New York Appellate Court, 9/26/2024 (Credit: YouTube clipping)
Consumer protection law is designed to protect the public from unscrupulous business schemes. It was never intended to make state bureaucrats the arbiter of every transaction between private parties, much less sophisticated financial actors.
That was the distinct message that arose out of last week’s appeals court hearing in state Attorney General Letitia James’ unabashedly politicized civil fraud case against Donald Trump.
(…) Well, as the old adage holds, the wheels of justice grind slowly but they grind exceedingly fine. Trump has appealed, and at last week’s oral argument, a five-judge panel of the appellate division was demonstrably troubled by James’ case.
Mostly, the judges worried aloud that the AG had overstepped her jurisdiction and had no business refereeing private transactions between sophisticated financial actors.
Most judges seemed unmoved by the state’s tenuous claim that Trump’s lenders must have dealt more unfavorably with the public due to the risks attendant to dealing with Trump.
Oral argument is not always a reliable indicator of how a court will rule. In this instance, though, the penalty imposed is so out of proportion with Trump’s alleged wrong that it smacks of a US constitutional violation of the prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments.
It would be a reach at this stage to predict a sweeping Trump victory, but I believe a significant reduction in the ludicrous penalty is very likely.
Remember, if a malevolent partisan prosecutor can do this to Trump, she can do it to any person, business or cause that offends progressive Democrats.
That’s fine by James, but it may thankfully have dawned on the appellate court that, if those are the new rules, New York City can’t survive as the world’s center of commerce. (Read more: New York Post, 10/01/2024) (Archive)
Excellent summary of the lawfare case against @realDonaldTrump that was just crushed by the NY Appellate.
Incredibly sensible questions by appellate judges had me in stitches 🤣🤣
American justice system for the W.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 10, 2024