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It's time for Judge Chutkan to weigh in about Elon Musk and Doge with a rare holiday hearing. I'm covering right here on the Midas Touch Network and legal layoff on Michael Popak. Judge Chutkan, you may recall, was the judge presiding over all things Donald Trump criminal case and election interference. Now she's back because she's one of dozens of judges in the D.C. courts, D.C. federal courts that are now responsible for about half of the lawsuits that have been filed. More than 770 lawsuits have been filed against Donald Trump's worst instincts and his administration and his executive orders, many of them about Elon Musk and Doge. What is Doge? It was the website master for the United States. But in the hands of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, it's an unconstitutional assault on our federal agencies and federal funding. States are joining together. This time we've got a hearing with involving 13 different states who have brought a case against Elon Musk and Donald Trump to stop them from dismantling federal agencies, all the federal agencies that you can think of in particular, particularly the ones related to labor, education, health and human services, energy and transportation. Now, Judge Chutkan was a bit skeptical on Friday, not about the merits of the case, and I'm going to tell you about the hearing that happened today, but she was a bit skeptical about one aspect of when you're entitled to the extraordinary relief of an injunction. Many of the things we talk about now on Legal Ayath have to do with some sort of what we call equitable relief that you're asking a federal judge for, generally in the form of a temporary restraining order or a preliminary injunction. Judges also sit in in law in which they award money or they make declarations or they make findings. But when they're asked to enjoin or stop something, you as the moving party, we call that party, the movement, have to satisfy four criteria. And the one that's hanging up Judge Chutkin right now and Judge Reyes, a neighboring judge next door who's wondering whether she has the power to enjoin something related to the inspectors general who all fired all comes down to the same thing. I've been doing this for 35 years. And federal judges do not have the power or jurisdiction to issue injunctions unless the party that's asked for the injunction will be irreparably harmed by the fact that the that the conduct is not being stopped. Irreparable harm is something where judges sort of know it when they see it. It's something that can't be compensated by money damages. You can't unscramble the egg or put the toothpast, the tube. It's irreparable in that way. He they can't fix it at a later time if it has if it isn't stopped now. Dolphin goes hand in glove with another concept that's called adequate remedy at law that they don't have. The party moving for the injunction doesn't have an adequate remedy at law. They can't be compensated with money. It doesn't help them. People will die, bad things will happen, planes will fall out of the sky. You know, that type of thing. And judges are very because they have limited jurisdiction, federal judges in particular, they're very circumspect when parties come into their into their chambers or into their courtroom where they require hearings and about irreparable harm. And so you're going to hear a lot on legal layout. This is sort of a little bit of a TED Talk law school breakout session here on this particular hot take. And the reason the judge is concerned is because the attorneys general before her, starting on Friday and now on this President's Day, the ones for the attorneys general led by New Mexico, really couldn't answer the question for her, what is the harm that you that will happen over the next 72 hours until Monday, because they asked her to enjoin or stop or block Elon Musk from Donald Trump from cutting funding and putting these agencies out of business over the weekend. And they really, for some reason, couldn't articulate a harm that couldn't be fixed on Monday morning. And that sort of set us off on the wrong foot with the judge. Now, look, the judge, the judge is likely to find ultimately that Elon Musk has unconstitutionally taken, taken the reins of power that violate the Constitution's appointment clause because he wasn't properly appointed to that position nor confirmed by the Senate. Now, the Trump administration tries to wallpaper that over by saying, well, no, he's just an advisor, he's advisory. Nobody believes that, by the way. And he's not independently acting. So for the judge, she's going to ultimately have to find, and I think she will at a later time, that Elon Musk is doing unconstitutional abuse of power things. But for right now, the issue, the sort of the academic issue is whether there is irreparable harm if she, if she doesn't stop it now, she's going to hold a preliminary injunction hearing, which is the next level up from a TRO which is what the hearing on Monday was about in the next 14 days. The question is for her, does she have to stop Elon Musk from doing stuff right now, or can we just get to the preliminary injunction hearing? Not every preliminary injunction, which will last until the end of the case, is preceded by a temporary restraining order. Many are, I would say in 80% of my cases where I've gotten a TRO, where I've sought a preliminary injunction, I've gotten a TRO in advance, a temporary restraining order, but not every case. And the judge is basically saying, not that I don't believe that I'm going to give you the injunction. The question is whether I'm going to give you a preliminary injunction in two weeks or I'm going to give you an early injunction. We call a temporary restraining order now. And so the things that were held up, that's holding up the process now, this academic discussion and debate between the judge and the lawyers about irreparable harm sort of falls by the wayside in about two weeks because she can still find irreparable harm moving forward on a full briefing, on a full record, if she's not finding it now. And it doesn't mean because she didn't grant the tro, that she's also unlikely to grant the preliminary injunction. In fact, quite the opposite. I think she's going to grant the preliminary injunction in two weeks. She's just going to let them do whatever they're going to do in the meantime, which also strengthens the hand of the 14 or so Attorney generals because they'll be able to document the damage over the next 14 days. And I think that's what she's trying to do. If I were a betting man or guessing, I think Judge Chutkan is trying to help the move ins here, the attorneys general, by giving them the ability to develop a better record by watching closely what happens the next 14 days and bringing that evidence to her attention.
