Thread by @ProfMJCleveland

🚨BREAKINGish: Just now getting to Motion for Emergency Stay in D.C. Circuit. The brief is stellar and highlight huge problems in order. Take these passage: 1/

https://twitter.com/ProfMJCleveland/status/1894538600009609462

2/ Particularly repulsive is Court's order to pay money supposedly due under a contract where federal government has immunity absent a waiver and the waiver provided for suits only in a Court of Claims.

3/ This passage exemplifies @shipwreckedcrew point that Trump Administration goaded judge to enter an unwise order, which I hammered in different language noting that's what happened in the McConnell case, noting Trump Administration has been extremely strategic in litigation.

4/ This point needs emphasizing too: Everyone is saying this funds are money already due for past work. Not so fast. USAID was being run by, lacking in a more literary example, Boss Hog,

5/ Also, again on the goading point: DOJ forced court to expressly hold what it was being more coy about--and that establishes it isn't a TRO but an injunction subject to immediate appeal.

6/6 In short: Read the Motion for Stay as it highlights how crazy lower court's order was. D.C. Circuit would be wise to stay, but if it refuses SCOTUS seems sure too, if for no other reason to avoid "constitutional crisis" where judge orders Trump Administration to do something it can't, leaving it in contempt.

7/ Sorry I forgot the link: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…