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Chris Geidner Profile picture
Chris Geidner
@chrisgeidner
Subscribe to @lawdorknews for SCOTUS, LGBTQ, criminal law, and other legal news. / Email: lawdorknews@gmail.com / Sober. Queer. Bipolar. Buckeye. / He/him.
eDo Profile picture Oy Vey Profile picture Liz Profile picture Becky Werner Profile picture President Elect Kraken Profile picture 34 subscribed
Oct 11 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: On a 2-1 vote, the 11th Circuit DENIES Florida’s request that it be allowed to enforce its anti-drag law against everyone in the state except the plaintiffs during the appeal.

tl;dr: The law remains wholly blocked.

Background at Law Dork: lawdork.com/p/florida-anti…
Image Jordan and Rosenbaum, both Obama appointees, hold that the district court did not abuse its discretion in granting an injunction prohibiting all enforcement of the ban, given its underlying finding that the law is likely overbroad and this likely facially unconstitutional.
Oct 10 • 8 tweets • 3 min read
Oh my god, y'all. I wrote last night about how out of control the Fifth Circuit is — — but I had NO IDEA what was coming down the pike ...lawdork.com/p/the-supreme-… Today, Judge Jerry E. Smith published a mock opinion as an attachment to a dissent in a death penalty case, writing that it's "the Fifth Circuit panel opinion that should have been issued." He literally published it, putting other judge's names on it! I am losing my mind here.
Jerry E. Smith, Circuit Judge, dissenting: The majority opinion is grave error. It succumbs to a vapid lastminute attempt to stay an execution that should have occurred decades ago. In the interest of time, instead of penning a long dissent pointing to the panel majority’s and district court’s myriad mistakes, I attach the Fifth Circuit panel opinion that should have been issued. I respectfully dissent
The first page of Judge Jerry E. Smith's fake opinion.
Sep 26 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: The U.S. Supreme Court rejects Alabama’s attempts to use its new congressional maps that a lower court ruled illegal or stop that lower court from redrawing the state’s congressional maps to conform with the Voting Rights Act. There were no noted dissents.
ORDER LIST: 600 U.S.) TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2023 ORDER IN PENDING CASE 23A241 ALLEN, AL SEC. OF STATE V. CASTER, MARCUS, ET AL. The application for stay presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied.
ORDER LIST: 600 U.S.) TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 2023 ORDER IN PENDING CASE 23A231 ALLEN, AL SEC. OF STATE V. MILLIGAN, EVAN, ET AL. The application for stay presented to Justice Thomas and by him referred to the Court is denied. Alabama passed a map this summer with just one majority-Black district after the Supreme Court affirmed a lower-court ruling that two “opportunity districts” were required. Alabama was asking #SCOTUS to let it use the one-district map. The court resoundingly said no this morning.
Sep 25 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
The Fifth Circuit granted panel rehearing in the social-media case against the Biden administration one business day after LA/MO requested it, before the government responded, and while the injunction is administratively stayed by SCOTUS pending a ruling on a stay request. The Fifth Circuit is not a court of law, exhibit 893507.
Sep 14 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
Breaking: As a result of the Georgia court severing the speedy trial cases, and the 11th Circuit setting an expedited briefing schedule on Mark Meadows’s appeal in his removal action, Meadows moves to *withdraw* his motion for a stay pending appeal. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Image As a part of that motion, Meadows notes that tomorrow’s scheduled arguments mightn’t be necessary.
Sep 11 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
In his federal court removal effort, Mark Meadows asked the district court for a stay pending appeal this morning. In it, his lawyers say he'll be filing at the 11th Circuit this afternoon. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… The district court expedited Meadows's request, asks Willis's office to respond in less than 24 hours, by noon Tuesday. (But, again, Meadows said he's going to the 11th Circuit today, so, now they have a choice to make.) storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
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Sep 8 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: The Fifth Circuit, in an unsigned opinion, upholds aspects of the injunction against the Biden administration relating to social media companies. It ultimately narrows the injunction to one provision, which it alters to the following: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Defendants, and their employees and agents, shall take no actions, formal or informal, directly or indirectly, to coerce or significantly encourage social-media companies to remove, delete, suppress, or reduce, including through altering their algorithms, posted social-media content containing protected free speech. That includes, but is not limited to, compelling the platforms to act, such as by intimating that some form of punishment will follow a failure to comply with any request, or supervising, directing, or otherwise meaningfully controlling the social-media companies’ decision-makin... The people covered by the injunction is also limited further, as detailed on pp. 72-72.
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Aug 30 • 5 tweets • 3 min read
BREAKING: Tennessee prosecutor threatens pride event, warning he will enforce anti-drag law. A lawsuit against the prosecutor, Blount County's Ryan Desmond, is expected on Wednesday.

