Musk’s big mouth, and the DOJ’s unlawful meme obsession
Injustice for all is a weekly series about how the Trump administration is trying to weaponize the justice system and the people who are fighting back.
Last week was… a lot, legally speaking. Although much of the Trump administration’s efforts have focused on trying to get the courts to agree that President Donald Trump can deploy troops from red states to bring blue cities to heel, there are still many other terrible developments.
We have a return to Elon Musk’s idiotic actions, the Fifth Circuit is probably going to decide that forcing religion into the classroom is totally awesome, James Comey’s lawyer is taking a leaf out of Trump’s playbook, and the Supreme Court appears ready to overturn bans on conversion therapy — because why not hurt trans kids more. Oh and last but not least, the Justice Department’s antics are undermining its own case against Luigi Mangione.
Musk and the Trump administration FAFO
Well, well. If not the consequences of Musk’s own actions.
The New York Times recently prevailed in its Freedom of Information Act lawsuit over the Trump administration’s refusal to provide a list of Musk’s security clearances when he was a government contractor before 2025. Now the administration will have to cough up.
They tried to say this would violate Musk’s privacy, but the court noted that Musk had publicly bragged about his “top secret clearance” in 2024, making the matter not really that private to begin with.
The Times did not request additional information — such as Musk’s authorization request or any other investigative documents — but the government still said it could not provide the form because it would show whether the authorizations were subject to conditions, even if the conditions themselves were redacted.
This is where Musk brags about his ketamine use, his brutal rotation that makes you grind your teeth with Joe Rogan, and his discussions with Vladimir Putin came back to bite him.
To grant a security clearance, the Defense Counterintelligence and Security Agency must review foreign influences and drug use. The court said that while Musk has not publicly discussed any conditions, he has publicly discussed his drug use and contacts with foreign leaders. And since the DCSA is supposed to take these elements into account, the public has an interest in the DCSA carrying out its duties.
You can expect the Trump administration to continue to fight this, as it would likely open the door to FOIA requests regarding Musk’s clearances from the so-called Department of Government Effectiveness — and they I desperately don’t want that.
The Fifth Circuit will continue to hear Ten Commandment cases until it achieves its desired result.
In another horrific development, the Fifth Circuit has ordered a full judicial review of the three-judge panel decision In Roake v Brumley…and it’s no exaggeration to say that we should all be concerned.
Louisiana’s lower court and three-judge panel ruled that the law requiring public schools to display permanently the Ten Commandments were unconstitutional, because they clearly were.
The fact that they agreed to a review and requested new briefs and pleadings is a sign that there is a desire to revisit this situation. That would mean getting an official ruling that the government can force the display of the Ten Commandments – but only the Protestant version chosen by the state.
The next stop will be the Supreme Court because, just as they did with abortion, states will continue to pass objectively unconstitutional laws, pushing them all the way to the Supreme Court for approval. It’s a great system we have here.
Illegal appointments give, but they can also take away
One of the challenges that James Comey’s lawyer, Patrick Fitzgerald, said he would raise – and file a motion to dismiss the case – is a illegal appointment claim.
Basically, it would be that Lindsey Halligan, appointed Acting U.S. Attorney in the Eastern District of Virginia for only goal to indict Trump’s enemies, is not legally authorized to play its role. His predecessor, Erik Siebert, served in the interim capacity for the 120-day limit, which allowed federal judges to name it.
The question is whether or not this creates a new vacancy. If this is not the case, this provisional period of use of 120 days is permanently lost. This is why the the court ruled that Alina Habba is not legally occupying her role in New Jersey. In this case, the Trump administration argued that the 120-day time limit starts again with each acting appointment, but that would make the 120-day interim limit completely unnecessary.
There would be a kind of grimly hilarious symmetry if the case against Comey collapsed because a judge decided Halligan wasn’t playing his role properly. Trump had a lucky break when his all-time favorite judge, Aileen Cannon governedcompletely incorrectly, that Jack Smith was illegally appointed and dismissed the whole classified documents affair.
What is good for the goose, etc.
SCOTUS lends a helping hand, and it’s not great
Tuesday’s pleading In Chilis v. Salazar has made it clear that the Supreme Court will overturn Colorado’s ban on conversion therapy for minors. This would allow also knock out similar laws in almost half the country.
There is no credible argument for conversion therapy, which attempts to force minors to be heterosexual and cisgender. Leading healthcare organizations have denounced himand those forced to endure it report high levels of post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.
The right-wing argument in Chilis is that it violates therapists’ freedom of speech if they can’t force children to listen to how bad and wrong their identities are.
This is an absolutely sham trial, with no evidence that the plaintiff ever intended to offer conversion therapy or received any complaints. His lawyer, from the fiercely anti-LGBTQ+ group Alliance Defending Freedom, told the court that Chiles was the subject of “anonymous complaints” that they declined to provide.
This is just another case where the complainant is nothing more than a straw man stand in to achieve the desired conservative outcome of protecting the free speech of bigots at the expense of the well-being of LGBTQ+ children.
Trump and DOJ to tweet Luigi Mangione as soon as he gets out of prison
The DOJ is in trouble because it is very excited to talk about Mangione’s guilt while it is in the process of prosecuting him, with the deputy director of public affairs publication on interviews with Trump saying Mangione “shot someone in the back as clearly as you’re looking at me.”
This is a classic example of pre-trial prejudicial statements that are not permitted, as almost every DOJ prosecutor knows. But the DOJ is run by people whose main interests are making cool content and hurting people, so they might not be that familiar.
When the court ordered the Trump administration to explain what happened here, they said that since the person who posted this message was not part of the pursuit teamthey were not breaking the rule.
This makes no sense, of course, because it would basically mean that the DOJ could make these statements at any time as long as the actual prosecutor in the case is not the one saying it.
But this isn’t the first time the attention-hungry, meme-driven administration has clashed with Mangione, who now seeks to block the DOJ from seeking the death penalty because of the very televised march of the delinquents they forced him to do.
