Free Republic

The Trump administration wants the Supreme Court to permit the firing of the head of the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers, according to documents obtained Sunday that would mark the first appeal to the justices since President Donald Trump took office. The emergency appeal is the start of what probably will be a steady stream from lawyers for the Republican president and his administration seeking to undo lower court rulings that have slowed his second-term agenda. The Justice Department's filing obtained by The Associated Press asks the conservative-majority court to lift a judge's court order temporarily reinstating Hampton Dellinger...

Brendan Benedict, an antitrust litigator at Benedict Law Group who has faced off against Google in court, highlighted the potential demoralizing effect on the Department of Justice attorneys working tirelessly on the adtech case, only to see the administration collaborating with the opposition's lawyer for advice. He also suggested that Dunn could be a potential candidate to replace current antitrust chief Jonathan Kanter if Harris were to take office.The controversy surrounding Dunn's involvement in the Harris campaign is just one facet of the ethical quagmire surrounding the Google adtech case. Paul Weiss, the law firm where Dunn is a top...

Top lawyers who helped the Obama White House craft and hold to rules of conduct believe President Donald Trump and his staff will break ethics norms meant to guard against politicization of the government — and they’ve formed a new group to prepare, and fight. United to Protect Democracy, which draws its name from a line in President Barack Obama’s farewell address that urged his supporters to pick up where he was leaving off, has already raised a $1.5 million operating budget, hired five staffers and has plans to double that in the coming months. They’ve incorporated as both a...