{"id":2283013,"date":"2024-06-25T07:32:02","date_gmt":"2024-06-25T11:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/from-scotus-to-special-counsel-watch-these-cases-this-week\/"},"modified":"2024-06-25T07:37:21","modified_gmt":"2024-06-25T11:37:21","slug":"from-scotus-to-special-counsel-watch-these-cases-this-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/from-scotus-to-special-counsel-watch-these-cases-this-week\/","title":{"rendered":"From SCOTUS To Special Counsel, Watch These Cases This Week"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Ffrom-scotus-to-special-counsel-watch-these-cases-this-week%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2283013&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>This \u2063summary covers \u2064a series of important legal developments in the U.S.\u2063 involving President Joe Biden\u2019s administration, some notable court cases, and decisions from the Supreme\u200c Court scheduled for a\u2063 release.<\/p>\n<p>1. \u2062**Student Loan Bailouts**:<\/p>\n<p>   &#8211; Two federal \u200cjudges have issued preliminary \u2063injunctions against parts of Biden\u2019s plan to cancel approximately $150 billion in student loans,\u2063 known as the\u200b SAVE \u2063plan. Courts in Kansas and Missouri ruled separately that the Department of Education likely exceeded its authority\u200c under the Higher Education\u2063 Act. The injunctions do not affect loans already\u200d forgiven under the\u2063 SAVE plan, and\u2064 further appeals are anticipated.<\/p>\n<p>2. **Special\u2063 Counsel and Trump\u2019s Gag \u200cOrder**: <\/p>\n<p>   &#8211; In \u2064Florida, discussions continued around the appointment of Jack Smith\u2064 as\u2062 special \u200bcounsel and his\u200c office\u2019s request for a gag order on former President Donald \u200bTrump. Judge Aileen \u200cCannon was hesitant\u2064 about restricting Trump&#8217;s speech without <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/supreme-court-quashes-2024-long-shot-candidates-14th-amendment-case-against-trump\/\" title=\"Supreme Court dismisses 2024 candidate's 14th Amendment case vs. Trump.\">clear evidence\u2062 linking<\/a> \u2064his\u200b statements to \u200dactual threats or violence. She also heard arguments on Trump&#8217;s claim \u200dthat Smith&#8217;s appointment was \u200dconstitutionally invalid, a decision on which was pending further submissions.<\/p>\n<p>3. **Hunter \u2062Biden\u2019s Gun Case**:<\/p>\n<p>   \u200c  &#8211; \u200cHunter Biden, recently convicted on three counts related to a gun\u200c purchase, continues to challenge his \u2063conviction. His legal team argued that the trial court lacked jurisdiction as the \u200bappellate court did not issue a mandate after rejecting \u2064his initial appeal. This could\u200d potentially lead to a \u200bretrial. \u2063Hunter\u2019s team is also\u200b pursuing other \u2063legal avenues, including a Second Amendment challenge.<\/p>\n<p>4.\u2062 **Supreme\u2064 Court Decisions**:<\/p>\n<p>   \u2064   &#8211; The Supreme to release\u200d multiple decisions concerning significant issues, including Trump&#8217;s\u200c presidential immunity appeal \u200cand cases involving\u2064 the overruling of Chevron deference, which dictates how courts should treat agency interpretations \u200dof statutes they administer.<\/p>\n<p>These \u2064developments reflect a particularly busy period in the U.S. legal landscape, involving \u200bhigh-profile figures and significant policy \u2062implications.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Two federal judges enjoined portions of President Joe Biden\u2019s latest <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-reasons-making-taxpayers-pay-off-student-loans-is-a-rotten-idea\/\" title=\"5 Reasons Making Taxpayers Pay Off Student Loans Is A Rotten Idea\">student loan bailout<\/a> scheme on Monday. Simultaneously, another <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-judge-weighs-decision-in-texas-abortion-lawsuit-case\/\" title=\"Federal Judge Weighs Decision In Texas Abortion Lawsuit Case\">federal judge heard arguments<\/a> on the constitutionality of the appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel and prosecutors\u2019 efforts to gag Donald Trump. Meanwhile, on Monday, Hunter Biden\u2019s legal team filed three new briefs in the Delaware federal court where a jury recently convicted him on three counts related to his purchase of a gun. <\/p>\n<p>The Supreme Court added to the busy legal news day by announcing it would hand down decisions from the remaining cases this term on Thursday and Friday, in addition to the previously scheduled Wednesday decision day. Here\u2019s your lawsplainer for all these developments.<\/p>\n<h2>Student Loan Bailouts<\/h2>\n<p>Monday saw two different rulings freezing efforts by President Biden to \u201ccancel\u201d (i.e. make taxpayers pay instead) an estimated $150 billion in student loans. A Kansas district court <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.ksd.151881\/gov.uscourts.ksd.151881.76.