Back In The Courtroom

Where the judge doesn’t care what Scott Jennings thinks:

Cancel vacations, cancel other appointments. I’m usually pretty good about that … Not this time,” she told the parties. “I will be flexible if you need to accommodate [depositions] in the courthouse. I’m going to be available if you need to do it at odd hours or weekends. That’s what I’m talking about.”

“We’re going to do this by the federal rules of civil procedure,” she added. “So no press release is going to move the court the same way that sworn, under-oath testimony from persons with knowledge will.”

Or what Stephen Miller tells Trump the Supreme Court decided:

In a stinging rebuke to the DOJ’s legal posturing, Xinis reminded government lawyers that the Supreme Court already ruled against them.

“You made your jurisdictional arguments, you made your venue arguments. You made your arguments on the merits. You lost,” she said. “This is now about the scope of the remedy.”

The court is not buying the DOJ’s “political argument” that the Supreme Court decision was ambiguous. Yes, tout le monde is quibbling over it, but not Judge Xinis. At the moment, her’s is the opinion that counts.

She also addressed El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s Oval Office comments, in which he made glib remarks about possibly “smuggling” Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Xinis dismissed the comments as not only legally irrelevant but deeply concerning.

“If that were in a court of law — it would have real infirmities,” she said. “It is not a direct response, nor is the quip about smuggling someone into the United States. If the government were facilitating his return, there would be no smuggling.”

There’s been a lot of handwringing, but it promises to be entertaining seeing what a federal judge can do:

“If not this court, then who, to engage in process?” Judge Xinis asked. “It’s process that is in the roots of our Constitution. So we have to give process to both sides. But we’re going to move. There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding.”

Or foreign leaders being too cute by half.