Tick-Tock

Judge Cannon has entered an order in the Trump docs case directing all current/"forthcoming" lawyers to get in touch with DOJ asap (if they haven't already) to expedite getting necessary security clearances squared away -- compliance notice that they've done that due June 20 pic.twitter.com/HGG3Rd4Kbg

— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) June 15, 2023

That would be...Tuesday. Not to get clearance; just to get going on it.

I think this order, like some of the ones last August, reveal inexperience.

She doesn't know, for example, that Nauta hasn't been ordered to get a FL lawyer until a week after this.

But it is the appropriate first step to take. https://t.co/tTL8LoeCMZ

— emptywheel (@emptywheel) June 15, 2023

I don’t read it that way. I think this means current lawyers, and any coming in before Tuesday, have a deadline. New lawyers after that date have to come in applying for clearance. 

New lawyers can’t just start crowding in. The court can control that, because new lawyers can mean delays (to come up to speed, get clearance, etc.). Federal courts control lawyers more tightly than state courts do. They can pull a license to appear (basically what it is) without the red tape a state has to go through, because the federal court controls who comes before it.

So this isn’t necessarily premature. Probably in keeping with SDFL’s rocket docket. Lawyers coming in after the 20th, like one Nauta needs, will have to be permitted to appear anyway.

This order is probably pretty standard SDFL practice.