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Michael Popak
Well, the Trump administration almost missed their deadline. They got 60 days to file a notice of appeal in a case and they just filed a notice of appeal related to Judge Beryl Howell and her decision that the law firm of Perkins Coy was retaliated against in violation of its First Amendment rights, its Fifth Amendment rights. When Donald Trump tried to blacklist them because he saw their involvement with the Robert Mueller investigation and the rest declared them to be a national security risk, ordered all aspects of the federal government to stop doing business with them, effectively tried to cut their yearly revenue in half or more by denying them the ability to represent clients before the federal government. Judge Beryl Howell wrote a scathing decision, ultimately a permanent injunction against the Trump administration. And also at the same time, while rewarding Perkins Coy. She also said the 14 other law firms that settled with Donald Trump should have come to federal judges, should have obtained justice and should not have bent the knee to Donald Trump. She said in there that an independent bar is one of the major guardrails against a tyrant, against an out of control tyranny that being developed by Donald Trump. And she said those lawyers and those law firms that settled with Donald Trump, how can clients ever trust them? Barrel Howell wrote in her opinion. How could you ever trust that Donald Trump's going to do right by you? It isn't going to. Or the law firms are going to do right by you. It isn't going to try to accede to Donald Trump and the federal government in order to curry favor with them. That order has now been appealed just in the nick of time. We're just in the nick of time here on Midas Dutch Network and Legal af. Let's dive into it. An appeal. How do you get an appeal started? Let's do a TED Talk meets a law school class that you come to enjoy on Legal af. How do you do an appeal? You file a notice of appeal. Normally you have 30 days from a judgment to file your notice of appeal. Unless you're the federal government or a government, you get 60 days. So May 2 is when the order, the final order judgment against Donald Trump Trump administration was entered by Judge Beryl Howell in favor of Perkins Coy blocking the executive order making them radioactive from going into effect. So that gave them until July 2nd. So they've now filed their one page notice of appeal. It starts at the D.C. the D.C. court of Appeals, the, the Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, if you will. It will then be assigned to one of, well, three. A three judge panel will be assigned to it they haven't moved for emergency relief. They haven't moved for an emergency stay as of yet. That could be coming. But it's a little hard to move for an emergency stay when you waited Almost a full 60 days to file your notice of appeal. It's hard to say it's an emergency when you've waited around tapping your foot for 60 days. So the, there will be a three judge panel that's randomly assigned by the clerk that comes from the 20 or so judges of the D.C. court of Appeals, the Circuit Court of Appeals, and then they'll set a briefing schedule. Briefing schedule, if it's on a normal track, will be over the next three to nine months with oral argument probably in the second quarter of 2026. Could happen in 2025. All bets are off if Donald Trump tries to make an emergency application. I just don't see that prevailing here. Arguments there will be that Donald Trump has the right that, that to call out law firms and to call them and brand them national security risks with little or no evidence. The fact that a former partner of Perkins Coy, Mark Elias, who is no longer there, and another of their lawyers who's no longer there, this is now seven, you know, six, seven years ago. They then Perkins Coy has to suffer for that. And where is the evidence of a national security risk that diversity, equity and inclusion is being used in the hiring practices? I mean, this whole thing is a mess, such a mess that Beryl Howell had to start her order with a recitation of the importance of the independence of the bar and lawyers in America. The citing to de Tocqueville, who circulated America in the 1830s, pointing out the only thing that stops this country from sliding into tyranny is an independent set of lawyers. And then citing to founding fathers who were lawyers who took on popular positions and of course weren't punished because of it. And so Donald Trump tried this once before just to remind everybody he brought a lawsuit against these same individuals, against Hillary Clinton, against the Democratic Party, against others down in Florida. You know what happened there? The judge, Judge Middlebrooks found it to be a wholly unworthy and meritless case. And find Donald Trump and Alina, Alina Haba, who brought the case. $1 million in sanctions for bad faith filing hasn't changed just because Donald Trump is now the President of the United States. So we'll get the briefing once the three judge panel is arranged. Once that panel is arranged, I'll be able to report on it on Midas Touch and on Legal AF about you know, is it a Trumper Obama person, a Clinton person? It used to not matter, but unfortunately we're able to interpret a lot of body language when we know who appointed these judges. Yeah, I want to say they're all moderate. I want to say they're all going to make the right decision or all for the rule of law. But let's be frank. You, you get a couple of Trumpers in there and all bets are off. So I want to see the three judge panel. Of course the briefing will be outstanding on the Perkins Coy side. It'll be less than outstanding on the Department of Justice side. They will likely rule for Perkins Coy, support the ruling of Judge Beryl Howell. And then the last stop on the train is Donald Trump trying to take some sort of appeal to the United States Supreme Court, which will not be an emergency application, but will be the regular request for an appeal. We call it a writ of certioraries. It gets filed. There has to be 4 votes of the 9 to be interested in the writ of certiorari and of course five votes to overturn Judge Beryl Howell. That will be in the next term of the United States Supreme Court. This last term just ended. Yeah, with with about six or eight opinions dropped on Friday, including some terrible ones about birthright citizenship and nationwide injunctions. They'll be working over the summer on some emergency applications that that have yet to be filed but will be filed, including I think about birthright citizenship. And then they open their new term the first Monday in October. There's many ways to follow what happens here. Midas Touch Legal AF I do about 15 or so videos at the intersection of law and politics right here on Midas Touch. We've got legal AF the podcast that's Wednesdays and Saturdays at 8pm eastern time on YouTube. We are the number one law in politics, a podcast on YouTube rankings week after week and number 50among all among all podcasts. You also can follow us on Legal AF the YouTube channel Legal AF MTN for Midas Dutch network. I curate that. We put up about a dozen videos a day at the intersection of law and politics to keep you up to speed. Legal AF join that community as well with a free subscription. Legal AF the substack. All these things we're talking about we will post in Legal AF the substack along with analysis so that you can get your hands on them and read them for yourself. So until my next report on all things Legal AF in any format, in any size, I am Michael Popak and you are on the Midas Touch Network. Can't get your fill of Legal af. Me neither. That's why we formed the Legal AF substack. Every time we mention something in a hot take, whether it's a court filing or a oral argument, come over to the substack. You'll find the court filing in the oral argument there, including a daily roundup that I do called Wait for It Morning af. What else? All the other contributors from Legal AO are there as well. We got some new reporting, we got interviews, we got AD free versions of the podcast and hot takes where Legal AF on substack. Come over now to free subscribe.