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- [00:01]
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- [00:28]
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- [01:27]
Michael Popak
18 + DNC supply on paper, it just looks like an administrative temporary stay by Chief Justice Roberts to stop an order by a federal judge requiring the Trump administration to make $2 billion worth of payments overseas. That's what it looks like when you get down below it. People are going to die around the world. People lives that depended on our foreign aid and no longer have it because $2 billion has been cut off overnight without any care in the world as to its consequences has been supported by the United States Supreme Court at least temporarily. That's the only other way to to to interpret Chief Justice Roberts administrative stay. Sure, it's a short time stay. It'll allow for full briefing at the Appellate Court level and then full briefing at the Supreme Court level. And isn't that all? Isn't that all niceties and dot our I's and cross our t's while people are dying around the world and they have the United States and Donald Trump to blame as the Russians and the Chinese try to swoop in to curry favor, turn those those people away from the west towards the east and beyond. That is the real world implication of what Chief Justice Roberts just did. I'm Michael Popak. You're on the Midas Dutch network@legal af. And let's break down this new order that just came out late last night to block Judge Ali's temporary restraining order and emergency order forcing the Trump administration to turn the spigots of funding back on to, to the tune of $2 billion that was cut off overnight, the fuel supply cut overnight without any warning, regardless of what would happen to people's and their people's lives around the country, people that needed medevacs in order to get chemotherapy and emergency surgery, dying of aids, dying of famine, dying of thirst, you know, illiteracy and the rest. We just said now we think there's fraud and abuse somewhere in there. So we're going to turn it all off and figure it out later. No, that is the definition of arbitrary and capricious. That is a violation of the Administrative Pro Procedures act, as Judge Ali has found, that is a violation of the U.S. constitution because it is Congress who determined that money should be allocated through the Secretary of State, not for the president to cut off the fuel supply. Now let's get into it. How did we get here? What does the administrative stay mean? I've already given you the real world consequences of the administrative stay. So on the, on the 12th of February, let's get my dates right. On the 12th of February, a group of overseas contractors that depend on this aid in order to administer it to people in need and suffering around the world move for a temporary restraining order in the United States District Court for D.C. it was randomly assigned to Judge Ali Ali, a Biden appointee. About a year ago, Canadian American lawyer, as argued before the United States Supreme Court, eminently qualified. He, he gets it randomly assigned to him and he has a hearing on the motion for temporary restraining order to go back to the status quo, which is generally what temporary restraining orders try to restore. You go back to the status quo before the bad conduct happened, turn on the funding, in other words. So he has a hearing on that. And on the 13th, the judge enters his temporary restraining order. Then on the 18th of February, based on a court order, the Trump administration, Marco Rubio Secretary of State Russ Vaught Head of OMB Office Management of Budget they file their compliance report saying that they're in compliance, but when you read it, they're not in compliance because they haven't turned back on the spigot and checks are still getting canceled and contracts are not getting fulfilled. And this is pissing off. And it looks like it's in contempt of court. So there's an emergency application the next day on the 19th by the same group, this, these, these social organizations to find the Trump administration in contempt. And Trump says it's going to take us weeks to turn it back on. Right. Because while Marco Rubio has ordered certain funding to happen, he's got Doge Tech Bros, Which I've already reported on, turning off the checks as Marco Rubio is ordering them to be turned back on. They're going into the payment system and they're, and they're unchecking the box to make sure they don't get paid. Who's the Secretary of State here? And all of this gets brought to the judge's attention and he's annoyed, as only a federal judge can be annoyed. And he says, okay, you didn't get my TRO before, let me tell you about it now. And here's the order that, that we're dealing with here, where everybody's dealing with here on the, on contempt refers to temporary restraining order. The court's tr. This is on page two. Sorry. The court's TRO was clear. It found that plaintiffs had satisfied their demanding burden for temporary injunctive relief, including by showing that defendants blanket suspension of congressionally appropriated foreign aid pending a review had and would continue to cause irreparable harm. And that the blanket suspension were just cut off the fuel supply without reviewing any of the contracts was likely arbitrary and capricious. Under the Administrative Procedures act, an agency and the department. The president can act, but can't act arbitrarily and capriciously under the APA for failing to consider the immense reliance interests of businesses and organizations around the country. Right. They didn't even sundown the program. They didn't even give them time to replace the funds. They just cut the fuel supply. And the judge went off and talked about the injunction, but also reminded the government that the judge is not getting into the business of contract review. He's not replacing their judgment. They want to go through line by line, contract by contract to make a determination as to whether fraud and abuse is present and do it appropriately in other administrative procedures Act. Fine, you can go do that. But you can't take congressionally funded funds and impound them because that is not, that's a violation of separation of powers. See, whenever a federal judge makes a ruling that there is a temporary restraining order to be issued or a preliminary injunction, that means that the other party, the party moving for it has gotten over the very high hurdle. It's very hard to get a TRO or an injunction of proving to the judge that it's more likely than not they're going to win a trial. That's how strong the evidence is, and that they're being irreparably harmed. Boom. Temporary restraining order, preliminary injunction comes into place. Let me tell you, if there's a.
