Two Motions From the SPLC Tell the Story: The Government's Indictment Is in Trouble
Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance
Sunday night, we discussed the Southern Poverty Law Center’s motion to “address the government’s materially false statements.” It’s an extremely unusual motion coming from a defendant in a criminal case. The gist of the argument is that the Justice Department made false statements about SPLC, and that they knew they were false statements, because SPLC gave them notice in advance, and again, after the acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, made false comments during the press conference on the case. SPLC asked the government to “correct its false statement” before filing the motion, but apparently didn’t get any satisfaction.
snip
One argument that may land hard against the government is that the government is not entitled to the “presumption of regularity,” the presumption that prosecutors do their jobs legally and in good faith unless proven otherwise. Courts have routinely applied it before this, but SPLC notes, “As one court recently described, while ‘[g]enerations of presidential administrations and public officials have validated this underlying premise of the presumption of regularity,’ ‘n just six months, the President of the United States may have forfeited the right to such a presumption’ entirely,” because of repeated instances of dealing with the courts in a fashion that doesn’t comport with the duty of candor prosecutors owe to judges.
snip
Earlier this week, I published a note on Stay Tuned with Preet, entitled “The Worst Sort of Injustice.” After assessing the arguments the administration is making about SPLC’s guilt, I concluded, “But here, there is something even more sinister at work. It’s not just an attempted takedown of an individual, it’s a cudgel thrown at the heart of the civil rights community itself. This administration would like nothing better than to silence the voices from the civil rights community and civil society, calling for a restoration of democracy and justice. That makes this indictment the worst sort of injustice.”
https://open.substack.com/pub/joycevance/p/two-motions-from-the-splc-tell-the