The DC Circuit Court trial of former President Donald Trump, which had been scheduled for March 4, disappeared from the docket this week, being pushed back to an undetermined date by the failure of a 3-judge panel to issue a judgement on Trump’s immunity claim.
Harvard Law School star Laurence Tribe lambasted the delay, concurring with attorney Ian Bassin’s characterization of the inaction as “unconscionable.”
Tribe enhanced Bassin’s criticism by making his target more acute, placing the blame for the inaction squarely on the senior Judge Karen Henderson, “the likely source of this unconscionable delay — one that endangers our entire system of government.” Tribe further lamented the “unconscionable” delay because, he asserts, the case is “not hard.”
[Bassin wrote: “To the Judges: all Americans for whom you work are required to meet deadlines in our jobs all the time. Voters are entitled to know whether Trump is guilty or not before the election. Honor that deadline and quit the delay. Get it done.]
The other two judges on the slow-moving panel are J. Michelle Childs and Florence Pan.
I’m with @ianbassin here, with emphasis on Judge Karen Henderson, the senior judge on the panel and thus the likely source of this unconscionable delay — one that endangers our entire system of government. Judge Henderson, get on with it! This case is momentous but it’s not hard! https://t.co/DZUyzIDY13
— Laurence Tribe 🇺🇦 ⚖️ (@tribelaw) February 3, 2024
[Related: Trump’s Supreme Court Problems Boil Down To 4 Words, Yale Lawyer Says]
Tribe’s bona fides in the world of constitutional law are unparalleled. Conservative former U.S. Court of Appeals Judge J. Michael Luttig — in the news recently for an amicus brief at SCOTUS supporting the legal basis for the removal of Trump from the ballot in Colorado for participation in an insurrection — wrote last year that “Laurence H. Tribe has been the Nation’s preeminent constitutional scholar for the past half-century.”
Judge Henderson was appointed United States Circuit Judge in July 1990. She is intimately familiar with the prosecution side of the business, having served as Deputy Attorney General of South Carolina. She was later appointed United States District Judge for the District of South Carolina.
🚨New Blog Alert🚨 Judge Henderson's concerns on how to protect future presidents from prosecution if Trump's immunity is denied. Click the link for the inside scoop ➡️ https://t.co/nTezSgBFk3
— 2paragraphs (@2paragraphs) January 9, 2024
