In a move that should surprise absolutely no one, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals allows Judge “Ahab” Sullivan to have another go at General “Moby” Flynn
Predictable, considering the makeup of the court, and yet awful:
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, ruling en banc (full court), has ruled against Michael Flynn’s attempt to force District Court Judge Emmet Sullivan to grant the government’s motion to dismiss criminal charges.
In the Opinion (pdf.) the Court held, among other things, that it was premature to force Sullivan to rule a particular way…
Here, Petitioner and the Government have an adequate alternate means of relief with respect to both the Rule 48(a) motion and the appointment of amicus: the District Court could grant the motion, reject amicus’s arguments, and dismiss the case. At oral argument, the District Judge’s Attorney effectively represented that all these things may happen…
This was easily predictable because of the Democrat-appointed makeup of the court. It also represents – at least, in my quick appraisal, not having read the full document – a kind of kicking the can down the road, and a pretense that this entire episode has been business-as-usual.
It has not.
I’ve already felt so much outrage about this case that this ruling is more or less an anticlimax, in my opinion. But I don’t see the fight as over. It will be interesting to see what Judge Sullivan does next, now that the ball – I mean, the harpoon – is back in his court (boat).
[NOTE: And yes, I know that the Pequod was a ship and not a boat. But in the last chapter of Moby Dick, Captain Ahab was in a smaller boat, and it was from there that he launched his final harpoon.
I saw the movie “Moby Dick” in a movie theater on a large screen when I was a very young child, too young to understand much of anything about the movie except that it frightened me. I spent a significant amount of time there with my eyes closed, so I’m not sure whether I ever saw this scene – which doesn’t track precisely to the novel but is close enough. It’s special effects are still impressive considering it was made in 1956:
When I grew up I read Moby Dick many times. I understand it better now than I understood the movie all those years ago, but I can’t say I totally understand it. I think those who profess to do so are fooling themselves. At the heart of the book lies a mystery bigger than the whale, and it’s the mystery of life and the existence of good and evil, and the human heart.]
Do I understand this correctly? Judge Sullivan gets to be the prosecutor and then gets to judge his prosecution of Flynn?
Sullivan is obviously practicing judicial sadism.
I’d like to know a bit more about him. Who are his friends and allies ? Any connection to Barry or any of the Obama flunkies ? Any relationships with folks from the Holder/Lynch DOJ ? How about the Comey FBI ?
If only he could wind up like Ahab – i.e. beckoning to his fellow lefties to join him in the vasty deep.
This disgraceful ruling is the refutation of Chief Justice Roberts’ claim that judges are not political.
Presuming that President Trump wins reelection, and that Republicans keep control over the Senate and regain control over the House, I’m hoping that there will be a lot of very radical, Leftist judges–who have made outrageous, obviously politically and not legally based rulings–who will have impeachment actions started against them.
“…I can’t say I totally understand it. I think those who profess to do so are fooling themselves. At the heart of the book lies a mystery bigger than the whale, and it’s the mystery of life and the existence of good and evil, and the human heart.]”
I’d say you understand it quite well. I think that mystery is the point.
Not only one of the great first lines, but one of the greatest closing lines too. I’d say spoiler alert, but you’ve had over 100 years to read the book now, so the embargo on spoilers has ended (probably since 1890) –
“On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.”
The person who cuts my hair, who is thoroughly anti-Trump but not outspoken about it (at least around me), asked me what I think is a salient question. If Biden wins the election, will the lockdown be ended soon after he takes office?
What belies this question is a sense that the lockdowns are in large part politically motivated and enacted by Trump’s opponents, meant to make the public miserable and hence vote for “change” in the election.
The thing is I don’t know. I think it actually might be a winning strategy for Democrats to admit (without actually admitting) that they can end our misery if we vote them into office. They could say something like “only we understand the science that will convince your governors that you are safe from the virus” and “only we have the ability to talk to your local governments about getting law enforcement and federal troops involved to stop the protesting”. They can claim that they can instantly put a stop to everything, and also falsely claim that Trump just didn’t know how.
