this was the most delicious thing ever. though i feel for the attorney who was blindsided with it. I have a Third Circuit argument coming up in 2 weeks and i am keenly aware of how she would have felt getting that bomb dropped in her lap. i am listening to that oral argument here at my desk. Haven’t gotten to her yet, am listening to the Petitioner still. There is no guarantee that the DOJ atty would even have known that Obams opened his yap about this, depending on whether she was just politically attuned or not. It’s a mistake to think that everyone at DOJ is political. There are career attorneys who work there under whichever Atty General happens to be in the job at any given time. There are 3 Republican appointees on this particular panel of the 5th Cir., the one who requested the TREATISE is a Reagan appointee.
There’s gotta be some middle manager attorneys out there contemplating whether to run this request up to Holder or not for comment, eh?