Pryor WH hon 11th

===

11TH IS CLARENCE? GINNI? CLERK?

bench slapped aileen cannon 2x?

gmu lec

son bill?

===

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an 5 26

President Donald Trump lost his appealof a personal lawsuit he launched against former Secretary Hillary Clinton, former FBI Director James Comey, the Democratic National Committee, the law firm Perkins Coie, LLC and others he blames for the Russia investigation.

Politico's Kyle Cheney reported on Tuesday that the 11th Circuit declined to rehear Trump's case, leaving his only option an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump and lawyer Alina Habba in 2023 were sanctioned $1 million for the "frivolous" lawsuit. Florida has rules that allow defendants to ask that a court decide whether a lawsuit is "bogus," the Associated Press reported.

At the time, U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks wrote in the ruling that Trump has a "pattern of abuse of the courts" for filing such lawsuits specifically for political purposes. He said that the move "undermines the rule of law" and "amounts to obstruction of justice."

"Here, we are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose," he wrote.

Chief Judge William Pryor, a George W. Bush appointee, along with Trump appointee Judge Andrew L. Brasher and Joe Biden appointee Judge Embry Kidd, denied Trump's demand to rehear the case.

They added the detail, "... no judge in regular active service on the Court having requested that the Court be polled on rehearing en banc," which means none of the judges had any interest in weighing in on rehearing the matter. On the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, six of the 12 judges were appointed by Trump.

Lawyer Marc Elias commented on BlueSky, "I was a defendant in Trump’s frivolous lawsuit. I did not settle. I did not compromise. I did not stop speaking out. We fought and won."

---

omfg

1 25 an

On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon issued a ruling temporarily blocking the release of Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith's final report in the waning days of President Joe Biden's administration.

The three-page order prevents Smith, Attorney General Merrick Garland, the Biden DOJ and "all of their officers, agents, and employees, and all persons acting in active concert or participation with such individuals” from “releasing, sharing, or transmitting the Final Report or any drafts of such Report outside the Department of Justice.” But as Politico's Kyle Cheney reports, Cannon — who then-President Donald Trump appointed to the federal bench in 2020 — may not have the jurisdiction to intervene in the publication of the report, which is required by the federal special counsel statute.

Whether the report sees the light of day will ultimately rest with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, which has overturned Cannon's rulings on two previous occasions. Legal nonprofit National Security Counselors posted to Bluesky that the 11th Circuit, which meets next week, is not likely to go agree with Cannon's decision.

"[T]hey get the final say, and they're not going to play the delay game that Trump really wanted Cannon to play," the organization wrote.

Portland, Oregon-based attorney Patrick De Klotz observed that Cannon's decision was handed down right around the same time the president-elect praised the judge as "brilliant" during a Tuesday press conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate. And civil rights lawyer Subodh Chandra condemned Cannon for "aiding and abetting suppression of the truth," adding: "Shame. Shame. Shame."

Other legal experts speculated that Cannon's move was less about the report itself and more about her jockeying for a position on the Supreme Court. Attorney Jeffrey Evan Gold, who is a legal analyst for CNN, NBC, ABC and others, responded to the news of Cannon blocking the report's release by referring to her as "Justice Cannon." Northeastern Illinois University political science professor William Adler wrote that Americans should "get used to" saying "Supreme Court nominee Aileen Cannon." And Politico magazine contributor Joshua Zeitz opined that it was "pretty easy to see how this goes."

"Alito will retire, Trump will name her to the court, and she’ll easily be confirmed with unanimous GOP support and a handful of older Democratic Senators who think it’s still 1978," Zeitz wrote.

Click here to read Cheney's full report in Politico, and click here to read the full text of Cannon's order.

===

ref

Federal Judge Aileen M. Cannon, the controversial jurist who tossed out the classified documents criminal case against Donald Trump in July, failed to disclose her attendance at a May 2023 banquet funded by a conservative law school.

Cannon went to an event in Arlington, Va. honoring the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, according to documents obtained from the Law and Economics Center at George Mason University. At a lecture and private dinner, she sat among members of Scalia’s family, fellow Federalist Society members and more than 30 conservative federal judges. Organizers billed the event as “an excellent opportunity to connect with judicial colleagues.”

A 2006 rule, intended to shine a light on judges’ attendance at paid seminars that could pose conflicts or influence decisions, requires them to file disclosure forms for such trips within 30 days and make them public on the court’s website.

