Tonight in Your Rights: Curtains for Ed Martin?
Trump's Jan. 6-praising attack dog for top D.C. prosecutor loses GOP Senate support; SCOTUS lets down trans troops, but other judges deal blows to Trump's agenda.
Vindictive prosecutions. Discriminatory government agencies. A porous Constitution. Weakened social services.
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A North Carolina Republican senator delivered a potentially fatal blow to Donald Trump’s nominee for D.C.’s top federal prosecutor Tuesday, finding Ed Martin’s defense of and praise for U.S. Capitol rioters disqualifying for the job.
“We have to be very, very clear that what happened on January 6th was wrong,” Sen. Thom Tillis said. “It was not prompted or created by other people to put those people in trouble. They made a stupid decision, and they disgraced the United States by absolutely destroying the Capitol.”
The public response:
Martin’s down, but not officially out. That’s why callers have been dialing up their reps to keep him from that office.
Martin, who currently serves as the interim U.S. Attorney for D.C., compared the Jan. 6th attack to “Mardi Gras,” defended and fraternized with rioters, including Hitler-mustache sporting Nazi sympathizer Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, and habitually sends typo-filled missives threatening Trump’s perceived enemies.
Even though he’s had no prior prosecutorial experience, Trump wanted Martin to lead a district where every single judge saw and denounced the Jan. 6th insurrection. Martin has already demonstrated his lack of credibility with the District of D.C. bench: A federal judge rejected his application to freeze bank assets from an environmental group in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.
SCOTUS lets down trans troops
Today, the Supreme Court effectively allowed the Trump administration to purge transgender troops from the military — at least until the case returns to the justices on appeal.
All of the liberal justices rebuked the conservative supermajority’s 6-3 decision, which was unsigned and provided no rationale.
The advocacy group SPARTA Pride noted that transgender people have served in the military openly for roughly a decade, after former president Barack Obama dropped the Pentagon’s ban. Though their ranks are hard to pin down, estimates place their numbers at 15,500 armed service members.
SPARTA Pride lists resources for trans troops on their website.
SPARTA Pride writes:
“Every court up to now has found that this order is unconstitutional. Nevertheless, the Roberts Court – without hearing any evidence or argument – decided to allow it to go forward. So while the case continues to be argued, thousands of trans troops will be purged from the Armed Forces. They will lose their jobs. They will lose their commands, their promotions, their training, pay and benefits, and time. Their units will lose key players; the mission will be disrupted. This is the very definition of irreparable harm.”
At least three district judges blocked Trump’s executive order banning transgender military service as unconstitutional. The Supreme Court’s decision comes from a Washington state case, whose appeal is currently before the Ninth Circuit.
The Supreme Court order is only temporary until the case returns to the high court, but it leaves Trump’s Department of Defense free to implement the ban.
Rapid-Fire Losses for Trump
By the New York Times’ count, the Trump administration is at 140 federal court losses and counting in terms of rulings blocking its agenda.
It racked up some fresh ones today:
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in New York blocked Trump’s Alien Enemies Act proclamation, and so did U.S. District Judge Charlotte Sweeney in Colorado. The AEA is the statute that forms the entire legal basis for Trump trying to end-run due process to send immigrants to a “notoriously evil jail” in El Salvador, to quote Hellerstein.
Another federal judge in New York handed 20 Democratic state attorneys general a win in restoring their access to critical education funding from a $1 billion pool of grant money.
A federal judge in Massachusetts fast-tracked a trial in a lawsuit seeking to block Trump’s government from mass-scale retaliation against student activists.
When Hellerstein’s ruling first broke, I hopped on a Substack Live again for another insightful conversation with
of the . It’s an understatement to say that Harry, a former U.S. Attorney, knows his stuff, and so it’s been gratifying that this chat represents our third live-stream in a little more than two weeks.Later in the day, I had my debut live-stream with the mighty
, in a conversation with civil rights attorney and pro-democracy media movement builder . The Meidas team has built something truly extraordinary in independent media over the years. Ben is a smart, provocative and insightful commentator, who’s been truly supportive of my work over the years. I’m humbled by his kind introduction to our chat.If you missed that live-stream, you can watch it here, and I’ll post the video on All Rise News on Wednesday morning with my reflections on the conversation.
I am waiting to see if any pressure is put on Senator Tillis by President Trump. Thanks to him we have Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense. I wont believe Ed Martin is really out until he gets another position or another person is nominated for US Attorney. I have turned into such a cynic !