Lawfare Takes Another Judicial Thrashing

Letter to Romans: Our Sec of War may have recently lost “in embarrassing fashion” his “military version of lawfare” against Sen. Mark Kelly, BUT the good news is this latest precedent builds on similar judicial rebukes to the lawfare of Biden, Smith & James against Mr. Trump.

That rebuke, I’d suggest, bodes well for the future and not just because it is the opinion of the WSJ’s editorial board. In their op ed, “Judge Leon Educates Pete Hegseth,” the editors conclude with this prayer to the Legal Gods: “It will be a healthy development if more Americans [and courts] decide they’ve had enough of political prosecutions.” The dismissing judge involved, Richard Leon, was a conservative Bush appointee so this was not just another delusional progressive judge playing to the left. The uncontested fact is that Sen. Kelly did conspire with several other Democrats in Congress assured military personnel they could “refuse to obey illegal orders.” And the judge noted that Secretary Hegseth & DOJ did rightly rely on “the well-established doctrine” that military personnel enjoy less First Amendment protection to ensure proper discipline & loyalty. BUT Judge Leon added bluntly, “Unfortunately for Secretary Hegseth, no court has ever extended those principles to RETIRED [ed] servicemembers, much less a retired servicemember serving in Congress and exercising oversight responsibility over the military. This Court will not be the first to do so!”

Ouch. Perhaps Judge Leon’s ruling will be appealed. And, if so, it will also likely be upheld as the lawfare against Mr. Trump was shot down with Moses like judicial wisdom. It would pile on the growing number of legal precedents against the kind of political lawfare the Democrats turned into an art form since the Obama years.

Davd Soul