- [07:52]
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- [08:38]
Michael Popak
And soda, and you wouldn't believe how.
- [08:41]
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- [08:48]
Michael Popak
Celebrations like Valentine's Day, the Super bowl.
- [08:51]
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- [09:20]
Michael Popak
So when we talk about it, I don't want you to think it's like the judge handing out breath mints. Oh, here you have a TRO and you have a preliminary injunction. Sure, we've talked about over 40 of them with the Trump administration, but that's because they're outrageous and they're rogue and they're unconstitutional. But it's very hard to get, even though the plaintiffs and all of the groups against Donald Trump, arrayed against Donald Trump right now are running at about a 95% success success rate. So you get the temporary restraining order, you get the contempt order, where the judge says, which part of turn on the funding did you not understand? I Am now giving you a mandatory injunction, telling you what to do. Turn on the funding and you have until 11:59. A sorry PM last night, a minute, a stroke before midnight. Well, Trump freaked out and filed an emergency application with a writ with the United States Supreme Court. First stop is Chief Justice Roberts. That brings us to the new order by just Chief Justice Roberts. Now he has a choice. As, as, as the first stop on the train. Every circuit, in this case, the D.C. circuit has a Supreme Court justice above them for emergency applications. Every circuit has one. The one for D.C. is the chief Justice. Chief justice can grant an administrative stay, emergency stay for a short amount of time on its own initiative without referral over to the rest of the Supreme Court. That's called the shadow docket. And that's what just happened. So here's the order. Sorry about that. Here's the order. Upon consideration of the application of counsel for the applicants. That's the Trump administration. It is ordered that the February 25, 2025 orders of the United States District Judge for the District of Columbia, that's Judge Ali, are hereby stayed pending further order of the undersigned Chief Justice Roberts can lift the administrative stay or of the entire court. It's further ordered that any response to this application be filed tomorrow, Friday at noon. What does it mean? Means people are going to die. It means people are suffering and even more suffering because Roberts will not allow the spigot of funding to be turned back on while they do through the niceties of the briefing schedule. So to him, to Roberts living in his ivy, ivory tower, hermetically sealed world, it's just a piece of paper. It's just no, there's no, you know, lives behind this being implicated. We know better. So now full briefing will happen at the D.C. court of Appeals who did not issue a stay while the, while the Supreme Court keeps the, the funding locked. Right. They put it in a lockbox. Briefing happens down below over the next two weeks, three weeks, and Judge Roberts can either lift the stay or not lift the stay. Now he wants full briefing for his rest of his eight justices of the Supreme Court. He likely. Let's let me manage expectations. He's got five votes to keep this stay in place while the, while the case comes up a proper channel for appeal. There's very little, there's very few ways to get a direct appeal to the United States Supreme Court skipping over the lower court, which would be the Court of Appeals for DC So he wants that briefing to happen with the record, but he's going to Keep the stay in place in the meantime, meaning funding is shut down. Now, this is a bad sign because many of the cases have been filed in D.C. many of these temporary restraining order cases, half of the cases, about half of the 95 cases or so have been filed in the District of Columbia. And even if it wasn't, it's a bad sign anyway. It means that all as the federal judges are universally ruling against the Trump administration, Trump may have a friend in the United States Supreme Court, which we always knew from how the Supreme Court has treated Donald Trump over the last three years, including the immunity decision which got him elected. So Roberts is not doing itself any favors now. It is just an administrative stay. It's just a time buyer by Justice Roberts. He's not ruling, nor can he, on the merits of the case, on the substance of the case. But by delaying the time, he's benefiting Donald Trump and he's shutting off the valve of money and he's having the exact impact on the world, negative impact on the world to kill people that Judge Ali was trying to avoid with his temporary restraining order. I'm all about, you know, giving people enough time to do briefing, but when lives are at risk, like let the money go out, what's, what's the downside, you know, Robert, what's Robert's analysis? Well, I won't be able to get the 2 billion back for the Trump administration. Why not? They'll claw it back for the next contract. You know, what's $2 billion is a drop in the bucket given our, our total GDP and the amount of money that we spend as a, as a government. And so we're going to continue to follow it. All the next reporting is going to be tomorrow when the US AIDS organizations and other coalition organizations file their full briefing with the United States supreme court as the D.C. court of Appeals continues to, to consider it. But as of right now, Judge Ali's order is blocked and we'll have to see how these other, you know, this will now embolden the Trump administration to continue to bring their emergency motions to the United States Supreme Court to block these orders that are blocking their ability to execute on these terrible executive orders. I'll follow it all in the Midas Dutch Network and on Legal af. I'm Michael Popak. In collaboration with the Midas Touch Network, we just launched the Legal AF YouTube channel. Help us build this pro democracy channel where I'll be curating the top stories, the intersection of law and politics. Go to YouTube now and free subscribe at Legalafmtn that's egalafmtn.
- [15:03]
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