It’s not the first time she has failed to fully comply with the rule.

In 2021 and 2022, Cannon took weeklong trips to the luxurious Sage Lodge in Pray, Montana, for legal colloquiums sponsored by George Mason, which named its law school for Scalia thanks to $30 million in gifts that conservative judicial kingmaker Leonard Leo helped organize.

Current rates for standard rooms at Sage Lodge can exceed $1,000 per night, depending on the season. With both Montana trips, Cannon’s required seminar disclosures were not posted until NPR reporters asked about the omissions this year as part of a broader national investigation of gaps in judicial disclosures.

Cannon did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In response to questions from ProPublica, the clerk in the Southern District of Florida wrote in an email that Cannon had filed the Sage Lodge trips with the federal judiciary’s administrative office but had “inadvertently” not taken the second step of posting them on the court’s website. She explained that “Judges often do not realize they must input the information twice.”

The clerk said she had no information about the May 2023 banquet.

“Judges administer the law, and we have a right to expect every judge to comply with the law,” said Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Cannon’s husband, Joshua Lorence, a restaurant executive, accompanied her to the 2021 and 2022 colloquiums, which featured noted conservative jurists, lawyers and professors as well as lengthy “afternoon study breaks,” according to records obtained by ProPublica. Cannon emailed university staff to submit airport parking expenses and inquire about rental car reimbursement.

The rule for paid seminars is among the policies set by the Judicial Conference. Federal judges are also required by law to file annual financial disclosures, listing items such as assets, outside income and gifts.

Cannon’s annual disclosure form for 2023, which was due in May and offers another chance to report gifts and reimbursements from outside parties, has yet to be posted. (Cannon reported the two Montana trips on her annual disclosure forms, but the required 30-day privately funded seminar reports had not been posted. In 2021, Cannon incorrectly listed the school as “George Madison University.”)

The court’s administrative office declined to say if she requested a one-time extension to give her until Aug. 13 to file. A spokesperson would not discuss whether she met the deadline or the status of her disclosure, which must be reviewed internally.

Cannon’s performance during almost four years of a lifetime appointment has drawn criticism from lawyers, former federal judges and courtroom observers who told ProPublica that she doesn’t render timely decisions and has made unpredictable rulings in both civil and criminal matters. On July 15, she threw out the case brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith that alleges Trump mishandled classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence; Cannon called Smith’s appointment unconstitutional since he was not nominated by the president and approved by the Senate.

Smith is appealing to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has asked the court to remand her decision and replace her.

By contrast, Trump, who appointed Cannon in 2020 to the Fort Pierce courthouse, has praised her brilliance, and Federalist Society founder Steven Calabresi called her a heroine for throwing out the criminal case against Trump.

For decades, judicial education programs sponsored by George Mason’s Law and Economics Center have drawn in 5,000 state and federal judges and four current Supreme Court justices, according to its website. The school says its programs strive for balance and intellectual rigor. But conference agendas and speaker lists that the university must file with the courts detail lectures and panel discussions built around Federalist Society principles that are associated with conservative legal movements.

Ken Turchi, associate dean for external affairs, said the law school plays no role in judicial disclosures. “Judges’ decisions to submit (or not submit) disclosure forms are theirs alone — it’s a self-reporting process,” he said.

The guest list for the May 2023 Scalia Forum included William H. Pryor Jr., chief judge of the 11th Circuit, which is now hearing Smith’s appeal. Pryor and dinner speaker Kyle Duncan, a 5th Circuit judge, did file their required disclosures for the Scalia dinner.

Pryor’s court has overruled Cannon twice in the Trump case. It sided with the government in September 2022 on a motion for a stay and found that it “had established a substantial likelihood of success on the merits.” In December 2022, it ruled that she erred in naming a special master to examine classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. After that decision, Cannon had to dismantle an expensive operation set up by her special master, a senior federal judge in New York.

Gabe Roth, who directs Fix the Court, a nonprofit judicial reform group, said compliance with the privately funded seminar rule has improved in some circuits since his group pressed for compliance with the Administrative Office of the Courts.

“They’re a more effective way for litigants and the public to get a sense of what types of individuals and groups a judge might be hanging out with and learning from,” he said.

Records show that Cannon submitted minor reimbursement requests related to the Scalia Forum trip after she returned, including the 158 miles she drove round trip to the airport. She inquired with George Mason staff about details for an Alaska excursion recommended by a former lawyer in the Trump-era White House Counsel’s Office.

