Phil Lewis: From my colleague Molly Redden: “Weeks before she struck down the federal mask mandate in spring 2022, U.S. District Judge Mizelle attended an all-expenses-paid retreat where a conservative group gave her a crash course in the niche legal theory propping up her opinion.”

From my colleague Molly Redden: “Weeks before she struck down the federal mask mandate in spring 2022, U.S. District Judge Mizelle attended an all-expenses-paid retreat where a conservative group gave her a crash course in the niche legal theory propping up her opinion.”

Trump Judges Went On A Luxury Trip — And It Doomed A Major Biden Policywww.huffpost.com The April 2022 ruling included an unusual legal theory — and new disclosures seen by HuffPost shed some light.

“Masks clean nothing”…?!?! Masks are a filter to clean the air from our lungs. They clean exhales. They clean inhales. JFC So many dead and maimed because some rich motherfuckers don’t believe the air itself can be dirty Which is also why we’re in climate catastrophe beginnings too FUCK

They know and pay for air filtration at their own events (Davos forum, etc).

Reminder: her husband served as the General Counsel for DHS during its "All Fascism" period under Trump. K. Mizelle got her judgeship as a thank you. These are not good people.

Pay for Play. Corrupt politicians. Corrupt judges. The new norm. The pot of calm decency is beginning to boil over.

So, as an academic we are told in our ethics training that this kind of thing is a firing offense. And we aren’t making decisions nearly as consequential. How did we let the legal system get so corrupted?

These are not judges. They're political operatives.

Hmm does anyone see a pattern?

Is it appropriate for judges to be making decisions based on arguments made at a “retreat” and not those argued by lawyers in open court? If not what is the remedy?

Impeachment.

Redacted

Yup. These folks need to become famous, at least

Jail the flicking Koch bros and tax them out of their ability to unmade the US

I’d respect these jerks more if they just said they consulted a Ouija board and the ghost of Antonin Scalia told them how to rule.

Sounds like she's auditioning to the be the next Clarence Thomas

What’s the downside for these people? Everyone is for sale because there’s no accountability.

This story treats the judicial retreats as though they're a new development, sponsored by a new organization. This practice is decades old. Only the name of the organizational sponsor has changed. The players and the funders are the same.

I'm pretty sure HuffPost's own archives contain stories they've reported on the practice. But yes, they do this for federal judges. And for Members of Congress. And for Congressional staff. The Mercatus Center. The Law & Economics Center. Etc., etc.

Here’s an ABC News report on the subject, apparently dated 23 years ago: abcnews.go.com/2020/story?i...

Judge Seminars: To Inform or Influence?abcnews.go.com

More Republican federal judge corruption, must be a day ending in y. A corrupt political party, who nominated a criminal and a rapist to be president, has corrupt federal judges. John Roberts will call up that judge and demand a cut of the bribe money.

I'm reliably informed by bespoke lefties that Biden is entirely to blame for abandoning all COVID regulations and throwing caution to the winds in a dark conspiracy to kill as many Americans as possible.

Thank you for reminding us who the real victim is here. President Joe Biden.

I thought judges were appointed so they could give their own law-educated opinions on matters. Silly me!

You might want to look up bad faith, such as responding to a person like it’s a conversation and then muting them before they reply

How is any of this legal?

It shouldn't be, ironically low level government workers literally can't even have a lunch paid for... but apparently if you're a judge you can get full paid trips and it's totally fine.

I worked for a large corporation, and we had really strict rules about gifts and entertaining, it is ridiculous that the people in the highest position and who make the laws get to do what they want with no consequences.

Yeah I work for a company, was on a project with the state, we literally could not pay for a team lunch when we met in person to literally just improve the teams/project dynamics. Nah each person on that team who wanted to go to lunch with us had to pay for themselves.

These judges though, all expenses paid trips... apparently no issue.

It was the same whenever we had contact with any government related people, i.e. HMRC (UK tax office).

Particularly JUDGES of all fucking people, who are literally supposed to be impartial, not partisan. Like the MOMENT a judge, ANY judge accepts any money, they should be removed and go straight to jail. Like it's a clear as fuck violation of any ethics. Not to mention the shit with clerkships.

bsky.app/profile/esqu...

This is 100% true and it's happening at Harvard. Brilliant gifted students can't get clerkships but FedSoc members have theirs locked up early. The whole clerkship process is rigged and it is corroding the profession. It's all about adherence to ideology not meritocracy.

It is truly a corrupted system, as when there is rot at the top the whole system is impacted. Just look at the decisions coming out of Texas courts (and some other States where the extremists can Judge shop), Cannon in Florida and SCOTUS.

Most liberals are not wearing masks anymore, so uh nice job agreeing with this logic guys

Agreeing with a conclusion isn't agreeing with the logic. That's, um, the first thing people learn in logic classes.

Nice job finding your own path towards pandemic denial, champ

Huh? Your logic fails are stacking up on each other now.

No, I cannot be bothered with a person who made two such glaring logic fails in only two posts. Buh-bye.

don't bother me in real life anti-mask dumbass 😷

📌

"All expenses paid"--whatever happened to avoiding the appearance of impropriety?

The wealthy pay people to do their homework… even the judges.

Classic "shooting yourself in your foot to own the libs" since a significant number of their voters died thanks to those policies.

The absolutely thorough rot of all Trump and Federalist Society "judges".

They’re playing chess. www.nytimes.com/2024/05/28/m...

The Untold Story of the Network That Took Down Roe v. Wadewww.nytimes.com A conservative Christian coalition’s plan to end the federal right to abortion began just days after Trump’s 2016 election.

They're playing Calvinball.

That fucking judge is 37 years old.

IDK, that sounds pretty fucking corrupt

And, Dem-appointed judges are "activist"🤨😬

Free vacations. Nice.

The corruption runs deep