Rudy Giuliani's disbarment is an "interim suspension." Here's what that means⤵️
Elsewhere the court notes that the evidence of Guiliani's lies is "uncontroverted."
Also, just because it was interim doesn't mean Giuliani didn't have a chance to present defense and evidence.
He offered two very lame defenses which the court made short work of.
First, he said he had a First Amendment right to say everything he said.
The court said NOPE.
You wanna lie? Give up your license. Lawyers as officers of the court are governed by special rules. Don't like it? Don't be a lawyer.
He also offered the "I didn't know I was lying" defense.
Yeah, riiiiight, said the court . . .
. . . go play dumb somewhere else.
If Giuliani didn't know he was lying, the court wondered, what explained the fact that he offered wildly different numbers and facts from day to day, and told two courts two different stories?
We Rule of Law folks don't get much fun these days.
One way to see the evolution of the Republican Party is that what was once the right wing fringe has now taken over the party, and moderates are leaving.
Another way to see this is what @dziblatt calls the conservative dilemma, which is this:
Conservatives tend to represent the wealth and powerful corporations, therefore the policies they advocate are not appealing to the majority of people.
I had trouble understanding the genuine panic meltdown last night. It seemed clear to me (this is only June 2020) that the vote last night was the start of negotiations.
Not with the Republicans, but within the ranks of the Democratic Party.
2/ You see, McConnell and pals want to undermine democratic institutions.
They're having trouble winning national elections. Their policies are unpopular, and their demographics are shrinking. (Duh, right? They cater to white supremacists in a country growing diverse.
The long-term solution to GOP power grabs is to strengthen and depoliticize our democratic institutions to better enable them to withstand autocratic power grabs.
As you'll see, I leaned heavily on legal and political science scholars for this.
From Levitsky (co-author of 👇) the greatest danger to democracy is the government slipping into dysfunction, which will erode public confidence.
When public confidence erodes, people become vulnerable to the appeal of a strongman, who promises to get things done.
1/
When the public loses confidence in democracy, they are willing to torpedo democratic processes. Using anti-democratic means to save democracy has obvious problems.
McConnell wants to break the government because he doesn't like what America has become.
2/