Cannon registered for George Mason’s Hill Country Colloquium at a Texas resort in December 2023 but had to back out for scheduling reasons.

“I hope to join that event, and others, in future years,” she wrote.

If you have information about Judge Aileen M. Cannon, please contact Marilyn W. Thompson at marilyn.thompson@propublica.org.

---

alternet-lno lnx

Supreme Court delivers massive blow to Mark Meadows

Former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows' mugshot (Photo: Fulton County Sheriff's Office)

Carl GibsonNovember 12, 2024

Despite the Supreme Court's 6-3 conservative majority, former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows isn't catching a break from Republican-appointed justices in his own criminal case.

CNN reported Tuesday that Meadows' request to have his Fulton County, Georgia election interference case moved to federal court in Washington, D.C. has been officially denied, meaning the door has closed on his last-ditch effort to move his case out of the Peach State. Meadows had hoped to have his state-level case moved to the federal court, with his attorneys arguing that Meadows' acting on orders from then-President Donald Trump's were part of his official duties as chief of staff.

“This court reiterated that the threat posed by prosecutions against federal officers for actions relating to their federal functions does not evaporate once they leave federal office,” Meadows’ legal team stated in a filing to the Supreme Court this summer. “A White House Chief of Staff facing criminal charges based on actions relating to his work for the president of the United States should not be a close call.”

READ MORE: US appeals court shuts down Mark Meadows' attempt to move GA election interference case

Meadows' argument already fell flat in the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, however, with a three-judge panel denying his petition for an en banc hearing by the full circuit earlier this year. Chief Judge William Pryor previously ruled that Meadows' case should remain in the Georgia state court system, saying "the events giving rise to this criminal action were not related Meadows’ official duties."

Now, Meadows' fate will depend on an Atlanta jury after the Georgia Court of Appeals rules on whether Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis can continue prosecuting the case. Willis — who won her own reelection last week — has previously survived Trump's attempt to have her removed from the case, as his lawyers argued that her romantic relationship with then-special prosecutor Nathan Wade constituted a conflict of interest.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Scott McAfee previously ruled that either Wade or Willis had to step down from their role this summer, prompting Wade to submit his resignation almost immediately following McAfee's decision. But Trump's lawyers successfully appealed that decision to the Georgia Court of Appeals, which is expected to issue its own ruling on whether Willis can remain on the case next spring.

With Trump preparing to enter the White House again in January, Meadows was likely angling for a presidential pardon if his case was moved from state to federal court. But because Trump cannot end state-level investigations with a pardon, both the president-elect and his former chief of staff still have to contend with the Fulton County case regardless of whether Willis remains on the case or a new prosecutor is assigned.

READ MORE: 'No trial until 2025': Political scientist hedges bet on 'untested constitutional theory' in GA case

Trump's attorneys in Georgia had previously argued that his criminal trial should be put on hold until January of 2029 if he were to win the election, saying that the duties of the presidency take precedent over an individual state's prosecution. Judge McAfee has yet to officially reschedule the trial, though it's expected his lawyers will be successful in preventing the case from moving forward until Trump leaves office.

CNN reported that Meadows has already struck out in his attempts to move his Arizona criminal case to federal court, with a judge ruling against him in September. Meadows is facing multiple felony charges in the Grand Canyon State for his alleged attempts to interfere with the 2020 election in the state President Joe Biden narrowly won four years ago.

Click here to read CNN's report in full.

READ MORE: GA reporter: Here's what happens with Trump's Fulton County trial after Fani Willis decision

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an pro pub 9 24

Federal Judge Aileen M. Cannon, the controversial jurist who tossed out the classified documents criminal case against Donald Trump in July, failed to disclose her attendance at a May 2023 banquet funded by a conservative law school.

A 2006 rule, intended to shine a light on judges’ attendance at paid seminars that could pose conflicts or influence decisions, requires them to file disclosure forms for such trips within 30 days and make them public on the court’s website.

It’s not the first time she has failed to fully comply with the rule.

Cannon did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

In response to questions from ProPublica, the clerk in the Southern District of Florida wrote in an email that Cannon had filed the Sage Lodge trips with the federal judiciary’s administrative office but had “inadvertently” not taken the second step of posting them on the court’s website. She explained that “Judges often do not realize they must input the information twice.”

The clerk said she had no information about the May 2023 banquet.

“Judges administer the law, and we have a right to expect every judge to comply with the law,” said Virginia Canter, chief ethics counsel for the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Smith is appealing to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington has asked the court to remand her decision and replace her.