A Law Dork exclusive: lawdork.com/p/tennessee-pr… The prosecutor literally sent a letter to cops and the pride event organizers *together* saying that the pride event "may violate" the anti-drag law struck down by a judge hearing a case elsewhere and that he would still prosecute alleged violations. lawdork.com/p/tennessee-pr…
In fact, it’s hard for me to imagine a more clear example of a public official intending to create a “chilling effect” on speech — particularly given the history of law enforcement abuse of LGBTQ people — than a prosecutor literally sending a letter to law enforcement, pride organizers, and the entities that run the space where the pride event is being held asserting that he is concerned that that event “may violate” a new criminal law and that he intends to prosecute alleged violations of that law — particularly where that law has already been declared unconstitutional elsewhere in the state.
Aug 22 • 4 tweets • 3 min read
👀 Quite a four-act play starring Trump Employee 4, the director of information technology for Mar-a-Lago, per the special counsel's latest filing in USA v. Trump (Florida). Guest star: Mr. Woodward (Stanley E. Woodward, a Washington, DC, lawyer). storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…



When Trump Employee 4 testified before the grand jury in the District of Columbia in March 2023, he repeatedly denied or claimed not to recall any contacts or conversations about the security footage at Mar-a-Lago. In testimony before the same grand jury, De Oliveira likewise denied any contact with Trump Employee 4 regarding security footage. The Government’s evidence indicated that the testimony by Trump Employee 4 and De Oliveira was false.
On June 29 and July 11, 2023, the grand jury issued two subpoenas for footage from three security cameras at Mar-a-Lago that related directly to De Oliveira’s solicitation of Trump Employee 4 to delete security footage, as well as the false denials of the same by both witnesses. In addition, on June 20, 2023, the Government advised Trump Employee 4 (through Mr. Woodward) that he was the target of a grand jury investigation in the District of Columbia into whether he committed perjury there, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1623. Trump Employee 4’s criminal exposure identified in the target lette...
The target letter to Trump Employee 4 crystallized a conflict of interest arising from Mr. Woodward’s concurrent representation of Trump Employee 4 and Nauta. Advising Trump Employee 4 to correct his sworn testimony would result in testimony incriminating Mr. Woodward’s other client, Nauta; but permitting Trump Employee 4’s false testimony to stand uncorrected would leave Trump Employee 4 exposed to criminal charges for perjury. Moreover, an attorney for Trump had put Trump Employee 4 in contact with Mr. Woodward, and his fees were being paid by Trump’s political action committee (PAC).
The Government anticipates calling Trump Employee 4 as a trial witness and expects that he will testify to conduct alleged in the superseding indictment regarding efforts to delete security footage. Trump Employee 4 will very likely face cross-examination about his prior inconsistent statements in his grand jury testimony, which occurred while Mr. Woodward represented him, and which he disavowed immediately after obtaining new counsel. The argument section is, perhaps, even more brutal. First, the special counsel is like, "Don't be so cute, Nauta. We're not ~diminishing Cannon's authority~ through the existence of a grand jury elsewhere. Nauta is therefore incorrect when he claims (ECF No. 126 at 8) that the Government was “attempt[ing] to diminish the Court’s authority over the proceedings in this case and to undermine attorney-client relationships.” When a conflict arose in the context of Trump Employee 4’s status as a putative defendant in the District of Columbia, the Government raised the conflicts issue there; now that a conflict arises from potential cross-examination of Trump Employee 4 in the case against Nauta in this district, the Government has raised the conflicts issue here. Nauta makes no showing of improper ...
Aug 21 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: A three-judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit allows enforcement of Alabama's ban on gender-affirming care for minors — reversing a trial court's injunction. The appeals court panel was all Trump appointees. More to come at Law Dork: lawdork.com

Image
Image Here is the appeals court's opinion in Eknes-Tucker v. Alabama: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Aug 16 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
Vibes-based standing for doctors opposed to abortion. - James Ho It's not just Ho, to be clear. It's vibes-based standing all the way down the line here.

