…not with a bang but a whimper.

Judge Engoron did not meet his self-imposed January 31st deadline to issue his opinion in the Trump Org fraud case, so that waiting game continues; as does the wait for a D.C. Circuit opinion in Trump’s presidential immunity appeal in the Jan 6th case.

Yesterday was also the deadline for respondents’ merit briefs, and amicus briefs in support of respondents, to be submitted to SCOTUS in Trump v. Anderson. The amicus briefs on the other side, submitted two weeks earlier, had included a brief from Senator Cruz co-signed by 178 other current Republican Senators and Representatives, as well as a brief from Indiana co-signed by 24 other (red) states. As such, and not unlike what had happened in the ACA-related case California v. Texas a few years back, I had been expecting to see a similar wave of amicus briefs from blue states, current Democratic politicians, and prominent anti-Trump Republican politicians like Cheney and Kinzinger.

However, that ‘blue wave’ did not come to pass. Perhaps the consensus view, among not only Democrats but also the Republicans-in-exile, was that their interests would be harmed by weighing in here and thereby creating a perception that this 14th Amendment controversy is a partisan matter and/or an attempt to defang a political opponent. There was a brief submitted by “Former Republican Members of Congress,” but the most recognizable of the 12 names on that brief, at least to me, was former one-term Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh.

And after all, it’s not like there’s any lack of briefing on this case. A score of new amicus briefs arrived yesterday, even if there was a lack of star power in these briefs’ signatories, and even if some of them were submitted by… I hesitate to use the word “cranks,” so let’s just say, “randos.“

In non-legal news, a new poll of South Carolina came out yesterday, putting Haley significantly behind Trump in her own home state, 32-58. However there’s an interesting detail in the crosstabs that, unfortunately, says a lot about today’s Republican politics. Of the people polled, an astonishing 57% believe the ‘big lie’ that Biden won the 2020 election due to voter fraud. In that subset, Trump leads 83-17. Whereas, the 35% who believe the 2020 election was fair break 78-10 for Haley.