By contrast, Trump, who appointed Cannon in 2020 to the Fort Pierce courthouse, has praised her brilliance, and Federalist Society founder Steven Calabresi called her a heroine for throwing out the criminal case against Trump.

Ken Turchi, associate dean for external affairs, said the law school plays no role in judicial disclosures. “Judges’ decisions to submit (or not submit) disclosure forms are theirs alone — it’s a self-reporting process,” he said.

Pryor’s court has overruled Cannon twice in the Trump case. It sided with the government in September 2022 on a motion for a stay and found that it “had established a substantial likelihood of success on the merits.” In December 2022, it ruled that she erred in naming a special master to examine classified documents seized from Mar-a-Lago. After that decision, Cannon had to dismantle an expensive operation set up by her special master, a senior federal judge in New York.

Gabe Roth, who directs Fix the Court, a nonprofit judicial reform group, said compliance with the privately funded seminar rule has improved in some circuits since his group pressed for compliance with the Administrative Office of the Courts.

“They’re a more effective way for litigants and the public to get a sense of what types of individuals and groups a judge might be hanging out with and learning from,” he said.

Records show that Cannon submitted minor reimbursement requests related to the Scalia Forum trip after she returned, including the 158 miles she drove round trip to the airport. She inquired with George Mason staff about details for an Alaska excursion recommended by a former lawyer in the Trump-era White House Counsel’s Office.

Cannon registered for George Mason’s Hill Country Colloquium at a Texas resort in December 2023 but had to back out for scheduling reasons.

“I hope to join that event, and others, in future years,” she wrote.

If you have information about Judge Aileen M. Cannon, please contact Marilyn W. Thompson at marilyn.thompson@propublica.org.

---

an 722 ginni helped

Crystal Clanton had worked for the far-right student group Turning Point USA when, in late 2017, The New Yorker's Jane Mayerreported that she had sent an overtly racist text to her co-workers. And now, according to Law.com, she is being hired as a clerk by a federal judge for the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals: William H. Pryor, Jr. , who hasn't responded to inquiries about the controversial hire.

In 2017, Mayer reported that Clanton sent a text telling others in Turning Point USA, "I hate Black people. Like fuck them all.… I hate blacks. End of story." Clanton served as Turning Point's national field director.

Law.com's Katheryn Hayes Tucker reports, "Pryor did not have an immediate response to messages October 8 seeking comment about the clerk and the vetting process used to choose clerks. Circuit Executive James Gerstenlauer also did not respond to messages October 8. Nor did the office that monitors the press e-mail account for the Eleventh Circuit. The clerk, Crystal Clanton, also could not be reached for comment."

On October 5, Above the Law published an article with the headline, "Law School Student Famous For Saying 'I HATE BLACK PEOPLE' Now Has Prestigious Federal Clerkship."

"It's not only the would-be law clerk herself that's driving the controversy," Tucker writes. "It's the life-changing nature of federal clerkships for young lawyers, who typically go on to big law or the bench. That, plus whatever level of assistance clerks provide their bosses in writing opinions that make law and affect litigants."

===

swanned into fedsoc BD

omfg

no lnx

lAW SCHOOLS

Law School Student Famous For Saying ‘I HATE BLACK PEOPLE’ Now Has Prestigious Federal Clerkship

Hate doesn't seem to be slowing down her career prospects.

By KATHRYN RUBINO

on October 5, 2021

https://abovethelaw.com/2021/10/law-school-student-famous-for-saying-i-hate-black-people-now-has-prestigious-federal-clerkship/

I’d say Crystal Clanton just keeps failing upwards, but given that outrage is currency in right-wing circles, it is more accurate to say that her career is progressing on schedule. Do you remember why Clanton first became a news story? It’s been a minute, so I’ll cover the deets.

In December of 2017, the New Yorker reported that Clanton, who at the time worked at the conservative student group Turning Point USA, texted co-workers with this hateful message:

I HATE BLACK PEOPLE. Like fuck them all .?.?. I hate blacks. End of story.

From ABOVE THE LAW

Awful, right? And this was far from a one-off incident, as reported by Mediaite:

Numerous sources who worked with Clanton detailed how she would exchange racist remarks regularly with other TPUSA staffers — including Alana Mastrangelo, who currently works for the group, and Timox Prax, who was allegedly forced out of TPUSA this year over “bigoted” remarks — using Snapchat.

