"Twas A Week Before Xmas, And All Through The Courts..."

There's a greater significance to 11th Circuit decision rejecting Meadows' bid to get GA trial into federal court:

Courts are inhospitable to Trump's claims of immunity/supremacy clause defense.

Chief Judge pens the opinion: the alleged conduct was not a presidential function👇 pic.twitter.com/6UtE2hjw1w

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) December 18, 2023

There is absolutely no reason to expect the Supremes to buck that trend. More interestingly:

JUST IN: US appeals court in DC set arguments on Trump's presidential immunity appeal for Jan. 9.

One of the judges wanted to wait for SCOTUS to decide whether to take the case before scheduling this, but she was outvoted. pic.twitter.com/PJpNGKQxqx

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 18, 2023

Wait for it!

JUST IN: Donald Trump is asking the full bench of the court of appeals in D.C. to reconsider the appeal of Judge Chutkan's gag order. pic.twitter.com/6rZ6za77qZ

— Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) December 18, 2023

This is the usual appellate procedure. Appeal the ruling, and you usually get a three-judge panel. You can appeal that to the entire appellate court, which usually takes time for them all to find time on their docket, and insures you will have to wait for an opinion a majority can sign off on. But it's the next step to asking for review by a higher court, i.e., the Supreme Court.

Yes, Jack Smith jumped that line.  This is Trump's (perfectly legitimate) attempt to thwart that and delay the case as outlined above, and only THEN go to the Supremes, in regular order.  All the while, since this is a question of jurisdiction, the trial and most proceedings in Chutkan's court, are stayed.

The D.C. court already ruled on Trump's appeal, so requesting a hearing of the full court is ordinary.  But the full court is not interested in being Trump's cat's paw, so they aren't going to wait on the Supreme Court to act (even though if the Supremes do, it's out of the lower court's hands at that point).  It's clear Trump is playing a game, IOW; and the courts don't want to be part of it.  The DC court has set the hearing for January 9; the Supremes have set a deadline this week for briefs on the DOJ's request to remove the case to them.  Nobody is letting this thing languish the way Trump wants it to.

So here's the holiday schedule in Trump legal: Trump's brief opposing SCOTUS's direct review on the immunity issues is due 12/20 by 4 p.m.; in the meantime, his brief to the D.C. Circuit on the same questions is due 12/23 with further briefs due from Smith on 12/29 and Trump… https://t.co/r3djEnzx2o

— Lisa Rubin (@lawofruby) December 18, 2023

And Trump's lawyers are on record whinging that Jack Smith has ruined their Christmas with all these briefs they have to file. Looks like the D.C. circuit just quietly ignored that.