Archive for 2024

TAKING SIDES AGAINST CIVILIZATION:

IT’S TOTALLY NORMAL FOR SENIOR OFFICIALS TO DISAPPEAR FOR DAYS: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s Hospitalization Saga Just Got Worse. “Is anyone else in the presidential line of succession in the hospital? If there were, we would never know. Who is talking to whom in this administration, and why is it that the easy, most simple things are disregarded or outright ignored?”

OPEN THREAD: It’s Saturday night.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY: SecDef Hospitalized; Press Protests Lack Of Info To Public. “The Pentagon Press Association (which represents the press corp at the Pentagon) went on to say in it’s letter protesting the lack of information: ‘At a time when there are growing threats to U.S. military service members in the Middle East and the U.S. is playing key national security roles in the wars in Israel and Ukraine, it is particularly critical for the American public to be informed about the health status and decision-making ability of its top defense leader.'”

Related: A Pentagon mystery: Why was Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s hospital stay kept secret for days?

UPDATE: Ouch. But our ruling class sees China as a role model, so . . .

ANOTHER UPDATE: Hospitalized Pentagon Chief Was in Intensive Care Unit. (Bumped).

SETH BARRETT TILLMAN, JUDGE CARPENTER ON TWITTER:

Judge Carpenter says that “officer of the U.S.” is “repeatedly” used in Mississippi v. Johnson, 71 U.S. 475 (1866). That’s a canonical or lead case. If you went to law school, it was probably assigned in Introduction to Constitutional Law or Introduction to Federal Courts. Still, I have written on this issue since 2008—Did I really miss this? And it is not just me—many others have written (or recently begun to write on this issue)—Did they all miss this too? So I looked it up. That phrase—“officer of the United States”—appears exactly one time in the report for the case. It does not appear “repeatedly.” Hyperbole is, at best, a legitimate tool for lawyers. For judges, I think it is less than appropriate.

More importantly, the phrase “officer of the United States,” although it appears in the case’s report, it is not part of the opinion of the Court. And, it is not part of any concurrence. It is not even part of a dissenting opinion. Actually, Judge Carpenter is quoting from an editor’s headnote reproducing a lawyer’s argument. So, the Supreme Court never used the phrase “officer of the United States” in Mississippi v. Johnson. Not even once.

Not very judicious.

Related: A New, Rushed, Flawed Article In The Section 3 Debate: Scholars and lawyers should exercise caution before citing a new paper by James Heilpern and Michael T. Worley.

EVERYTHING IS GOING SWIMMINGLY:

UPDATE: Heh. Indeed.

MOVE ALONG, NOTHING TO SEE HERE, CITIZENS: Obama, worried about Trump, urges Biden circle to bolster campaign.

Former president Barack Obama has raised questions about the structure of President Biden’s reelection campaign, discussing the matter directly with Biden and telling the president’s aides and allies the campaign needs to be empowered to make decisions without clearing them with the White House, according to three people familiar with the conversations.

We know it’s not Biden, but this is yet another reminder of who is behind the scenes in the (P)resident’s administration, pulling the strings, “serving as a third-term president in all but name.”