One such message reviewed by Mediaite features a photo of a man who appears to be Arab and a caption written by Clanton that reads, “Just thinking about ways to do another 9/11.” (The source who provided Mediaite with the image requested it not be published to protect their anonymity.)

Well, even though Clanton was forced out of the right-wing nonprofit, her career prospects were far from damaged. Shortly after she left Turning Point USA, Ginni Thomas — yes, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife — hired Clanton to assist with her media ventures. And Clanton lapped up her connection to the powerful jurist.

But that wasn’t the end of Clanton’s ambitions. She was admitted to ASSLaw— that’s George Mason University’s Antonin Scalia Law School, for the uninitiated — and is scheduled to graduate this spring. And now we know that her post-graduation plans include an incredibly prestigious clerkship with Eleventh Circuit Judge William Pryor for 2023-24.

===

the nation

...

The religion wars only intensified when Bush nominated William Pryor to serve on the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit. Because he was up for an appellate seat, Pryor generated more adamant Democratic opposition than had Holmes. Senators probed his hard-line beliefs on abortion, church-state separation, and LGBTQ rights, including questioning him about his rescheduling of a family vacation to Disney World because it coincided with “Gay Day,”and an amicus brief he authored as Alabama attorney general in the landmark Supreme Court case Lawrence v. Texas, in which he argued that gay sex should remain criminalized because the Court had “never recognized a fundamental right to engage in sexual activity outside of monogamous heterosexual marriage, let alone to engage in homosexual sodomy.” Pryor supporters, again, portrayed legitimate questions about a nominee’s position on abortion—a constitutional right that enjoys majority support among not only Americans as a whole but also among Catholics—as a de facto litmus test against Catholics.

“Their intention is smearing senators as anti-religious for asking questions,” said Peter Montgomery, senior fellow at People for the American Way, which has been in the thick of judicial nominations for decades. “In doing that they’re hoping to intimidate the senator somehow. They raise these questions when senators are asking the nominees about important issues like Roe v. Wade.”

Throughout this entire period, Kavanaugh was specifically enlisted by the Bush White House to engage the Catholic community, including about judges. He was asked, along with Karl Rove, to address supporters of the Catholic magazine Crisis. He also spoke about judicial nominations to a Pro-Life Pilgrimage from Legatus, a conservative Catholic network created by Domino’s Pizza founder Thomas Monaghan, for Catholic business leaders who have “committed themselves to study, live and spread the Catholic faith in their business and personal lives.” And he volunteered to be the office’s specialist on faith-based initiatives, “given my general interest and my previous religious liberty work in my pre-WH days.” Kavanaugh had served on the Religious Liberty Practice Group at the Federalist Society; in private practice he authored an amicus brief in a school-prayer case, arguing that student-delivered prayers at football games were constitutional (the Supreme Court held that they were not).

It was during the Pryor nomination fight that conservative advocacy groups first aggressively advanced the claim that Catholics were being excluded from the bench by the left. The Committee for Justice, led by former George H.W. Bush White House Counsel C. Boyden Gray, and the Ave Maria List, a political-action committee funded by Monaghan, ran newspaper ads in support of Pryor that targeted moderate and swing-state Democratic senators. The ads featured a picture of a closed courtroom door with a sign over it reading, “Catholics Need Not Apply”—the first of the phrase’s many appearances in confirmation campaigns.

...

jr shortlisted scotus trump

Besides Gorsuch, Trump last year reportedly interviewed 3rd Circuit Judge Thomas Hardiman, 6th Circuit Judge Amul Thapar (Thapar at the time was a federal district judge; he later became Trump's first lower-court nominee), and 11th Circuit Judge William Pryor Jr.

Other judges considered frontrunners include DC Circuit Judge Brett Kavanaugh, a Kennedy clerk and a veteran of the George W. Bush administration; 6th Circuit Judge Raymond Kethledge, also a Kennedy clerk; and 7th Circuit Judge Amy Coney Barrett, a former law professor who was nominated and confirmed last year to the appeals court.

===

Judge William Pryor was what is euphemistically referred to as a “controversial nominee” when President George W. Bush announced his nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. His opponents pointed to statements Pryor made as Alabama Attorney General labeling Roe v. Wade and the Supreme Court’s landmark criminal justice decision in Miranda v. Arizona as “the worst examples of judicial activism.” Pryor also described Roe as creating “a constitutional right to murder an unborn child.” Senate Democrats initially filibustered Pryor’s nomination, but they eventually capitulated to a Republican threat to eliminate the filibuster unless Pryor was confirmed. (Eight years later, Democrats eliminated the filibuster themselves for lower court nominations.)

