Posted on 11/16/2018 1:15:01 PM PST by EyesOfTX
The Evening Campaign Update (Because The Campaign Never Ends)
No, Jim Acosta and CNN did not “win” their case today, so everybody needs to calm down here.
All the plaintiffs in the case against the White House this morning was an injunction in which the judge in the case, Timothy Kelly, ordered the restoration of Acosta’s hard pass to the White House grounds while the case is in the process of being heard and decided. Believe it or not, I think this was a completely reasonable action for the judge to take, since it ensures Acosta will not have been unfairly disadvantaged in the event that CNN and Acosta are able to make a compelling case that ends with a ruling in their favor.
Make sense?
Now, in addition to ordering Acosta’s pass to be restored, the judge let it be known that he thinks CNN and Acosta are likely to prevail on their 5th Amendment, due process-based argument that Acosta was not provided with “sufficient notice or explanation before his credentials were revoked or been given sufficient opportunity to respond before they were.” As it happened, Acosta was actually given no notice at all – he simply showed up at the Secret Service station outside the White House grounds where he normally presents his credentials before entering and was informed at that time that they had been revoked.
While the White House press office spelled out its reasons after the fact, the judge has ruled that this was not sufficient notice.
Judge Kelly also made it clear that he does not believe CNN or Acosta have an unfettered First Amendment-based right to a White House press badge.
Thus, basically what has happened today is that Judge Kelly has forced the White House to put Acosta on probation. His press badge will be restored while the case is being heard and will be revoked again should the Judge ultimately rule against the plaintiffs.
In the meantime, both President Trump and White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders have promised to write up and publish a formal set of rules for decorum that Acosta and all other fake reporters must follow while on the White House grounds and during press briefings.
President Trump commented on the entire process earlier today in an interview with Fox News’s Chris Wallace:
Trump told Wallace it’s “not a big deal,” saying, “What they said, though, is that we have to create rules and regulations for conduct… we’re doing that, we’re going to write them up right now. It’s not a big deal. And if he misbehaves, we’ll throw him out or we’ll stop the news conference.”
“Nobody believes in the First Amendment more than I do. And if I think somebody is acting out of sorts, I will leave. I’ll say, ‘Thank you very much, everybody. I appreciate you coming.’ And I’ll leave. And those reporters will not be too friendly to whoever it is that’s acting up.”
These White House press briefings have been taking place in their modern format since the mid-1970s. In all that time, the White House had never had a need to write up formal rules for decorum because the reporters involved were mature enough and had enough respect for the setting and the office of the presidency to know how to behave themselves. But today, unfortunately, the pack of childish jackals who now make up the White House press corps no longer possess those qualities as a group.
So, just like in any elementary school across America, the rules for behavior will be written up, probably posted on the wall, and anyone who acts up and violates them will be sent to the office for punishment. It’s pathetic, really, but then again, this is CNN and Jim Acosta we’re talking about here.
That is all.
Follow me on Twitter at @GDBlackmon
No Federal judge has the jurisdiction to order the President to issue a Press Pass. This is a horrid precedent on top of many politically inspired outrages against PDJT. It is time for a Constitutional showdown.
The last line of the rules should read:
“or for any other reason the Wh house determines”.
That seems to be the what you find in modern rules and even laws.
However, by focusing on "due process" rather than invoking the First Amendment, he laid out a roadmap for a workaround. That's why the Administration isn't complaining. All they need to do is publish and post rules, rather than having them informally understood, and the problem is solved. Of course, if the Judge then starts applying a heightened scrutiny to those rules or the process for booting someone, that's a different issue. But that hasn't yet happened.
This case could have been much worse. If the judge had decided to ground his case in the First Amendment, that would have been a whole new level of headaches, and there may not have been a workaround at all.
It’s the fault of all judges, as a group. And lawyers. They love the law as a process and a profession more than justice and interpreting the plain language of the constitution. The mental contortions required are really breathtaking.
The ‘due process’ argument is bunk.
Did this judge get his law degree out of a box of Cracker Jack?
If a person inside a courtroom is ‘held in contempt’ by the Judge, does that person get due process?
No. That person gets to spend time in jail.
Agree. This effort to justify this ridiculous ruling is nuts. It makes no sense at all.
The President controls the White House. He can exclude anyone for whatever whim suits him. Nobody has a right to come into his home.
I would tell the Federal Judge to go F*** himself, Acosta is not coming back in. Period.
Or —— just don’t call on Acosta. If he decides to push a question over and over, end the briefing. The other journalists would be mad at Acosta.
I have ZERO respect for this notion of "precedent." What some past judge decided does not address the issue of the powers of the Presidency to control his own house.
The President has all the power here, and he needs to bitch slap this stupid judge by exercising it. He should instruct the Secret Service that Acosta is not to be allowed on the premises.
He was deprived of his 5th amendment rights to ‘due process’ dontchaknow. /s
Acosta ‘DID WIN’ his hard press pass back....Lets not play denial on that note.
However this is just round one....and there’s lots more to consider. He’s truly pi**ed of the most powerful man and his cabinet in the world and others in the press pool. I do not think this is in any way over.....Acosta may be sorry he got that pass back before all is said and done.
...and BTW he truly is a terrible person!
That is not the way most media outlets are stating it, that they did not win. They are reporting that they did win. Typical for the news media!
This. A supposedly "co-equal" branch of government has no authority to tell the other branches what to do.
I get it. Our Constitution/Bill of Rights is followed to the letter when it involves anything government related. This is why it’s so difficult to fire a bad civil service employee. It shouldn’t be but the way it affects the lowest person on the gov totem pole is how it supposed affects those above him.
The fact is our government needs a good makeover/reform. Maybe that will happen with the convention of states.
So much of our system is broken.
No. The president cannot allow this little piss-ant of a federal Judge to dictate the powers of the Presidency. The President controls his home, and the Judge has not a F***ing thing to say about it.
Trump should tell the Judge to go F*** himself, and he should tell Acosta to stay off the Whitehouse grounds.
Allowing any Federal judge to control the President in this manner is a constitutional crises. It cannot be allowed.
Yes he did win his press pass back....what happens now he has it back, and it’s determined about the case itself, is another story yet to be written. But he certainly has it in hand now.... until when is the question now?
.
Makes no sense at all.
If a pass is a constitutional right, where is mine?
.
Trump should deliberately, and with malice aforethought, defy that judge, and order Acosta kept off the premises.
“Allowing any Federal judge to control the President in this manner is a constitutional crises. It cannot be allowed”
We knew this crap wouldn’t stop when they started in with their injunctions on immigration. Whoever is advising PDJT to go along with this bullsh!t is an ahole.
I know he has to weigh whether he’ll be impeached or not over asserting his constitutional power as the executive but the damage being done to the separation of powers and the Constitution itself is catastrophic
Bad example. Contempt findings require that the person first be placed on notice that they are in violation of an order or published rule. I've seen contempt citations reversed for that exact reason.
That being said, I don't agree that there should be a due process right for a press pass. But this was a lower Court judge bound by the precedent of his own Circuit Court of Appeals. He gave the best ruling he could under those circumstances, and did not give Acosta and the press what they really wanted - a First Amendment right to attend press conferences.
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