Invest your own money, let compound effect be your leverage, and avoid debt like the plague.
- Manlobbi
Halls of Shrewd'm / US Policy
No. of Recommendations: 4
So...if she is serving illegally, how are two things handled...first, who physically removes her, and second, is everything she has done (good and bad) null and void? Not being partisan here. Just asking how the law should be handling this. Or is there no means of forcing her to stop "serving"?
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-departmen...A federal judge Tuesday ordered Trump ally Lindsey Halligan to explain why she continues to call herself the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia even though another judge determined in November that she had been unlawfully appointed to the position.
No. of Recommendations: 2
While actual lawyers do their lawyerly contemplations, I'll ramble a bit as a non-lawyer.
first, who physically removes her
The courts don't have a lot of control over anything other than their courtroom. So if she were to show up and present herself to the court as the US Attorney for EDVA, the bailiff would be the one to physically remove her if the judge orders her removed. But showing up to the EDVA office is nothing the court can control.
is everything she has done (good and bad) null and void?
That's the suggestion I've heard from places like Meidas Touch. Everything she touched after the determination that she was NOT the US Atty, would be stricken from the record (probably after a motion from the defense to do so).
What I don't know is what happens to things signed by rank and file attorneys in the office. Can they do their jobs - file charges, make arguments, etc - if the US Atty position over them is vacant? Does the entire output of that district come to a halt, or can other attorneys do the work without a US Atty over them?
--Peter
No. of Recommendations: 1
What I don't know is what happens to things signed by rank and file attorneys in the office. Can they do their jobs - file charges, make arguments, etc - if the US Atty position over them is vacant? Does the entire output of that district come to a halt, or can other attorneys do the work without a US Atty over them?
I wouldn't think so, as long as they were properly appointed/hired into their jobs, and have the proper credentials (e.g. being actual lawyers). I would assume it's just the stuff that she -herself- signs that would be voided. Probably?
No. of Recommendations: 7
So...if she is serving illegally, how are two things handled...first, who physically removes her, and second, is everything she has done (good and bad) null and void? Not being partisan here. Just asking how the law should be handling this. Or is there no means of forcing her to stop "serving"?
I think ptheland's take is probably right. If she's found to not actually hold her office, then actions she took purporting to be holding that office would be void or voidable - but actions of people who properly hold other offices in the U.S. Attorney's office wouldn't necessarily be affected. Maybe. Who knows? It's not like there's a lot of precedent for this kind of thing.
As for physically removing her, I think that "remove" in the context of "removing from office" is literal. No one has to physically take her out of the USA office. The court would simply issue an injunction barring her from taking any actions purporting to be the U.S. Attorney. If she violated that order, she would face penalties. Those penalties might include criminal contempt, I suppose - which might eventually result in someone physically removing her, if a U.S. Marshall comes to arrest her for contempt. But I doubt it would come to that. Once things reach that point, there's literally no point in her trying to exercise the powers of the office, and she'd leave.
