Cornelia Pillard

We had about 200,000 people that listened to it on LegalAF of the oral argument.

And if you just listen to Judge Millett and Pillard and, and Childs-

Who wrote dissent, by the way

... oh, if Millett or Pillard, Pillard write the, write the majority, they are dead.

I'm talking about the Trump administration.

And, and Judge, and Judge Boasberg, who gets mercilessly attacked by the Trump administration and its Department of Justice as a Marxist, leftist, radicalist, unelected judge, he's nothing of the kind.

Circuit is saying, "Well, while this appeal plays out, we at least will vacate part of the stay that we previously issued to stop President Trump from carving his name on the building." It is already up there in bolted-on silver lettering, but this would be carving it, and the motion had said that that would literally set things in stone by stamping the government's view of the merits of this dispute into the headquarters building.

This was a new panel that included Judges Pillard, Edwards, who's a senior judge, and Henderson.

And Henderson said that she would not, that she would have denied the motion to partially vacate the stay.

So it's just a one-page order, doesn't have any reasoning.

That makes sense.

Judge Cornelia Pillard, also an Obama nominee, said, "It undermines court's authority if the executive branch treats judicial orders as optional and is allowed to ignore them with impunity." Quote, "The separation of powers respects the separate and co-equal authority of the different branches," she said.

"Really, at bottom, what this case is about is whether federal courts are at the mercy of the executive."

[laughs]

But here's the interesting thing.

You see, the judge in the case, Cornelia Pillard, said, basically, the states have the responsibility to plan for and avert risks to reliability on an ongoing basis.

In other words, we want this plant closed, and it's up to the states to figure out how to fund power without it.

Again, I understand the dichotomy here, right? When I was in IT, there was an old saying, you can have it quick, you can have it fast, you can have it right, pick two.

We've, you know, we've demonized coal, we've demonized oil and natural gas.

You got to get your power somewhere.

I don't know if this judge made this decision because she hates coal-powered plants and wants them shut down, or if she actually looked at the Constitution and said, wait a second, the executive branch doesn't have the authority to order a private company to keep operating.

They have a contract.

So who took over the hearing? It's easy.

Judge Pillard, Judge Millett, and Judge Childs, all Democrats, took over the hearing.

And particularly Judge Pillard went after, on a regular basis, and along with Judge, uh, Millett, uh, the lawyer for the Department of Justice, saying that, you know, uh, we're talking about Article III judge power here, and not giving it up to the presidency, and not rolling over.

It's not a one-way street.

And there's a separation of powers issues that are, that are very present here.

We know what side Judge Wilkins is on.

We know what side Judge Pillard is on.

Judge Garcia didn't say anything, so I'm not going to make any prediction about that.

So yeah, and then, and then I think Rao is extremely clear.

It was Judge Millett.

I think the exchange that you're talking about, she wasn't the only judge who said similar things.

Judge Pan said something quite similar, too, you know, "Why do we have to accept these declara-" And, and Judge Millett came back to the declarations, too, and, and I think maybe Judge Pillard did, too.

I should figure out exactly.

Circuit Court of Appeals.

And these are highly complex legal battles being overseen by a panel that includes judges Cornelia Pillard, Patricia Millett and J. Michelle Child.

The arguments were heard back to back just this month.

Let's break down the first one.

And I want to tell you who they are because it's important.

They are judges, and again, I'm looking at this order, Srinivasan, Pillard, and Pan.

These three judges on the DC Circuit Court of Appeals are all Obama and Biden nominees.

So it doesn't mean anything, but if you had to get a draw, that's a great draw.