Law, Power, and Justice

THURSDAY 21 MARCH 2024

NIGHT NEWS NOTES: The F…ing Supreme Court,

SUPREME COURT

• The law in question, S.B. 4, “empowers state courts to order the deportation of migrants who enter the state without authorization and gives local law enforcement the authority to arrest those who cross the southern border unlawfully” (NYT)
• In 2012, the Supreme Court ruled that, “…the state may not pursue policies that undermine federal law.”  Those words were written by Anthony M. Kennedy, who Trump forced off the Supreme Court.

Tracy, Abiggail (6/29/18) Donald Trump made Justice Kennedy an offer he couldn’t refuse.  Vanity Fair.

• Kennedy was one of the decisive swing votes on the Supreme Court.
• This was, however, the product of an “orchestrated 17-month campai by the Trump Administration to remake the Supreme Court….Trump systematically nominated three of Kennedy’s former clerks for plum judicial posts…he lavished praise on Kennedy….And he cultivated a relationship with Justice Kennedy’s son, Justin, who worked closely with the Trump Organization in his role at Deutsche Bank as the global head of real-estate capital markets…”
• “Ivanka Trump reportedly took Kennedy to lunch…and brought her daughter…to the Supreme Court to hear oral arguments as a special guest of Kennedy.”  This was shortly after Chuck Grassley had been imploring justices if they were retiring to go ahead.
• Gorsuch used to clerk for Kennedy.  Brett Kavanaugh and Raymond Kethledge also both clerked for Kennedy.

Borger, Julian (2/4/20)  “Book reveals Trump effort to persuade Justice Kennedy to step aside for Kavanaugh.”  The Guardian.

• Dark Towers: Deutsche Bank, Donald Trump and an Epic Trail of Destruction by David Enrich.
• Deutshe Bank became the last major financial institution willing to lend to Trump’s “repeatedly defaulting business empire.” (quote from article)
• Before Trump ran for office Kennedy’s son, Justin, worked for Deutsche.  The book details how he developed a relationship with the Trump family “helping to finance real-estate deals no other bank would touch because of Trump’s record of failing to pay his debts…” (The question is why?)
• Julian Kennedy “continued to land to Trump even though Deutsche clients had suffered severe losses when Trump’s casino business collapsed…”
• Deutsche Bank and the Trump connection was much discussed in the Mueller investigation in connection with the connection to Russia.  Both Deutsche Bank and Trump had relationships with Kremlin-linked Russian bank, VTB.  (Quote from the book: “Perhaps this was more than a coincidence.”)
• Enrich provides no direct evidence to confirm suspicions that funds supplied by Deutsche Bank to Trump “over two decades came from Russian sources.”  Deutsche executives deny such a relationship.
• (Article): “Rather, Enrich portrays the bank’s investments in Russia and in Trump as both being symptoms of a reckless investment culture and a pursuit of prestige, with insufficient checks from senior management and an outdated and fragmented computer data system.”