{"id":109122,"date":"2025-02-24T16:02:58","date_gmt":"2025-02-25T00:02:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/24\/is-judge-dale-ho-trying-to-punk-paul-clement\/"},"modified":"2025-02-24T16:02:58","modified_gmt":"2025-02-25T00:02:58","slug":"is-judge-dale-ho-trying-to-punk-paul-clement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/02\/24\/is-judge-dale-ho-trying-to-punk-paul-clement\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Judge Dale Ho Trying To Punk Paul Clement?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Paul Clement (by Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The shenanigans from the Department of Justice in the case against New York City mayor Eric Adams<\/a> have been epic. Acting deputy attorney general\u00a0Emil Bove demanded the dismissal of the corruption charges<\/a> against Adams, which led to a Thursday Night Massacre <\/a>as seven prosecutors decided they\u2019d rather submit themselves to the job market than compromise their oath of office. As allegations of a quid pro quo swirled (dismissing the charges in exchange for the mayor\u2019s assistance in the Trump administration\u2019s immigration raids), Bove wound up signing the motion for dismissal himself.<\/p>\n

This mess wound up in front of<\/a> the Southern District of New York\u2019s judge Dale Ho. The government argued the charges should be dismissed without prejudice, giving the Trump administration the screws to turn<\/a> should Adams fail to do their bidding. Judge Ho, correctly, characterized it as a \u201csomewhat unusual situation\u201d and punted on the question of dismissal. He said he wouldn\u2019t \u201cshoot from the hip right here on the bench.\u201d <\/p>\n

Instead, he countered with an unusual move of his own, appointing<\/a> noted conservative lawyer Paul Clement<\/a> as amicus curiae to present adversarial arguments to the government\u2019s motion to dismiss. Though far from typical, Ho argued the appointment was \u201cappropriate\u201d due to \u201cpublic importance of this case, which calls for careful deliberation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Ho\u2019s bold move has left a lot of folks speculating about the rationale. Not immediately acquiescing to the administration was certainly applauded by the left, but the Clement pick is fascinating. Clement was the Solicitor General<\/a> under George W. Bush, with extensive Supreme Court experience<\/a>, who just happens to think Biglaw is too woke.<\/a> The right-wing stalwart is being asked to argue against the Trump administration\u2026 and while Clement currently runs his own boutique firm, advancing arguments in opposition to the Trump administration might just end his future chances of government work before they even start. The Trump II reign seems fixed on the smallest slights, and even being appointed to the role is unlikely to protect him from scorn if he provides the justification to thwart the Trumpian plans \u2014 just ask Robert Mueller. The right will light just about anyone\u2019s career on fire if they step out of line. So if Clement finds issue with the DOJ\u2019s motion to dismiss, the conservative legal movement might find their most capable lawyer is persona non grata in MAGAworld.<\/p>\n

Briefing is due March 7, with possible oral argument on March 14.\u00a0And it will be fascinating to watch.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @Kathryn1@mastodon.social.<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Is Judge Dale Ho Trying To Punk Paul Clement?<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Paul Clement (by Alex Wong\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The shenanigans from the Department of Justice in the case against New York City mayor Eric Adams<\/a> have been epic. Acting deputy attorney general\u00a0Emil Bove demanded the dismissal of the corruption charges<\/a> against Adams, which led to a Thursday Night Massacre <\/a>as seven prosecutors decided they\u2019d rather submit themselves to the job market than compromise their oath of office. As allegations of a quid pro quo swirled (dismissing the charges in exchange for the mayor\u2019s assistance in the Trump administration\u2019s immigration raids), Bove wound up signing the motion for dismissal himself.<\/p>\n

This mess wound up in front of<\/a> the Southern District of New York\u2019s judge Dale Ho. The government argued the charges should be dismissed without prejudice, giving the Trump administration the screws to turn<\/a> should Adams fail to do their bidding. Judge Ho, correctly, characterized it as a \u201csomewhat unusual situation\u201d and punted on the question of dismissal. He said he wouldn\u2019t \u201cshoot from the hip right here on the bench.\u201d <\/p>\n

Instead, he countered with an unusual move of his own, appointing<\/a> noted conservative lawyer Paul Clement<\/a> as amicus curiae to present adversarial arguments to the government\u2019s motion to dismiss. Though far from typical, Ho argued the appointment was \u201cappropriate\u201d due to \u201cpublic importance of this case, which calls for careful deliberation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judge Ho\u2019s bold move has left a lot of folks speculating about the rationale. Not immediately acquiescing to the administration was certainly applauded by the left, but the Clement pick is fascinating. Clement was the Solicitor General<\/a> under George W. Bush, with extensive Supreme Court experience<\/a>, who just happens to think Biglaw is too woke.<\/a> The right-wing stalwart is being asked to argue against the Trump administration\u2026 and while Clement currently runs his own boutique firm, advancing arguments in opposition to the Trump administration might just end his future chances of government work before they even start. The Trump II reign seems fixed on the smallest slights, and even being appointed to the role is unlikely to protect him from scorn if he provides the justification to thwart the Trumpian plans \u2014 just ask Robert Mueller. The right will light just about anyone\u2019s career on fire if they step out of line. So if Clement finds issue with the DOJ\u2019s motion to dismiss, the conservative legal movement might find their most capable lawyer is persona non grata in MAGAworld.<\/p>\n

Briefing is due March 7, with possible oral argument on March 14.\u00a0And it will be fascinating to watch.<\/p>\n

\n

\"\"Kathryn Rubino is a Senior Editor at Above the Law, host of The Jabot podcast<\/a>, and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. AtL tipsters are the best, so please connect with her. Feel free to email her<\/a> with any tips, questions, or comments and follow her on Twitter @Kathryn1<\/a>\u00a0or Mastodon @[email\u00a0protected].<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Clement (by Alex Wong\/Getty Images) The shenanigans from the Department of Justice in the case against New York City mayor Eric Adams have been epic. Acting deputy attorney general\u00a0Emil Bove demanded the dismissal of the corruption charges against Adams, which led to a Thursday Night Massacre as seven prosecutors decided they\u2019d rather submit themselves […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":109089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-109122","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/IMG_5243-1-scaled-e1623338814705-620x568-yTGfH7.jpeg?fit=620%2C568&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109122","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109122"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109122\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}