I don’t see any of this letting up if Trump were to win. In fact, I see things getting worse, with virtually every business in the country forced to close and mayhem in the streets of every city. If the Democrats would simply promise to make it all go away, part of me might be tempted to give them my vote.
At the same time, who really thinks that now that we are truly under their thumbs that they would ever let us free if they took total control? At least with Trump in there, he will be fighting to free us.
It seems that there is no end in sight except complete subjugation to and dependence on the state.
We HAVE to win in November.
farthings:
One potential problem with that message from Democrats is that Joe Biden is already on record saying he wouldn’t hesitate to institute another lockdown if there’s any sort of surge.
Neo,
Are you familiar with the Viva Frei channel on YouTube? If you aren’t give him a try. His fast-talking, rapid fire analyses and explanations are becoming some of my favorite viewing on Youtube.
He’s had a lot to say about Flynn/Sullivan and he’s not even an American attorney but a Canadian (Montreal).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XL7g1zG2RQg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xBEX9lM8yI
Both aren’t the most recent but I felt like they were quite good.
@Kate
Roberts is his own refutation.
“saying he wouldn’t hesitate to institute another lockdown”.
And, even if he hadn’t said that, I’d bet ranch that Dems would gin-up other excuses for lockdowns, or whatever.
@Patrick
“His soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.”
I’d always thought of this as my favorite ending… but you’ve changed my mind. Thank you for that! Strange that the ending of Moby Dick never stuck in my mind and the Fishmeal bit did. Probably read it too young and need to go back. As for Joyce, maybe an adolescent phase one passes through and then grows out of, eventually. Hopefully.
Joyce understood Women. This is very apparent in The Dead. Perhaps a few years before the mast would have made him truly great by teaching him about the World of Men. Or just the World.
Moby Dick is timeless. And sui generis.
In other news, Election Night 2020 is likely to wake the Ghost of Bulwer-Lytton. Won’t win any literary prizes, by may end up being sung of by wandering bards.
Ahab and the whale are apt comparisons.
I’d suggest Javert and Valjean are, too.
Biden tweet on “Does anyone believe there will be less violence in America if Donald Trump is reelected?”
I sure do, as antiFa/ BLM will own the streets if Biden wins.
Always had a soft spot for Javert though 😛
Perhaps due to the contrived calculated cartoonish cruelty of his digressive (hey, it beats transgressive) creator.
If our Creator digressed as much, the Big Bang would just be getting started about now.
“When I grew up I read Moby Dick many times.”
I’m impressed. I just read it the first time about a year ago. And while I’m glad that I finally did, I doubt that I’ll read it again.
And I’ve read “Les Miserables” in the original French. I’ve also read most of Dumas’ books on the Musketeers. The first is good. The second “Twenty Years After” is ok. For the third book, he got paid by the word, and it’s quite obvious. I’ve never managed to make it through that and onto “The Man in the Iron Mask”.
In the 1990s, the USA Network did a remake of Moby Dick. Since my wife had been an executive in cable TV we got invited to the local opening. At the party afterwards, I was thrilled to meet Captain Picard, er, Patrick Stewart who played Captain Ahab. Among the favors we got was a copy of the book and a Moby Dick hat. That hat still hangs near the front door right next to an Apollo 13 hat that says “Failure is Not an Option”. I’ve never thought about until now, but it’s a rather ironic juxtaposition, both missions being both a failure and a success.
I strongly recommend the comments at Legal Insurrection, especially those about the court giving a completely opposite decision recently to protect Hillary Clinton, but I’ll throw this one out for Kate:
objection | August 31, 2020 at 12:57 pm
You can be sure that Chief Justice John Roberts will use procedural legerdemain to avoid going anywhere near this. The bedrock of Roberts judicial principles is quicksand.
