16 thoughts on “Wednesday Writs: Rufus Gets His Ex Parte Young On, An Explainer

  1. WW3: I know it’s still early, but in reading the NYT’s coverage, I was struck by how heavy on innuendo and light on substance the prosecution’s arguments were, at least as described by the NYT. Since I assume the NYT is rooting for the prosecution, I doubt that they were intentionally downplaying the strength of its arguments.

    Meanwhile, the defense seems to have made a much more substantive case, establishing that Grosskreutz had been acting in exactly the violent and unpredictable fashion you would expect if Rittenhouse is telling the truth about having been attacked without provocation. The defense also seems to have gotten a lot more mileage out of Black than the prosecution did, despite the prosecution having cut a deal to get him to testify.Report

    1. To be clear, while my sympathies do lie more with those who were there to prevent wanton, malicious destruction than with those who were there to inflict it, I’m well aware that nothing I say here will actually affect the outcome of the trial, so I have no reason to give anything other than my honest impressions.Report

    2. The NYT has had deep dives which said Rosenbaum was homeless, suicidal, mentally ill, had no history of caring about civil rights, and a serious sex offender. That’s on top of his behavior that day. That doesn’t mean the same people are writing all this, but they should know the case is going to have issues.Report

  2. In sum, there is no state authority to permit its employee to commit illegal acts and therefore no immunity can be conferred.

    This seems to have changed since the 1800’s. The “no immunity” has become somewhat qualified.Report

        1. I expected someone would call that out. Mostly I just didn’t have the bandwidth to get into the nuances of that caselaw over the last 100+ years. A footnote of acknowledgement would probably have been appropriate though.Report

  3. WW1: I found amusing the claim by the TX attorney that citizens who bring suit against those who provide abortions suffer a ‘Tort of Outrage’. I mean, it’s bad enough that they are pushing a legal scheme that threatens other rights, but they are pushing a justification that, if accepted, would threaten other rights.

    Also, it’s good to see that the Pro-2A advocates recognize the danger here. As I’ve long said, opponents of abortion rights and gun rights are often so blinded in their opposition that they are willing to wildly swing double edged swords in their attempts to land a hit.Report

  4. WW1: Harry Potter existed as both the boy who lived and as a Horcrux. Similarly to understand the mysteries of Ex Parte Young, one must accept that Young existed as both a state official and as not a state official, depending on the needs of the narrative.Report

  5. My strong expectation is the Supreme Court finds a way to rule that the Supreme Court can not be trivially side stepped and ignored.

    It will be interesting how many vote for this, I expect either 9-0, or some split where none of them think the SC can be ignored, they just disagree on how to overrule that.Report

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