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">granted<\/a> a preliminary injunction in a case brought by 11 states: Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Montana, Nebraska, South Carolina, Texas, and Utah. <\/p>\n<p>Presiding Judge Daniel Crabtree ruled that the states had a likelihood of success on the merits of their challenge to the so-called \u201cSAVE\u201d plan, which the Department of Education adopted to cancel student loans for eligible borrowers. The court held that the Higher Education Act did not clearly authorize the Department of Education\u2019s SAVE Plan. Judge Crabtree, however, refused to enjoin the entirety of the student loan bailout, limiting the preliminary injunction to those portions of the SAVE plan scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2024. The court\u2019s ruling thus does not affect the hundreds of thousands of student loans already forgiven under the SAVE plan.<\/p>\n<p>A second federal judge, this one in Missouri, granted a different group of states a <a href=\"https:\/\/fingfx.thomsonreuters.com\/gfx\/legaldocs\/lbvglbkjrpq\/06242024student_missouri.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">preliminary injunction<\/a> enjoining the SAVE plan. In that case, Missouri, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, North Dakota, Ohio, and Oklahoma likewise challenged the Department of Education\u2019s forgiveness plan, arguing that the federal agency had exceeded its authority under the Higher Education Act. <\/p>\n<p>Presiding Judge John A. Ross in the Missouri case agreed that the states were likely to succeed in their challenge that the Department of Education exceeded its authority in adopting the SAVE plan. The court, however, only enjoined the SAVE plan to the extent it forgave student loans, leaving in place the portions of the plan that lowered payments and limited interest accrual. <\/p>\n<p>The Biden administration is likely to appeal in both cases, with the Kansas case going to the 10th Circuit and the Missouri case appealed to the 8th Circuit. For their parts, the states may also seek review by the federal appellate courts, arguing that the lower courts\u2019 injunctions were too narrow and that the courts should have enjoined the entirety of the SAVE plan. In the meantime, the Biden administration is sure to seek a stay of the injunctions, which would allow the loan cancelations to take effect. A stay seems unlikely given that once the loan is forgiven it would be difficult to unwind the cancelations and that the Supreme Court has already slapped down Joe Biden\u2019s earlier loan forgiveness scheme. <\/p>\n<p>Stay or not, though, the SAVE plan provides a necessary carrot Joe Biden will wave to young voters in advance of the November election.<\/p>\n<h2>Special Counsel\u2019s Office Faced Tough Questioning<\/h2>\n<p>Meanwhile, halfway across the country in Florida, the Office of Special Counsel Jack Smith appeared before Judge Aileen Cannon, the presiding judge in the presidential documents case. Two issues were before the court during Monday\u2019s hearing: a requested gag order on Donald Trump and Trump\u2019s efforts to dismiss the charges against him based on the argument that Smith was not constitutionally appointed.<\/p>\n<p>At Monday\u2019s hearing, Judge Cannon drilled the special counsel\u2019s office on the need for a gag order. Smith\u2019s team had claimed that Trump\u2019s comments about the execution of the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago put FBI agents in danger. With no evidence connecting any of Trump\u2019s statements to threats or actual violence, however, Judge Cannon <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/news\/clash-prosecutor-judge-reserves-ruling-000500269.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">seemed<\/a> reticent about limiting what Trump could say about the case. She <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/news\/clash-prosecutor-judge-reserves-ruling-000500269.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">refrained<\/a> from ruling on the motion, giving the parties until Wednesday to provide any supplemental information to the court.<\/p>\n<p>Judge Cannon also heard arguments Monday on Trump\u2019s motion to dismiss the indictment based on the allegedly unconstitutional appointment of Jack Smith as special counsel. This argument challenges the regulations that authorized Attorney General Merrick Garland to appoint a private citizen as a special counsel. Those regulations, Trump\u2019s attorneys <a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653\/gov.uscourts.flsd.648653.326.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">argued<\/a>, cannot establish the federal office of special counsel because, under the appointments clause of the Constitution, only Congress can create such a federal office.<\/p>\n<p>A bevy of constitutional scholars have supported Trump\u2019s appointments clause argument, but given the lack of any supportive analogous precedent, Judge Cannon is likely to reject the former president\u2019s challenge to Smith\u2019s appointment. Trump will be able to advance the argument on appeal, however, and he is likely to seek immediate review by a federal appellate court of the issue \u2014 if she does in fact rule against him. At a minimum, that could delay this case for the foreseeable future.<\/p>\n<h2>Hunter Biden\u2019s Gun Case Isn\u2019t Over Yet<\/h2>\n<p>Monday also saw developments in the Hunter Biden criminal case in Delaware, where a jury convicted him earlier this month on three counts related to his purchase of a gun. While the jury found the president\u2019s son guilty, he continues to press several legal challenges to his conviction.