Background from June:
https://lawandcrime.com/awkward/doj-backed-writ-of-mandamus-in-michael-flynn-case-but-opposed-it-when-hillary-clintons-emails-were-involved/
Decision from two weeks ago:
https://reason.com/2020/08/14/hillary-clinton-gets-a-writ-of-mandamus-from-the-d-c-circuit/
Let’s cheer some good news from a court proceeding, where the judge declined to give a summary judgment in the paper’s favor:
https://legalinsurrection.com/2020/08/court-sarah-palin-libel-lawsuit-against-ny-times-to-go-to-trial/
She has a harder task than Nick Sandmann did, but maybe they can pool their winnings and buy a media outlet together.
Paul in Boston – meeting Patrick Stewart in view of his having played Captain Ahab! How amazing! I think of the importance of the archetype represented by Ahab as it was utilized by Stewart in Star Trek: First Contact – pray tell, did he have anything to say about that when you met him? Well, since that movie was fairly far in the future at the time when you did meet him, I suppose not; but indirectly, did he say anything to you that had any possible bearing on that later film role? I’m looking for anything that would illuminate his (or the scriptwriters’) use of the Moby Dick elements in First Contact (one of my favorite ST movies).
Dang it, I was too slow to include the link in my edit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVd-U1sAwvo . I rewatched the scene and got too absorbed in it.
PowerLine linked a good article, which quotes some of Judge Rao’s dissent.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/08/31/judge-can-move-forward-with-flynn-hearing-appeals-court-says-406066
Judges have every right to question a prosecutor dropping charges against Republicans, according to the Democrats, but no business challenging a prosecutor who want to nullify the law.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/08/250493.php
Paul Mirengoff takes a middle-of-the-road position: he hates what Sullivan is doing, but defends his legal right to do it.
https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2020/08/d-c-circuit-authorizes-judge-sullivan-to-hold-hearing-in-flynn-case.php
Mirengoff’s article makes sense of the decision as one based in law, not simply partisan politics. Still I think Sullivan will now try to run out the clock as he awaits the election of Biden who can have a new attorney general re-charge Flynn come Jan 20. I suspect he will continue to mull his charges against Flynn up to election day and drop them quickly if Trump wins.
neo on August 31, 2020 at 3:57 pm said:
farthings:
One potential problem with that message from Democrats is that Joe Biden is already on record saying he wouldn’t hesitate to institute another lockdown if there’s any sort of surge.
_______
But does that refer to a surge of the Yellow Death, or of the economy?
I loved Moby Dick from an early age. Once a local TV station (WOR, I think) ran the movie every day in midday, for a week, then several times on Saturday.
But it was really the book that got me. And I was especially captivated by the whaling/sailing bits. It was one of the things that created my lifelong fascination with everything nautical. Of course, growing up on the coast, and sailing from an early age helped, but I went farther than most. Churchill’s World Crisis later really nailed me to that. But I do think Melville was the first.
One thing that hit me by HS is that the only two of the New England writers of the era whom I had any use for (Melville and Hawthorne) were the two who took evil seriously. I couldn’t stand the Concord gang. And still can’t. (Ever notice that everything Emily Ridiculous wrote can be sung to “The Yellow Rose of Texas”?)
They really don’t want Flynn talking outside the gag/nda. Why? What have you Americans got to hide now in 2020?
Don’t underestimate the power of the Deep State or the Leftist alliance. You will regret it. Electing one guy, a Trump, to drain the swamp all by his lonesome… how naive can Americans be.
CovScam: Let me give a try at it.
Nursing home concentration camp: No, let me give it a go, I’ll show em.
JimNorCal on August 31, 2020 at 3:56 pm said:
We HAVE to win in November.
Don’t elect to have it wrapped up in November or December even.
This “election” is going to take longer than you realize. You are not going to win in Nov. Because you won’t be losing in Nov. People won’t know until later what happened.