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So that's sort of a breakout course there about temporary restraining orders and preliminary injunctions. Today's hearing though, was no walk in the park or a picnic for the Department of Justice now under Donald Trump and Pam Bondi. In fact, she found them to be incredulous and incredible and unbelievable and not and lacking credibility. During most of their arguments, for instance, they actually said out loud, this doesn't even pass the straight face test. They actually said out loud in court in response to a question from Judge Chutkin about the power of Elon Musk, which we all see. He's claiming that he got rid of US aid and its $60 billion and its thousands of employees, which happened. He got rid of, you know, 20%, sorry, 10% or more of the federal workforce. These are all coming out of Elon Musk. But when the Department of Justice lawyer was asked by Chutkan about it, that lawyer said there's no evidence that Musk has any formal or actual authority over government action actions. What even the judge Says, I think you've stretched too far there. And what, what we have a concept in the law about actual authority and then sort of de facto or apparent authority he may not have on the, on a. Listed as part of his, his powers or his remit because he was improperly appointed. Being being part of the Doge Services which used to be the webmaster, he doesn't have that power actually or formally. I agree with you Department of Justice personnel. But he has a parent or de facto authority and he's wielding it and he's using it. I mean, even the lawyer for the attorneys general said the following about Musk, quote, he has transformed a minor position that was formally responsible for managing government websites into a designated agent of chaos without limitation and in violation of the separation of powers. Right. He's supposed to be the webmaster of America, you know, and instead he is this, this one man wrecking crew of all of things that you and I hold dear. So that was the first area where Chutkan was like, yeah, I'm not buying that. She then asked the point by, I mean, you come into court, you better be prepared to answer not even hard questions. The questions get harder from here. Here's the fundamental question that Chuck can ask the Department of Justice under Bondi and Trump. Isn't it a fact that thousands of federal workers were fired over the last few days, including by Elon Musk? To which the lawyer responded, I have not been able to independently confirm that. She said, I'm sorry, you come into my. It's not, it's not a small thing. Thousands of employees to be fired and you can't figure out whether it happened or not. See, this is what I've said from the very beginning, at the start of these 70 cases, that the Department of Justice lacks credibility in a way that it never had before under Biden or other, even under Republican presidents. And now federal judges, including the ones in the moderate to liberal states, are not buying anything that the Department of Justice is selling under Trump. Not believing it, putting their feet to the fire, challenging them at every cause because they don't have any credibility. When I was a lawyer in courtrooms around the country, when I made an argument or make an argument in front of a judge, I have enough credibility that the judge knows that I'm not going to mislead them. I'm not going to tell them the law stands for a proposition that it doesn't stand for, not going to lie to them about the facts of the law. And as a benefit, I get a little bit of credibility related to that. However, here, there's no credibility at the start of any argument by a DOJ employee for Donald Trump because they take outlandish, unreasonable positions that are inconsistent with the law, the Constitution and facts. And judges are saying, yeah, I don't buy you. I don't believe you. And so that's where we're, that's where we are right now. Now, what's going to happen is in the next 24 hours, we're going to get the actual ruling from Tanya Chutkin, the judge. But let me just give you spoiler alert. Let me tell you what I think is going to happen based on her being, you know, scrunching up her nose a bit about the irreparable harm between now and 14 days from now. She didn't really find irreparable harm from Friday to Monday. I don't think she's going to find it from here to 14 days. Again, it doesn't mean she's not going to ultimately grant the preliminary injunction. It just means she doesn't need to grant a temporary restraining order in advance. And again, federal judges don't like to waste their power. They have limited jurisdictional power. And, and if there's no irreparable harm right now, as she said out loud, I can't do a prophylactic temporary restraining order. What is the harm ongoing in the future that I need to prevent? They're not articulating it properly. I think that group has to regroup the group of 14, Attorney General come back to her in 14 days on full briefing and take another shot at irreparable harm. And I think they'll win that at that time. So I think we're going to see a denial of the temporary restraining order by Judge Chutkan. But not all hope is lost. In fact, quite the opposite. I think in 14 days after full briefing, she will grant the preliminary injunction, block Elon Musk and Doge from continuing to run a wrecking ball and have access to information in all those departments that I mentioned at the top of the hot take. Right. And that'll be the case until the end of a trial. We'll continue to follow it right here on the Midas Dutch network and on Legal af. You know where you can follow me? I'm Michael Popak right here on the Midas touch network about four or five times a day. Then a new channel, Legal AF of the YouTube channel Legal AF MTN. 4 million subscribers on the Midas Dutch network. Come on the ground floor and help us build 4 million over on legal AF in collaboration with Midas Dutch. We're at a half a million and we've only been up and running about five months. So get in on the ground floor, hit the subscribe button, tell your friends and family and others in your life and we're growing this whole thing organically. Right on. A dollar and a prayer, A dollar and a dream is how we're growing this. I really appreciate you being here. I got a brand new podcast Tuesday nights, tomorrow night, Tuesday nights at 8pm Eastern Time. Popoc Live. You guessed it, it's me. Unbridled, unfiltered, sometimes unhinged. 8pm right here on Midas Touch and Legal AF. So until my next reporting, I'm Michael.
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Popock in collaboration with the Midas Touch Network.
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We just Launched the legal AF YouTube.
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US Build this Pro Democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories the intersection of law and Politics.
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Go to YouTube now and free. Subscribe eagleafmtn that's egalafmtn.
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