I think the writer at Lawyers, Guns and Money is right about this case currently at the Supreme Court, where it should not have lasted a minute:
Three weeks ago a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order to plaintiffs suing the Trump administration for freezing foreign aid funds that had already been appropriated by Congress. This is about as illegal as illegal can get, so granting a TRO was without doubt the appropriate response. The administration appealed the granting of the TRO to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals, even though grants of TROs aren’t generally appealable. The DC Circuit immediately turned down the appeal, because what the Trump administration is doing is totally illegal on its face, plus again you normally can’t block this sort of interlocutory order at this point in litigation.
The administration’s lawyers waited until the literal 11th hour last Wednesday to appeal the DC Circuit’s action to the SCOTUS, which for all the reasons noted above should have routinely refused to consider it. So it wasn’t a good sign when John Roberts, who oversees appeals from the circuit, paused the operation of the already appealed District Court order requiring the Trump administration to release the already appropriated money.
Now what REALLY isn’t a good sign is that here we are six days later, and the SCOTUS as a whole hasn’t already gotten rid of this ridiculous appeal of a wildly illegal act on the part of the government.
There is no legally defensible claim to be made by the fascists currently in the executive to support their action. Congress made a law that was approved by the then President. It requires certain expenditures. There is nothing remotely unconstitutional about those expenditures.
The appeal never should have been accepted.Nor should it have taken the court more than 5 minutes to turn it down. Even if there were a colorable claim to support Elon’s crime procedurally, as the writer points out, an order such as this is normally not something that can be appealed.
There are numerous cases like this making their way through the courts. My guess is that Roberts and his ilk, with Alito leading the way, will find a way to do the legally indefensible. One could argue that their motivation would be a fear that were they to do otherwise, the administration would simply ignore them, thus rendering the courts as powerless as Elon and his co-president intend to make the Congress. That may, in fact, be Roberts’ motivation, but for the rest of the right wingers on the court, it will simply be an opportunity to establish the fascist state for which they have always yearned. In any event, when they do uphold this crime, they will themselves be rendering the courts both meaningless and powerless.
It is also the case that this administration is already more corrupt than any previous administration, including Trump’s first, which was the previous champ. There are numerous examples of Trump and his minions using his position to make money, the latest being his grift of taking bribes from the rich, disguised as donations for his presidential library. The court will bless all that as well. It can only get worse. Look for Aileen Cannon to join the group as soon as there’s an opening.