Jurisdiction is FUNdamental

'This paragraph alone is why DOJ will win': Experts predict Trump Judge Aileen Cannon’s order doomed https://t.co/FiW9cmCB5P

— Raw Story (@RawStory) October 17, 2022

 Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University, cited part of the DOJ brief laying out the core of its argument.

"Most fundamentally, the district court erred in exercising equitable jurisdiction to entertain [Trump's] action in the first place," the DOJ said, adding that Cannon acknowledged that there had been "no showing" that the government acted in "callous disregard" of Trump's rights.

"This paragraph alone is why DOJ will win hands down," Goodman predicted. "It was an essential condition for Cannon to have jurisdiction. Cannon admitted Trump made no showing to meet the condition. End of story."

In legal language that entire argument is captured in one word:  jurisdiction.  If Cannon doesn't have it, she never had it, and everything she ordered is null and void.  It's the thread that holds any lawsuit together.  Pull it out, no tapestry, no picture, no nothing.

It's been my major argument all along.  Whether the 11th Circuit sees it that way is another matter, but jurisdiction is so fundamental that if it is found lacking, nothing the court without jurisdiction did, is saved. The parties return to ground zero, as if the suit had never been brought.  I still think that's what should have happened ab initio; but we'll see how it works out now.

There you go. End of story. If there is no jurisdiction, the case gets dismissed. The whole thing goes poof.

The DOJ, though, goes on to show that none of the factors were met.

Factor #2: Trump does not need government documents (duh right?) . . .

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— Teri Kanefield (@Teri_Kanefield) October 14, 2022

Yeah, it ain't just me.