Quick Hits

More details on the Trump appellate court ruling:

Kyle Becker @kylenabecker

*Ed. note: The Appeals Court has a panel of five judges.

The headline refers to the criticism of Judge David Friedman, who argued for the case to be thrown out entirely.

Here is a handy breakdown of the ruling via Grok:

The Appellate Division, First Judicial Department in Manhattan, consists of a panel of judges who hear appeals in civil and criminal cases.

Based on the information available from the web results, a five-judge panel ruled on August 21, 2025, in the civil fraud case involving former President Donald Trump, throwing out a roughly $500 million penalty but upholding the finding of liability for fraud.

The judges explicitly named in connection with this ruling are: Dianne T. Renwick: One of the two judges who wrote the prevailing opinion, stating that while the injunctive relief was appropriate, the financial penalty was excessive and violated the Eighth Amendment.

Peter H. Moulton: Co-authored the prevailing opinion with Justice Renwick, agreeing that the penalty was unconstitutional but supporting the fraud liability finding.

David Friedman: Dissented, arguing that the case should be thrown out entirely, believing New York Attorney General Letitia James lacked the authority to bring it. He noted that two other judges also believed the judgment should be vacated but could not agree on a remedy.

John Higgitt: One of the two judges who preferred ordering a new trial but joined the majority "with great reluctance" to allow the case to proceed to the New York Court of Appeals.

Llinét Rosado: Also favored a new trial but joined the majority reluctantly to avoid reargument and permit further appeal.

These five judges were part of the panel that issued the split decision, which was described as complex and spanning over 300 pages. The ruling eliminated the financial penalty but left the fraud liability intact, allowing for potential further appeals to New York's highest court, the Court of Appeals.

From one judge's opinion: He points out that three of the five judges do not believe that Big Fat Tish's judgment of liability is legal, and yet, somehow, in the interests of just disposing of the case, they... agree to sustain the judgment they also say is invalid?

BTW, the word "decretal" is related to "decree," and I guess -- I don't know -- this is how the New York courts refer to their opinions?

I don't know.

As Elric the Blade noted, the judges' disagreement over whether the judgment is valid or not gives Trump an "appeal of right" -- an automatic appeal -- rather than an appeal of discretion, in which case he'd have to beg for the highest court to accept his appeal.

In another legal victory for Trump, a federal appeals court has okayed his ending of Biden's Temporary Protected Status for more than 60,000 illegal aliens.

Weird how Biden can grant TPS on a whim and that's not subject to any court challenge, but when Trump seeks to undo it, he has to spend months in courts fighting about it.

A federal appeals court ruled in favor of President Trump on Wednesday, allowing his administration to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for more than 60,000 migrants from Honduras, Nicaragua and Nepal.

In a unanimous decision, the three-member panel of judges on the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals halted a lower court order that had blocked the Trump administration from eliminating temporary deportation protections and revoking work permits from the migrants.

"The government's motion for a stay pending appeal ... is granted," Circuit Judges Michael Hawkins ( a Bill Clinton appointee), Consuelo Callahan (a George W. Bush appointee) and Eric Miller (Trump appointee) wrote in their brief, two-page ruling, which did not explain the decision.

Last month, San Francisco-based District Judge Trina Thompson, an appointee of former President Joe Biden, had paused Trump's planned elimination of TPS for migrants from the three countries until Nov. 18.

Thompson accused Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem of being "motivated by racial animus" in her controversial opinion.

"The freedom to live fearlessly, the opportunity of liberty, and the American dream. That is all Plaintiffs seek," the judge wrote in her July 31 order. "Instead, they are told to atone for their race, leave because of their names, and purify their blood. The Court disagrees."

Thompson even included a comparison of the Trump administration's immigration policies to the trans-Atlantic slave trade in her now-overturned ruling.

Hondurans and Nicaraguans had been given the legal status to emigrate and get work permits as a federal response to humanitarian issues following Hurricane Mitch in 1998, when the storm hit both countries, killing almost 7,300 people.

Nepal joined the TPS program in June 2015 after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the country.

The "temporary" status dates back to an earthquake in 2015, and Hurricane Mitch in 1998.

But it shows "racial animus" verging on re-opening the transatlantic slave trade to end these supposedly "temporary" statuses.

There is no crime crisis in blue cities. You gotta believe me, bro. I'm deadass serious, bro.

Two young boys, just 12 and 15 years old, stabbed a good Samaritan who tried to stop the youngsters from ganging up on someone else on a Brooklyn street late Tuesday, cops and sources said.

The 41-year-old victim was walking his dog at Starr Street and Irving Avenue in Bushwick around 7:40 p.m. when he spotted the pint-sized perps harassing another person and stepped in, law enforcement sources said.

The young ruffians then turned on the man, knifing him in the armpit and stomach, police said.