Since joining the bench, Pryor did reach at least one surprising decision — he joined a 2011 opinion holding that “a government agent violates the Equal Protection Clause’s prohibition of sex-based discrimination when he or she fires a transgender or transsexual employee because of his or her gender non-conformity.” For the most part, however, Pryor has behaved as a fairly orthodox conservative since his elevation to the court.

In *Common Cause/Georgia v. Billups*, for example, Pryor upheld a Georgia voter ID law — a common method of voter suppression. According to one study, strict voter ID laws “could be expected to depress Latino turnout by 9.3 points, Black turnout by 8.6 points, and Asian American turnout by 12.5 points.” Similarly, “Democratic turnout drops by an estimated 8.8 percentage points in general elections when strict photo identification laws are in place,” as compared to 3.6 points for Republicans. Though the laws are often justified a means to address in person voter fraud, such fraud is so uncommon that, by one measure, a voter is 39 times more likely to be struck by lightning than commit voter fraud at the polls.

Though much of Pryor’s analysis tracked a Supreme Court opinion rejecting a similar challenge to a voter ID law, his opinion also contains language suggesting that challengers must identify specific individuals who are unable to jump through the hoops such laws erect between voters and the polls, but who are nonetheless visible enough that they can individually be identified by civil rights attorneys. That may prove to be an impossible task, as the voters most impacted by such laws are, by their very nature, likely to live at the margins of society.

Similarly, on literally the same day that the Supreme Court implied that a framework — which the Obama administration currently uses to accommodate religious objectors while also providing birth control coverage to working women — is legal, Pryor handed down an opinion arguing that this framework is illegal. Notably, the fate of this framework is currently pending before the Supreme Court, so Pryor could potentially strip many woman of health plans covering contraception if Trump promoted him..

palast BBB?

baldwin cty Ala similar scam ousted gov don siegelman, rove et al went after, fed judge said DOJ shd be investigated, and dismissed charges, overturned by scotus 260; congr hearings stalled b/c rove refused to testify and b2 admin lost docs. gop said trouble w/ tabulaor but gave printout that DS won and sent all home, then redid # and posted on cty probate ct website, .23% win for Riley 2002 p261 (tho no change in downballot); next aM CANVASS BD BLOCKED ENTRY, ALL GOP; statue says certify fri, but did immediately; demanded recount as alw allows, butAG Bill Pryorcited obscure law; rove imported in 1994 by Biz Council of Al to get state and esp judicual postions 263 crooks and 8:1 al scotus; al gop kudos to Kitty McCullough, aka kelly kimbrough, rove partner at KR &Co 264 prtoer get fed judge gig from b2, hey dind that book of payoff gigs; she got help from Dan Gans, electronic vote expert who had worked for riley, then alex strat gp JA bragged on riley win 265

blog

http://legalschnauzer.blogspot.com/2013/08/jessica-garrisons-political-ties-go.html

epublican operative Jessica Medeiros Garrison has become known in recent weeks for her connections to Luther Strange, including an extramarital affair with the Alabama attorney general. But in a strictly political sense, Garrison's strongest ties might be to another Republican, one of national significance.

We are talking about U.S. Circuit Judge William H. "Bill" Pryor, who entered the spotlight in 2003 when he became President George W. Bush's controversial nominee to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals. Pryor drew such strong opposition from Democrats, primarily because of his stance against abortion rights, that Bush was forced to make a recess appointment in February 2004. Among the issues at Pryor's confirmation hearing was his decision to schedule a family vacation to Disney World so as not to coincide with the park's "Gay Days" festivities.

Pryor's national profile recently became even stronger when President Obama inexplicably appointed him to a six-year term on the U.S. Sentencing Commission. By statute, the commission must be bipartisan, and at least three of its members must be federal judges. But of all the federal judges in the country, including Republican appointees from Democratic-leaning states, why would Obama choose Bill Pryor? Was it a favor to U.S. Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL), ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a long-time Pryor supporter?

In a recent newspaper interview, Jessica Garrison lists Bill Pryor as her "real-life hero" and calls him a "mentor" who has given her invaluable advice "since I was in college." (More on that interview in an upcoming post.) The relationship apparently started when Garrison worked as an intern in the attorney general's office under Sessions, and Pryor was one of his chief deputies. When Pryor ascended to the AG's position, Garrison worked for him in public relations and legislative affairs.

