{"id":116441,"date":"2025-04-25T05:00:21","date_gmt":"2025-04-25T13:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/25\/judge-wilkinson-stares-into-the-abyss-after-trump-deportation-opinion\/"},"modified":"2025-04-25T05:00:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-25T13:00:21","slug":"judge-wilkinson-stares-into-the-abyss-after-trump-deportation-opinion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/04\/25\/judge-wilkinson-stares-into-the-abyss-after-trump-deportation-opinion\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge Wilkinson Stares Into The Abyss After Trump Deportation Opinion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Can someone check in on Judge Wilkinson? Because the conservative legal movement luminary appears to be having a moment<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Wrapping up a routine insurance opinion by musing, \u201cWhat after all does it matter?\u201d the Fourth Circuit veteran took Owners Ins. Co. v. Walsh<\/em> on a three-paragraph journey into a dorm-room philosophy session gone rogue. Deciding a dispute about whether a man fatally struck by a car while on his riding mower could tap uninsured motorist coverage after exhausting the driver\u2019s policy limit, Judge Wilkinson channeled Carl Sagan in full 1970s turtleneck mode:<\/p>\n

\n

A case but a speck in the recesses of interstellar space and in the four-plus billion years since our solar system\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Buddy. It\u2019s a South Carolina insurance dispute, not the Voyager Golden Record.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

A colleague emailed me today to flag the fact that the superb Fourth Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson ended a quotidian insurance opinion with an unusually introspective conclusion.<\/p>\n

\u2014 John Elwood (@johnpelwood.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-04-24T14:47:42.723Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Just kick back, turn on the black light, and crank up Dust in the Wind<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To be fair, Judge Wilkinson has shared some THOUGHTS about the rule of law lately. We\u2019re mere days removed from Wilkinson dropping a blistering opinion<\/a> in the Abrego Garcia<\/em> case laying out the stakes<\/a> involved in the Trump administration\u2019s new \u201cDisappearances R\u2019 Us\u201d strategy for an actually principled conservative:<\/p>\n

\n

The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps standing at the edge of legal authoritarianism and staring into that void has left him pondering life, death, and 14-point Times New Roman.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to this latest opinion, in which he contemplates the mortality of man, the meaning of justice, and then affirms the district court\u2019s ruling that the insurer owes nothing more under the contract.<\/p>\n

\n

To be human is to live in the here and now. This small case extracts courageous meaning from the vast impersonality in which it resides. Its immediacy confounds infinity; its passions light the dark.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Somewhere a law school gunner just got that tattooed on their chest. And then got renditioned to El Salvador. <\/p>\n

Behind all the planetary metaphors and meditations on cosmic dust, Wilkinson seems to be asking \u2014 maybe himself, maybe the universe \u2014 \u201cIs this enough?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

What does it matter, this case deserted by both space and time?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Are you there God? It\u2019s me, Harvie.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Judge Wilkinson Stares Into The Abyss After Trump Deportation Opinion<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Can someone check in on Judge Wilkinson? Because the conservative legal movement luminary appears to be having a moment<\/em>. <\/p>\n

Wrapping up a routine insurance opinion by musing, \u201cWhat after all does it matter?\u201d the Fourth Circuit veteran took Owners Ins. Co. v. Walsh<\/em> on a three-paragraph journey into a dorm-room philosophy session gone rogue. Deciding a dispute about whether a man fatally struck by a car while on his riding mower could tap uninsured motorist coverage after exhausting the driver\u2019s policy limit, Judge Wilkinson channeled Carl Sagan in full 1970s turtleneck mode:<\/p>\n

\n

A case but a speck in the recesses of interstellar space and in the four-plus billion years since our solar system\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Buddy. It\u2019s a South Carolina insurance dispute, not the Voyager Golden Record.<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

A colleague emailed me today to flag the fact that the superb Fourth Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson ended a quotidian insurance opinion with an unusually introspective conclusion.<\/p>\n

\u2014 John Elwood (@johnpelwood.bsky.social)<\/a> 2025-04-24T14:47:42.723Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Just kick back, turn on the black light, and crank up Dust in the Wind<\/em>.<\/p>\n

To be fair, Judge Wilkinson has shared some THOUGHTS about the rule of law lately. We\u2019re mere days removed from Wilkinson dropping a blistering opinion<\/a> in the Abrego Garcia<\/em> case laying out the stakes<\/a> involved in the Trump administration\u2019s new \u201cDisappearances R\u2019 Us\u201d strategy for an actually principled conservative:<\/p>\n

\n

The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Perhaps standing at the edge of legal authoritarianism and staring into that void has left him pondering life, death, and 14-point Times New Roman.<\/p>\n

Which brings us to this latest opinion, in which he contemplates the mortality of man, the meaning of justice, and then affirms the district court\u2019s ruling that the insurer owes nothing more under the contract.<\/p>\n

\n

To be human is to live in the here and now. This small case extracts courageous meaning from the vast impersonality in which it resides. Its immediacy confounds infinity; its passions light the dark.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Somewhere a law school gunner just got that tattooed on their chest. And then got renditioned to El Salvador. <\/p>\n

Behind all the planetary metaphors and meditations on cosmic dust, Wilkinson seems to be asking \u2014 maybe himself, maybe the universe \u2014 \u201cIs this enough?\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

What does it matter, this case deserted by both space and time?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Are you there God? It\u2019s me, Harvie.<\/p>\n

\n

\"Headshot\"Joe Patrice<\/a>\u00a0is a senior editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer<\/a>. Feel free to\u00a0email<\/a> any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0or Bluesky<\/a> if you\u2019re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news. Joe also serves as a Managing Director at RPN Executive Search<\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post Judge Wilkinson Stares Into The Abyss After Trump Deportation Opinion<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can someone check in on Judge Wilkinson? Because the conservative legal movement luminary appears to be having a moment. Wrapping up a routine insurance opinion by musing, \u201cWhat after all does it matter?\u201d the Fourth Circuit veteran took Owners Ins. Co. v. Walsh on a three-paragraph journey into a dorm-room philosophy session gone rogue. Deciding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":116394,"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-116441","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\/04\/Headshot-300x200-AH4fjC.jpeg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116441","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=116441"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116441\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116441"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116441"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116441"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}