“This is how republics collapse.” Those ominous words captured the hand-wringing, hair-pulling reaction to the dismissal of the Florida case against Donald Trump by Judge Aileen Cannon.
It was not just that she reached a conclusion long supported by some conservative lawyers and a Supreme Court justice.
To rule in favor of Trump in such a dismissal is, once again, the end to Democracy as we know it.
The 93-page order methodically goes through the governing cases and statutes for the appointment of prosecutors. There has long been a debate over how an attorney general like Merrick Garland can circumvent the constitutional process for the appointment of a U.S. Attorney and unilaterally elevate a citizen to wield even greater power.
With the expiration of the Independent Counsel Act in 1999, attorneys general have long relied upon their inherent authority to appoint “inferior officers” to special counsel investigation. The issue has never been conclusively ruled upon by the Supreme Court, even though lower courts have rejected this challenge.