Many Alabamians probably assume that Pryor is based in Atlanta, home to the Eleventh Circuit. But he lives in Birmingham and is based at the Hugo Black U.S. Courthouse downtown, where he has an office on the ninth floor.

Pryor's profile, however, extends beyond the courthouse door. He is involved with a Birmingham-based ministry that has connections to the downtown law firm where Garrison serves in an "of counsel" position. And Pryor started the Republican Attorneys General Association (RAGA), which now is Garrison's primary employer.

That raises this question: Has Bill Pryor been involved in the maneuvering that apparently started with the Strange/Garrison affair, her divorce from Tuscaloosa city councilman Lee Garrison, and her effort to modify their custody agreement so she could take a job under Strange at the attorney general's office? More specifically, has Pryor been involved in the curious financial payments and peculiar real-estate transactions that are central to the Strange/Garrison saga?

Pryor is known as "the Johnny Appleseed" of the Federalist Society, the ultra-conservative legal group for which he started chapters in New Orleans and Birmingham. He also is known as a deeply religious sort who wears his Catholic faith for all to see.

If Bill Pryor is such a moral guy, why would he come anywhere near the mess that Luther Strange and Jessica Garrison have created? Besides that, what kind of mentor is Bill Pryor if one of his acolytes becomes ensnared in a scandal that involves an extramarital affair and other ugliness?

What about Pryor's ties to a Birmingham "ministry"--and why would he be involved in such an organization, given that he is a federal judge in a democracy that supposedly is based, in part, on a separation of church and state?

The Web site for the Fixed Point Foundationstates that its mission is "to seek innovative ways to defend and proclaim the Gospel and to prepare Christians to do the same." Prominent among Fixed Point's speakers is Bill Pryor, and he has served as a debate moderator for the foundation.

Fixed Point's staffincludes Will Hill Tankersley, a partner at Birmingham's Balch Bingham, as outside general counsel. The Balch firm happens to be where Jessica Garrison landed an "of counsel" position after having to give up her position in the attorney general's office in order to resolve a custody dispute.

To add to the intrigue, Garrison's primary job is with RAGA, which is an affiliate of the D.C.-based Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC). As we noted in a previous post, Luther Strange has a habit of using RSLC as more or less a money-laundering organization:

We know that Strange takes hypocrisy on gambling issues to monumental dimensions. After all, this is the guy who has tried to shut down non-Indian gaming facilities, such as VictoryLand in Macon County and Center Stage Alabama in Houston County, while taking a $100,000 campaign contribution from the Poarch Creek casinos. This also is the guy who used the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC) to help obscure the donation via a PAC-to-PAC transfer.

Federal judges have lifetime appointments, so the public and the press tend to think they are above scrutiny. But perhaps it's time to shine a spotlight on Bill Pryor's ties to the Luther Strange/Jessica Garrison mess.

In the meantime, here is Bill Pryor speaking at a 2007 Federalist Society symposium on morality and the law:

William Holcombe "Bill" Pryor, Jr. (born April 26, 1962) is a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Previously, he was theAttorney General of the State of Alabama from 1997 to 2004.

Contents

[hide]

Background[edit]

Born in Mobile, Alabama, to William Holcombe Pryor, Sr. and his wife, Laura Louise (née Bowles), Pryor was raised in a devoutly Roman Catholic family. He and his siblings attended McGill-Toolen Catholic High School in Mobile. He earned his B.A. from Northeast Louisiana University in 1984 and his J.D. from Tulane University Law School in 1987, where he served as editor in chief of the Tulane Law Review.

Legal career[edit]

Pryor served as a law clerk to Judge John Minor Wisdom of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit from 1987 to 1988. Pryor worked as a private attorney from 1988–1995, serving as adjunct professor at the Cumberland School of Law at Samford University from 1989-1995.Pryor currently teaches federal jurisdiction at the University of Alabama School of Law.