Decarceration and legalizing crime will have no impact on crime rates, bro. Why don't you believe me, bro?

I saw a left-wing "journalist" whining: Where is Elon Musk's third party? You may remember the mercurial futurist threatened to begin a third party some months back. Left-wingers are really counting on that.

They will be disappointed.

"Musk has told allies that he wants to focus his attention on his companies and is reluctant to alienate powerful Republicans by starting a third party that could siphon off GOP voters," reports the far-left Wall Street Journal.

Instead, per the Journal, Musk "has been focused in part on maintaining ties with Vice President JD Vance, who is widely seen as a potential heir to the MAGA political movement." The reports adds that Musk is seriously "considering using some of his vast financial resources to back Vance if he decides to run for president in 2028[.]"

Dum-Dum Dana Bash thinks she scores a sick own on a Republican lawmaker, demanding to know if Trump would support sending the National Guard to Memphis, Tennessee. She picked Memphis because it's in a red state, but she omits to mention it's another shithole city mis-governed by a Democrat.

The Republican has to explain to her that the District of Columbia is actually a federally-created jurisdiction which does not belong to any state and is, in fact, under direct management of Congress. (Until Congress unwisely granted this shithole self-rule, but they can take that back at any point, which of course they cannot do with states or cities that belong to states.)

Ana Navarro has Ozempic Withdrawal.

"The View" co-host Ana Navarro derided first lady Melania Trump's peace letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin as something that "falls under the category of stuff that's so hypocritical you almost can't believe it" on Tuesday.

In an Instagram video, Navarro recounted parts of the first lady's letter that was delivered to Putin during Friday's summit with President Donald Trump in Alaska. In the letter, the first lady urged Putin to end his war against Ukraine on behalf of the children.

"Mr. Putin, you can singlehandedly restore their melodic laughter," the first lady wrote. "In protecting the innocence of these children, you will do more than serve Russia alone--you serve humanity itself."

Navarro blasted the letter as an example of "performative" hypocrisy because of President Trump's immigration and spending policies.

"Think about what her husband, what Donald Trump, is doing to the children of immigrants in America, and to U.S. citizen children of immigrants," Navarro said. "How many of those children are living with the fear of their parents being dragged through the streets of America? Their car windows smashed in? Their parents beaten by masked men and disappeared?"

She added, "How about the children all over the world who are not receiving U.S. aid because her husband's government decided we shouldn't be feeding starving children all over the world? How about all those kids?"

Navarro sarcastically applauded the first lady's letter as a "good thing" for Ukrainian children but told her to "start a little closer to home."

"Maybe she should turn around and say the exact same thing to her husband, because there are children in America crying, suffering, going to bed in fear, returning to homes that are abandoned and empty, not knowing where their next meal is coming from because of what her husband is doing," Navarro said.

Now it can be told: Jasmine Ratchet is a nasty narcissist. So says Marjorie Taylor-Greene.

"Well, she's not a real person. So some interesting things that I've always observed about her is how she treats her staff," Greene explained. "She treats her staff like they are just beneath her. She always has one of her young male staffers carry her big, heavy handbag for her... Who does that?"

"I remember one time on Oversight, she called one of her staff over, and she whispered something in their ear, and they ran off, and then they came back with this big, white, fluffy pillow that they put behind her back," she added.

"So she claims to be from her people. She puts on this image that she understands the Black American struggle," Greene continued. "But let's face it, the girl went to private school... She's a complete fake. She's as fake as her eyelashes. She's as fake as her hair. She's as fake as her fingernails. And she is such a massive fraud."

As you know, she might be out of a job come next January. Apparently -- I hope I have these details right -- her district has been redrawn so that her house is not in her district any longer. She could still run for that district, but it now includes a Republican county, so her future in that seat is in doubt.

Her other choice is to run against another Democrat in the district her house will be located in. This is what I'm hoping for, a brutal primary between rats forced to scrabble over the last plank of a sinking ship.

A DMV worker blew the whistle on her fellow state employees. They are handing out drivers licenses to illegals without any proof of their actual identity or citizenship, and without making them take any tests to prove they could drive or understand English road signs. The workers were not doing this just out of political beliefs -- they were charging $200 bribes for this service.

The worker who blew the whistle was fired.

Her criminal, bribe-taking, law-subverting fellow DMV employees kept their jobs.

Tucker Carlson Is Just Askin' Questions, and he continues asking the question, "Shouldn't we have sided with Hitler during WW2?"

Note that he has entertained the "We should have supported Hitler, Churchill was the Real Villain of WW2" before, when he hosted the man he called "the most important popular historian" in the world today, an open antisemite named Darryl Cooper.

And here we go again.

He was brought on to talk about, get this, the USS Liberty Incident. Subtle!

She doesn't understand why she's not allowed to use her government job on government land to make political statements against her employer.

posted by Ace at 06:32 PM

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