<\/p>\n<p>Hunter\u2019s legal team presented a new theory in another motion to dismiss on Monday. In this motion, defense counsel argued that the trial court lacked jurisdiction or the power to hold the criminal trial because the appellate court had yet to return the case to the trial court. <\/p>\n<p>It is black letter law that when a case is appealed, that appeal divests the lower court of jurisdiction. In Hunter\u2019s case, he sought review by the appeals court, which was denied. But after rejecting Hunter\u2019s appeal, the appellate court, according to the defense motion, did not \u201cissue a mandate,\u201d which is the official way a case is returned to a lower court.<\/p>\n<p>Because there was no mandate issued, the lower court did not have jurisdiction at the time it held the trial, the motion argues. And in that case, a new trial must be held, Hunter\u2019s legal team asserts, citing as precedent a similar case. <\/p>\n<p>Whether there is contrary precedent remains to be seen when Special Counsel David Weiss\u2019s team responds. If not, Hunter may have succeeded in calling a mulligan.<\/p>\n<p>Hunter\u2019s legal team is also still pursuing other challenges to his conviction, including a Second Amendment challenge. So the jury\u2019s verdict is far from the last word in this case.<\/p>\n<h2>SCOTUS to Issue a Flurry of Big Decisions<\/h2>\n<p>While the lower courts will continue to wade through the above issues for some time, the Supreme Court announced Monday that it will be releasing opinions on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week. There remain some very significant decisions outstanding, including Trump\u2019s presidential immunity appeal.<\/p>\n<p>Other decisions to watch include the companion <a href=\"https:\/\/nclalegal.org\/case\/relentless-inc-et-al-v-u-s-dept-of-commerce-et-al\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cases<\/a> of <em>Loper Bright<\/em> and <em>Relentless<\/em>, which both ask the high court to overrule <em>Chevron <\/em>deference \u2014 a judicially invented doctrine that forces judges to defer to agencies\u2019 view of the law. Should the Supreme Court overturn <em>Chevon<\/em>, it will be a first step in reining in the administrative state.<\/p>\n<p>Equally important in fighting the administrative state is the case of <em>Murthy v. Missouri<\/em>, which involves a First Amendment challenge to efforts by various federal agencies to induce social media companies to silence disfavored speech. The Supreme Court\u2019s decision in <em>Murthy<\/em> will have widespread ramifications as the opinion will clarify when the government crosses the line in seeking censorship by third parties.<\/p>\n<p>While these and the other remaining cases are all of great significance, the import of the rulings is heightened by Thursday\u2019s debate, when Trump and Biden will likely trade jabs over the Supreme Court.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Margot Cleveland is an investigative journalist and legal analyst and serves as The Federalist\u2019s senior legal correspondent. Margot\u2019s work has been published at The Wall Street Journal, The American Spectator, the New Criterion, National Review Online, Townhall.com, the Daily Signal, USA Today, and the Detroit Free Press.     She is also a regular guest on nationally syndicated radio programs and on Fox News, Fox Business, and Newsmax. Cleveland is a lawyer and a graduate of the Notre Dame Law School, where she earned the Hoynes Prize\u2014the law school\u2019s highest honor. She later served for nearly 25 years as a permanent law clerk for a federal appellate judge on the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals.      Cleveland is a former <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/5-media-lies-about-the-latest-special-counsel-revelations\/\" title=\"5 Media Lies About The Latest Special Counsel Revelations\">full-time university faculty member<\/a> and now teaches as an adjunct from time to time. Cleveland is also of counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance.       Cleveland is on Twitter at @ProfMJCleveland where you can read more about her greatest accomplishments\u2014her dear husband and dear son. The views expressed here are those of Cleveland in her private capacity.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Monday, two federal judges blocked parts of President Joe Biden&#8217;s recent student loan relief plan. Concurrently, a federal judge reviewed the legality of appointing Jack Smith as special counsel and the attempts to silence Donald Trump. Additionally, Hunter Biden&#8217;s attorneys submitted three new briefs in Delaware<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":499,"featured_media":2283014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Large-Building-with-Flag.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[5185,6994,32482,4516],"class_list":["post-2283013","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist","tag-cases","tag-scotus","tag-special-counsel","tag-watch"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Large-Building-with-Flag.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/499"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2283013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2283013\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2283014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2283013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2283013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2283013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}