kagan consistently emphasized to us #law clerks that, if we weren’t telling them when we thought their instincts on a case were wrong, we weren’t doing our jobs,”wrote Murray, a Harvard Law grad. “For both, the goal was to reach the correct #legal result, rather than advance any #political party’s agenda.”
…#Trump’s lawyer on Thurs will be Mitchell, who was a #law clerk to Justice #AntoninScalia, the late Supreme Court #conservative. Mitchell will be standing…before …(#SCOTUS) for the 6th time & is scheduled to make his 7th trip later this month for a #SecondAmendment case, challenging a #federal#ban on #BumpStocks (a #semiautomatic#gun stock for rapid ammo reloading — cuz apparently the #FarRight thinks that’s something people need outside of war zones).
Mitchell (#Trump’s atty) is perhaps best known as one of the architects of a novel #Texas#law that empowers private citizens (#vigilantes), rather than state officials, to enforce #abortion restrictions, by suing individuals who help #women obtain abortions after about 6 weeks into pregnancy. The law was specifically designed to evade pre-enforcement challenges in federal court (IOW to #EvadeTheLaw).
Mitchell, a UofC LawSchool grad & member of the #FederalistSociety, was a visiting prof at StanfordLaw when he suggested strategies in a #law review article for crafting legislation to withstand court challenges.
Legislature can “induce compliance w/its statutes by providing for private #enforcement through #civil lawsuits.These mechanisms are especially powerful because they enable private litigants to enforce a #statute even after a fed dist court has enjoined the executive from enforcing it.”
The controversial #law banned almost all #abortions starting at about 6 wks of pregnancy. #SCOTUS allowed it to take effect months before the justices overturned #Roe v. Wade, drawing a dissent at the time from the court’s 3 liberal justices & Chief Justice John Roberts, who described the statute’s enforcement plan as “not only unusual, but unprecedented”
A 3rd #lawyer, #Colorado Solicitor Gen Shannon Stevenson, will split time w/Murray, representing the office of CO Secy of State Jena Griswold.
Add comment