Another Judge Dropkicks DOJ's One Weird Trick To Steal The Budget

And throws major shade at SCOTUS along the way.

On April 9, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche sent a memo to all Justice Department employees regarding “Engagement with the American Bar Association.” He conceded that the DOJ had previously “chosen to engage in an exchange of ideas with ABA officials and members,” but insisted that all such contact must immediately cease because the ABA had the temerity to sue the federal government.

“The ABA is free to litigate in support of activist causes, including by inserting itself into pending litigation as an amicus curiae,” he decreed, but “the Department's own speech—which includes employee speaking engagements and written publications that rely upon taxpayer-funded resources—must be focused on achieving the Department's core Constitutional mission and advancing the legitimate and lawful statutory and policy decisions made by the political branches of our government.”

Blanche forbade DOJ employees from participating in ABA events, or even using so much as a Post-it note from the office to write down the date of such a gathering.

The very next day, the DOJ canceled $3.2 million of grants to the ABA’s Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence (CDSV) for domestic violence prevention. The DOJ went out of its way to assure other grantees under the program that their funding would remain intact. And notably the termination letter purported to cancel two grants which had already ended, suggesting that the review process involved ctrl + f + ABA, rather than a program-specific evaluation.

Sometimes it’s difficult to tell whether the Trump administration is deliberately flouting the law or whether the violation is simply broken crockery knocked over as the ghouls race to implement Trump’s malevolent edicts. This is not one of those times.

Blanche’s memo specifically targets the ABA for daring to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. It’s as if he hung a giant neon light, flashing out the words “WE ARE RETALIATING AGAINST YOU FOR YOUR PROTECTED SPEECH IN VIOLATION OF THE FIRST AMENDMENT.”