7.01.2024

Random Monday Morning Thoughts




I tracked down two indictments (CR17829 &CR17827) but found out that both were dismissed four years later.


  • The weekend was dominated by "Should Biden step aside or not," but that narrative is about to be buried in the American news cycle. We have the Trump "absolute immunity" opinion being issued this morning in the 9:00 o'clock hour, and next week he will be sentenced in the Stormy Daniels/Business Records case.

  • The son paying for the sins of the father.


  • There was a lot of cars driving badly into buildings on Friday. One in the metroplex, one in south Texas, and a bad one in Long Island. :



  • That's not overtime -- that's an abuse of power and funds. A patrol sergeant made over $300,000.

     

  • Whenever you see that a grand jury "no-billed" a defendant, it normally means the D.A. told them to but every once in a while a grand jury will revolt and go against a D.A.'s recommendation to indict. But you can never really figure out what happened.

  • We've got the earliest Category 4 Hurricane recorded in history. There had never been one recorded in June before.  And it's a big vacation disrupter because Jamacia is in its path first, and then it heads towards anywhere south of Cancun to all of Belize. 


  • Not only is that a big sentence, the criminal courts move fast down there. That incident, which was pretty big news at the time, happened less than 14 months ago. 
     

  • Trump quick hits:
    • He's just casually suggesting that his enemies, even fellow Republicans, be tried by military tribunals. 

    • Trump will be announcing a VP nominee in the next couple of weeks. It is absolutely mind-boggling to remember that he has to choose a new one because the old one refused to go along with his planned coup to overthrow the U.S. government. 

  • The Business Second™:


  • The U.S. Supreme Court overruled the "Chevron doctrine" on Friday which means the rule-making power of federal agencies is about to be greatly curtailed. It, not Dobbs, is the golden goose that the Federalist Society, and its rich donors, has been gunning for all these years. That aside, Justice Gorsuch had a huge embarrassment that he had to scramble to fix after the opinion's release:


  • The Evil Empire and OU join the SEC today. As a by-product, the Longhorn Network is officially gone. Its last day went exactly as expected:

  • Extremely nerdy legal stuff:
    • For criminal legal practitioners: Everyone thinks that the State can avoid having to release a felony defendant on a PR bond by indicting him within 90 days and thus avoiding the consequences or art 17.151.  But a new case says that if after that the state announces "not ready", that the PR requirements if 17.151 kick back in again. 
    • If you are a civil practitioner, you might want to look at this thread about the ramifications for broad form jury submissions issued by the Texas Supreme Court on Friday. 
    • A criminal trespass case out of the county court at law in Gainesville has made its way to the Supreme Court for consideration. Petition for Cert PDF here.