From the majority: Image
Aug 15 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
INDICTMENT 5: Georgia v. Trump.

Also indicted, 18 others, including Giuliani, Eastman, Chesebro, Meadows, Clark, Ellis, Roman, Powell.

From Kyle Cheney: documentcloud.org/documents/2390… 161 overt acts alleged in that Georgia RICO charge. Over three calendar years.
Jul 25 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
NEWS: Redacted versions of several documents were just unsealed in the original Trump warrant case: https://t.co/1wQHsfTBHCstorage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
UNITED STATES’ NOTICE OF FILING In accordance with the Court’s Orders of July 14, 2023, see ECF Nos. 164 & 165, the United States of America hereby provides notice of the filing of proposed redacted versions of the following documents: (1) the United States’ Sealed, Ex Parte Response to Media Intervenors’ Renewed Motion for Further Unsealing, ECF No. 153, attached hereto as Exhibit A; (2) the United States’ Sealed, Ex Parte Motion to Reconsider the Court’s Order to Unseal the Document Docketed as ECF #147, ECF No. 158, attached hereto as Exhibit B; and (3) the Sealed Order on Motion for Re... Ex. A:

Ex. B: https://t.co/WQWgSTfMmU

Ex. C: https://t.co/w5zOVqKUoMstorage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Jul 22 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
What is the matter with you, @nytimes? Alabama Lawmakers Decline to Create New Majority-Black Congressional District This wasn’t even some last-minute, late-night, weekend thing. We knew this was coming by Wednesday. I had it in my one-person newsletter by Thursday morning.
Jul 4 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
I have not been following this BigTech/government speech case out of Louisiana (basically, Twitter Files, but in court(?)), but here's the 155-page opinion granting the plaintiffs' preliminary injunction (in part) that dropped today, on a federal holiday. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… And here's the judgment, which is one of the wilder court documents I have read: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco…
Jun 30 • 18 tweets • 4 min read
OK. Final #SCOTUS decisions are expected at 10a. The only cases left are the student loan plan challenges and the 303 Creative case. I’ll be covering the decisions here, and then at Law Dork. Subscribe — there are free and paid options — here: lawdork.com 303 Creative has been in the news the past two days over questions about a claim made by Lorie Smith that 303 Creative had received a request for a same-sex wedding website.
• @melissagira:
• @srl: https://t.co/qZvJbslxlxnewrepublic.com/article/173987…
theguardian.com/law/2023/jun/2…
Jun 26 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
#SCOTUS orders out of last week’s private conference — what, if any, new cases they’ll be taking — expected in 5 minutes. A lot more expected from the court the rest of the week, though. Read about it at Law Dork now: lawdork.com/p/supreme-cour… #SCOTUS grants two new cases:
• Moore v. US, about income taxes and the Sixteenth Amendment
• Rudisill v. McDonough, about education benefits under the GI Bill
Jun 17 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
NEW: Another drag ban ruling!

A senior judge appointed by Obama rules on a Utah city's actions denying a permit for a drag show: "[J]ust as we enjoy and prize our rights, we must value and respect the rights of others. This case presents an opportunity for our recommitment." Here's the preliminary injunction —> THEREFORE, IT IS HEREBY ORD...The City is ENJOINED from e...
Jun 16 • 5 tweets • 2 min read
BREAKING: Federal judge blocks enforcement of Indiana’s ban on gender-affirming medical care, aside from the provision addressing gender confirmation surgery. The injunction includes the new law’s ban on “aiding and abetting.” More to come at Law Dork: lawdork.com Defendants, their officers,... Note: Like most of the bans, Indiana’s ban only addresses treatment for minors.
Jun 16 • 9 tweets • 4 min read
We're expecting one or more #SCOTUS opinions starting at 10a. After yesterday, 20 cases remain, including a lot of the big ones (see image). Follow along here for live-tweeting, and subscribe to Law Dork now to get any of my reporting that follows: lawdork.com Among the <strike>23</strik... Just one or two opinions coming this morning.
Jun 9 • 14 tweets • 4 min read
OK. Here we go. The Trump federal indictment: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… Image Boxes containing classified documents were kept in "a bathroom and shower," per the indictment. Image