Ashley Moody: Top Law Firms Have Unfairly Discriminated Against GOP-Affiliated Lawyers

2 days ago

At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) spoke to witnesses about the use of universal injunctions by judges.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you very much.

00:01Thank you, Senator Welch.

00:03Thank you, Madam Chair.

00:04You know, I was struck by the questions on

00:07the law firms and the approach of

00:10President Trump to try and bring them back to

00:12the table of working with this administration.

00:15I was struck, I found some of that

00:17ironic and the questioning, Mr. Panuccio,

00:19and welcome, great Floridian

00:21from the great free state of Florida.

00:23Considering the way the law firms

00:27approached any conservative lawyer

00:30that was coming out of the last administration

00:32and the treatment of such, I thought it was very ironic.

00:35Did you notice that many lawyers

00:38who had stood up for good policies

00:41were refused employment or shut out

00:44of some of these large law firms?

00:49Thank you, Senator.

00:52You know, I'll be circumspect in my answer here

00:54just because I'm here to testify on universal injunctions.

00:57However, I think it's an open secret in Washington

01:00that if you work for a Republican administration,

01:02you face a much harder job market coming out

01:04than if you work for a Democratic administration.

01:06I don't think anyone doubts that to be the case

01:09generally over the years,

01:10not just specific to the Trump administration,

01:13but going back to the Bush administration and others.

01:15And you often now hear people say,

01:18well, if you take that job, you may never work again.

01:20I think that happens much more often

01:22with Republicans than Democrats.

01:24And it reflects that, you know,

01:26law firms like many institutions in this country

01:28are overwhelmingly weighted in one direction

01:32politically than the other.

01:33Mr. Paduccio, you have long been an academic,

01:38so to speak, on many of these

01:43challenges we see with nationwide injunctions.

01:46And I appreciated your testimony,

01:49specifically when you quoted Justice Kagan,

01:52appointed by a Democratic president,

01:56when she said, it just can't be right

01:58that one district judge can stop

02:01a nationwide policy in its tracks

02:04and leave it stopped for the years that it takes

02:07to go through the normal process.

02:09And what struck me by that is this term normal process

02:13by someone who would know how long it takes

02:15to go through the normal process.

02:19And that basically means, it could mean

02:21the four years, an entire term,

02:24that a president is in office, isn't that right?

02:28A full appellate process to the Supreme Court

02:30could take several years, yes.

02:31But Senator, I would say, you know,

02:34to coin a phrase, this is what democracy looks like.

02:36The founders at the Philadelphia Convention

02:39considered turning the judiciary

02:41into what was called a council of revision,

02:43which would mean the judiciary had a chance

02:45to review laws and policies

02:48of the legislative or executive branch

02:49before they went into the effect.

02:51And the founders decided against that.

02:53And they said, the judicial power

02:55is cases and controversies among the parties.

02:58The whole point of democracy, the whole point of-

03:00So let me just stop you right there.

03:01I wanna focus on the normal process,

03:04the years it would take to go through the normal process.

03:06Meaning, let's take for a moment

03:09that we can rightfully change the law

03:12to make sure that the decisions apply

03:14to the parties before the court only.

03:17For the administration of justice to have any effect

03:24and the people to believe that chaos

03:25and controversy and conflict

03:27can get rightfully addressed expeditiously,

03:30should it take years for these cases

03:33to go through the courts?

03:34Or should Congress consider an expedited process

03:39for matters of great national concern?

03:42I think it would be appropriate, Senator,

03:44for if the Attorney General were to certify a case

03:48as of great national importance

03:50for there to be a faster process

03:51or mandatory jurisdiction of the Supreme Court.

03:54I will say this, though.

03:55For individual parties,

03:56if an individual party is agreed by executive action

04:00or legislative action,

04:01the individual party can go to a district court

04:03and get an injunction

04:05that gives complete relief to that party.

04:07And that doesn't take years.

04:08That can take days, can take hours in certain cases.

04:11That's why the district courts are there.

04:13They're there to grant relief.

04:15Now, if what you're seeking is a change in policy nationwide

04:19that is governing, that is what the elected branches do.

04:22But for individual parties,

04:23I don't think it's years for relief as we've seen.

04:25And Professor Bray, thank you for joining us.

04:29As a former judge myself,

04:30as someone who has great reverence

04:32for an independent and fair judiciary,

04:36it concerns me that the public in general,

04:40based on what we're seeing in the numbers,

04:41and I thought it was really interesting

04:43when we say 46 injunctions

04:45are orders that have gone against this administration,

04:47nine were by Republican judges.

04:51Do you believe that limiting the relief sought

04:55to the parties in front of the court

04:57will help alleviate this idea

05:00that these are judges acting in a partisan nature?

05:06Thanks, Senator.

05:06I do think it will reduce the appearance of partisanship

05:09because you get decision-making

05:11by more judges across the country

05:13instead of one judge giving an injunction

05:15to decide the question for the whole country.

05:18So you believe the proposed legislation

05:20from Chairman Grassley would address bipartisan concerns?

05:24Absolutely.

05:26Senator Hirono?

05:30Thank you, Madam Chair.

05:32This is a question for Professor Blattock.

05:38Professor Bray noted in his testimony

05:40that the concern about extreme.

Ashley Moody: Top Law Firms Have Unfairly Discriminated Against GOP-Affiliated Lawyers

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