The Trump administration has appealed the preliminary injunction entered by Judge Kate Menendez in Tincher v. Noem to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals. Yesterday the Eighth Circuit granted the administration’s motion to stay the preliminary injunction pending appeal. I have embedded the Court’s per curiam (i.e., unsigned) opinion below via Scribd.
I wrote about Judge Menendez’s 82-page order granting the preliminary injunction in “The Menendez obstruction” and followed up in “The Menendez miasma.” I thought Judge Menendez’s order was a glorified if dangerous joke. Eighth Circuit Judges Shepherd and Stras find the preliminary injunction defective in all the respects anticipated here. Judge Gruender concurs in part and dissents in two respects.
Judge Stras, by the way, is the former University of Minnesota Law School professor and Minnesota Supreme Court justice appointed by President Trump to the Eighth Circuit in 2017. Judge Stras served as a law clerk to Justice Thomas. Justice Thomas even traveled to Minnesota to administer the oath when he took office on the Minnesota Supreme Court. Justice Thomas observed that Judge Stras was prepared for the job “by training, by experience, by disposition.” He is an outstanding judge and his office is only a few floors down from that of Judge Menendez. He can see what’s happening in town with his own eyes.
The brief panel opinion finds Judge Menendez’s preliminary injunction too broad, too vague, and, oh yeah, threatening irreparable harm by causing cause federal agents to hesitate in performing their lawful duties. Other than that, A-okay.
Yesterday Judge Menendez heard oral argument in the state’s joke of a lawsuit against DHS under the Tenth Amendment. Judge Menendez is bidding to make herself a joke.
The Star Tribune story by Elliot Hughes on the Eighth Circuit opinion does not bother to disclose the problems found with Judge Menendez’s order by the Eighth Circuit. Those seeking to understand the speed bump placed by the Eighth Circuit on the road to find out will have to look elsewhere.
The Court also granted the government’s request for an expedited briefing schedule to resolve the appeal of the preliminary injunction itself. The Court’s grant of the stay pending appeal signals trouble ahead for the preliminary injunction. More to come.
Via Josh Gerstein/X.
Eighth Circuit opinion granting stay of preliminary injunction in Tincher v. Noem by Scott Johnson