Political career[edit]

From 1995-1997, he served as Alabama's deputy attorney general. He became the state's Attorney General in 1997. He was, at that time, the youngest state attorney general in the United States. Pryor waselected in 1998 and reelected in 2002. At reelection, Pryor garnered nearly 59% of the vote, the highest percentage of any statewide candidate.^[citation ^needed]

Pryor received national attention in2003 when he called for the removal of Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who had disobeyed a federal court order to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the Alabama Judicial Building. Pryor said that although he agreed with the propriety of displaying the Ten Commandments in a courthouse, he was bound to follow the court order and uphold the rule of law. Pryor personally prosecuted Moore for violations of the Canons of Judicial Ethics, and the Alabama Court of the Judiciary unanimously removed Moore from office.^[citation ^needed]

Eleventh Circuit nomination and confirmation[edit]

Pryor was nominated to the Eleventh Circuit by President George W. Bush on April 9, 2003 to fill a seat vacated by Judge Emmett Ripley Cox, who had assumed senior status. Originally, William H. Steele had been nominated to the seat in 2001, but his nomination had become stalled in the Democratic-controlled Senate Judiciary Committee during the 107th United States Congress because African-American groups protested his decisions in two civil rights cases as a magistrate judge. His nomination was withdrawn in January 2003. Pryor was nominated as Steele's replacement.

Despite the fact that the 108th United States Congress was controlled by the Republican Party, Senate Democrats refused to allow Pryor to be confirmed. Due to a filibuster of his nomination, President George W. Bush installed Pryor as a circuit court judge on February 20, 2004 using a recess appointment to bypass the regular Senate confirmation process. Pryor resigned as Alabama's attorney general that same day and took his judicial oath for a term lasting until the end of 2006, when his appointment would have ended had he not been eventually confirmed. On May 23, 2005 Senator John McCain announced an agreement between seven Republican and seven Democratic U.S. Senators, the Gang of 14, to ensure an up-or-down vote on Pryor and two other stalled Bush nominees, Priscilla Owen and Janice Rogers Brown. On June 9, 2005, Pryor was confirmed to the Eleventh Circuit by a vote of 53-45, and received his commission on June 10, 2005 and on June 20, 2005, he was sworn in at the age of 43. Pryor was the only judge appointed to the Eleventh Circuit by President George W. Bush.^[citation ^needed]

Notable Opinions[edit]

Pelphrey v. Cobb County (11th Cir. 2008). Pryor wrote the majority (2-1)opinion, joined by Judge Charles R. Wilson, affirming the district court ruling that sectarian prayers used to open commission meetings did not violate the Establishment Clause as long as the prayers were not exploitive.^{[clarification} ^needed] U.S. District Court Judge Donald Middlebrooks dissented.
Zibtluda LLC v. Gwinnett County, Georgia, (11th Cir. 2005).Opinion affirmed district court ruling that a local ordinance limiting the placement of adult entertainment establishments was constitutional. The opinion was notable for Pryor's quote of a line from The B-52's hit song "Love Shack" in describing the proposed establishment.

Family[edit]

Pryor is married to Kristan Wilson Pryor; they have two daughters, Caroline and Victoria Pryor.

Pryor's father, William Holcombe Pryor, Sr. is a former band director and now Roman Catholic deacon at McGill-Toolen Catholic High School, his own alma mater and that of two of his four children.^[1]

References[edit]

^ McGill-Toolen Catholic High School-About McGill-Toolen

William H. Pryor, Jr. at the Biographical Directory of Federal Judges, a public domain publication of the Federal Judicial Center.

External links[edit]

US DOJ webpage
White House judicial nominee biography
Campaign Contributions Made by William Pryor
|MONTGOMERY, AL 36117 ATTORNEY GENERALS OFFICE|Jeff Sessions (R) Senate - AL FRIENDS OF SESSIONS SENATE COMMITTEE INC|Won|$1,000 primary|06/27/01||

PRYOR, WILLIAM H JR MONTGOMERY, AL 36117	George W Bush (R) President BUSH FOR PRESIDENT INC.	Won	$1,000 primary	06/07/99
PRYOR, WILLIAM H JR BIRMINGHAM, AL 35226 WALSTONSTABLERWELLS	ALABAMA REPUBLICAN PARTY (R)	-	$200 primary	12/28/94	12/28/94

PRYOR, WILLIAM H JR

MONTGOMERY, AL 36117

George W Bush (R)

President

BUSH FOR PRESIDENT INC.

Won

$1,000

primary

06/07/99

PRYOR, WILLIAM H JR

BIRMINGHAM, AL 35226

WALSTONSTABLERWELLS

ALABAMA REPUBLICAN PARTY (R)

$200

primary

12/28/94

Pryor WH hon 11th

Background[edit]

Legal career[edit]

Political career[edit]

Eleventh Circuit nomination and confirmation[edit]

Notable Opinions[edit]

Family[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

External links[edit]