Trump's resistance to congressional oversight had a very bad day in court

[babylonsister]

Trump’s resistance to congressional oversight had a very bad day in court
Turns out, there are still some federal judges who care what the law says.
Ian Millhiser
May 14, 2019, 1:41 pm


Judge Amit Mehta is the anti-Scalia. Calm and unfailingly polite. Honest about his concerns and seemingly quite open to the arguments of legal counsel. The hearing Mehta held Tuesday in Trump v. Committee on Oversight and Reform featured none of the posturing that characterizes so many Supreme Court hearings.

If you only paid attention to Judge Mehta’s tone, you’d think he was being nice to Trump’s lawyers.

But the substance of the hearing was a disaster for Trump’s efforts to resist congressional subpoenas digging into his finances. At one point, Mehta warned that, under Trump lawyer William Consovoy’s sweeping legal theory, congressional investigations into Watergate would have been unconstitutional. At another, the judge suggested that Congress might have the inherent power to investigate the president in order to inform the public of potential misconduct.

Judge Mehta did ask probing questions of Doug Letter, the lawyer defending a subpoena from the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, but the bulk of those questions seemed to be probing how Mehta would write an opinion ruling against Trump — not who should actually prevail.

Nothing is certain until Mehta releases his opinion (and, even then, that opinion will need to survive appeal). But Judge Mehta appears likely to rule in favor of congressional oversight. More importantly, he seems likely to rule quickly, making it more difficult for Trump to prevent oversight by simply running out the clock.

more...

https://thinkprogress.org/trump-congressional-oversight-subpoena-court-ruling-judge-amit-mehta-567ce7ce78fd/

[NewJeffCT]

1. I think it sounds like

the judge will rule against Team Trump, but will he lift the stay on the subpoena or will Team Trump need to get the next level court to stop the subpoena?

[kentuck]

2. I hope he makes his ruling quickly...

...to send a message to other appeal judges that there is no need to make it political. It can be done quickly.

[gratuitous]

3. It's always a good thing when the court's opinion quotes your brief or argument verbatim

I hope Letter was thinking about how he wants the court's ruling to be worded while he wrote his brief and presented his argument.

[sop]

4. Meet the new Judge Gonzalo Curiel

If this case goes against Trump, Judge Mehta, an Indian-born Obama appointee, will become Trump's latest punching bag.