Meanwhile, Back At The Courts…

If I'm reading it right—and I'm not sure I am, as it's confusing as hell—tonight's order in Trump v. Thompson isn't just a win for the Jan. 6 committee in this case, but has big potential implications that should have Trump and his supporters worried.https://t.co/zsEKmBYF0a

— Scott R. Anderson (@S_R_Anders) January 20, 2022

The Court of Appeals, however, had no occasion to decide these questions because it analyzed and rejected President Trump’s privilege claims “under any of the tests [he] advo- cated,” Trump v. Thompson, 20 F. 4th 10, 33 (CADC 2021), without regard to his status as a former President, id., at 40–46. Because the Court of Appeals concluded that President Trump’s claims would have failed even if he were the incumbent, his status as a former President necessarily made no difference to the court’s decision.

Which is the Court's way of saying this:

He's failed at every level," Eisen said of Trump's efforts. "And the reason he has failed the Supreme Court road last night is because he simply did not make the showing that he needed to make in order to have these documents held back. It's a balancing test when you're talking about executive privilege, the right of a president to hold back documents. And you've got to show an overwhelming, compelling need for each individual document. And sometimes even a paragraph for a line on a document to be held back, and he just failed to do it. So, once again, Trump was brought down by lousy lawyering."

When your claims of executive privilege fail even if you were the incumbent with a much stronger claim to the privilege, that’s on your lawyers.

Trump is using up all the advantages he was ever born into. Personally, anyway. The Court is still greasing the rails to take us back to Lochner.

It’s illuminating to contrast Trump’s *policy* record before #SCOTUS (which was remarkably good even *before* the Kavanaugh and Barrett confirmations) with his record in more personal cases (which was—and continues to be—remarkably bad). A telling, if not surprising, distinction.

— Steve Vladeck (@steve_vladeck) January 20, 2022

Trump will fail. The Roberts court presents a much more serious threat to American daily life. One more reason I’m not that concerned with the “death” of democracy. There are bigger fish to fry. 

And yes, I do think ALL of Trump’s assertions of executive privilege are now…trumped. Be careful what you ask for; sooner or later, you get it.