emptywheel: How will Justices ACB, Roberts, Kav react to Smith's immunity brief calling their work in FL 2000 "violent?" [View all]

[Dennis Donovan]

emptywheel (blue ocean)
Reupping this question about legal tactics for the smart lawyers. What is the imagined response that Justices Roberts, Kavanaugh, and Barrett will have to a brief that describes an event associated with their 2000 Florida legal work "a violent effort"?

emptywheel (blue ocean)
Can we have a discussion abt legal tactics? Jack Smith's immunity brief has 2 audiences, Judge Chutkan, & SCOTUS, esp the right wingers you might peel off (ACB, Roberts, Kav).

So why describe the Brooks Brothers Riot as a "violent effort"?

https://documentcloud.org/documents/25182580-241002-immunity#document/p8/a2592476

11:21 AM · Oct 4, 2024

Good question. For those who don't remember The Brooks Brothers Riot of 2000:

Wikipedia - Brooks Brothers riot



The Brooks Brothers riot was a demonstration led by Republican staffers at a meeting of election canvassers in Miami-Dade County, Florida, on November 22, 2000, during a recount of votes made during the 2000 United States presidential election, with the goal of shutting down the recount. After demonstrations and acts of violence, local officials shut down the recount early.

The name referenced the protesters' corporate attire; described by Paul Gigot in an editorial for The Wall Street Journal as "50-year-old white lawyers with cell phones and Hermès ties", differentiating them from local citizens concerned about vote counting. Many of the demonstrators were Republican staffers. Both Roger Stone and Brad Blakeman take credit for managing the riot from a command post, although their accounts contradict each other. Republican New York Representative John E. Sweeney gave the signal that started the riot, telling an aide to "shut it down".

/snip

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