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Yet More Proof Merrick Garland & DOJ Are on the Wrong Side [1]
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Date: 2023-07-08
Merrick Garland was the GOP choice for SCOTUS until Boss McConnell decided he wasn’t, and watching how he does his job as attorney general, it’s easy to see why the GOP suggested him to Obama—Merrick does not exhibit the personal or professional traits of a passionate progressive, or even a liberal.
This is vividly illustrated by DOJ’s continuing attempt to block young people who filed a science-backed federal lawsuit in 2015, arguing persuasively that climate change and other ecocidal disasters are enabled and promoted by government actions and inactions.
The suit claims these actions violate constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, and also demonstrate negligence about protecting public lands and other common public holdings.
Obama-era officials, and then Trump’s attorneys general and DOJ, repeatedly tried to get the lawsuit thrown out.
Given that Biden and the Dems claim to now be the political party that acknowledges science and climate change, one would assume a Biden DOJ would do the opposite of Trump’s DOJ, and enthusiastically join in supporting the visionary lawsuit.
Unfortunately, Merrick has chosen to use the same specious tactics the Trump DOJ used, trying to get the lawsuit thrown out.
Andrea Rodgers, attorney for the youth plaintiffs, explained: "The DOJ's conduct throughout the course of this case has been nothing short of outrageous. As children all around this country experience unprecedented temperatures, deadly wildfire smoke, and catastrophic storms, the government fiddles and tries to prevent these young plaintiffs from presenting evidence in open court as to how they are being harmed by their government's national fossil fuel-based energy system. It is our hope and expectation that courts will see through the DOJ's tactics and ensure that this constitutional case gets to trial immediately."
Merrick ignored the pleas of nearly 300 climate justice and environmental groups, along with a petition signed by tens of thousands of people, demanding that his Department of Justice end its efforts to block the lawsuit from even being heard.
Instead of siding with those seeking to protect the earth and their own future, Merrick again instructed his attorneys to go to court and request total dismissal of the lawsuit.
Who benefits if the lawsuit is dismissed? The industries whose products when used as directed create catastrophic climate change, that’s who.
Ask yourself, why would Merrick side with death industries? What is he getting for doing this?
What alarms those of us not in the Cult of Merrick is how easily he scoffs at criminality, progressive concerns, and solid legal doctrine in this case and others.
For example, Merrick and his DOJ were repeatedly on DONALD TRUMP’S SIDE against E. Jean Carroll, who earlier this year won a civil lawsuit against Trump when a jury agreed he had defamed and sexually abused her.
If Merrick had had his way, the DOJ would have successfully used the Federal Tort Claims Act and the Westfall Act to remove Trump from the lawsuit and substitute the U.S. government as defendant, which would have meant Carroll’s case had to be dismissed.
This is the same tactic Trump’s attorney general was using against Carroll when Trump was president. And again, one would expect a Biden DOJ to reverse course and not follow the lead of Bill Barr.
When Democratic Sen. Pat Leahey asked Merrick why he was aping Barr by taking Trump’s side against a woman Trump sexually abused, Merrick displayed the same word-salad, defensive, diffident, dismissive, disingenuous, vapid tone he uses trying to defend his slothfulness and lack of zeal regarding Trump’s espionage and other traitorous criminal acts.
Check out Merrick’s ludicrous, hypocritical response to Leahy: "Our job is to represent the American people. And our job in doing so is to ensure adherence to the rule of law, which is a fundamental requirement of a democracy, or a republic or a representative democracy."
If I had been questioning Merrick, I’d have asked him to candidly explain how siding with Donald Trump, using questionable legal tactics, so the vile traitor escapes accountability for raping a woman and then defaming her is a way to “represent the American people.”
In contrast, if I was in the Cult of Merrick, I’d automatically, blithely accept his nonsense, and even defend him against legitimate critiques.
Because after all, at least he is not as bad as Bill Barr, John Ashcroft, Jeff Sessions, Alberto Gonzales and other GOP attorneys general, right?
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https://dailykos.com/stories/2023/7/8/2180006/-Yet-More-Proof-Merrick-Garland-DOJ-Are-on-the-Wrong-Side
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