Government

Brett Talley Being Withdrawn: Good Night Sweet Prince, And Flights Of Ghosts Sing Thee To Thy Rest!

The controversial ghost hunting nominee is officially off the table.

By  
on

White House (by Cezary p via Wikimedia)

After weeks of abuse from hack, fake news writers like Above the Law, the White House is finally going to give up the ghost (!) on Brett Talley’s federal district judge nomination. A Trump administration official informed NPR less than an hour ago that Talley’s appointment “will not be moving forward.”

Some might say the writing was on the wall when Senator Chuck Grassley called on the Trump administration to withdraw Talley (and Jeff Mateer, who is still apparently going forward at this time see update below). We also heard that Mitch McConnell planned to hold up the floor vote on Talley — because he managed to get through committee despite everything — indefinitely. All signs pointed to a failed nomination.

But there was still some sense Trump was going to stick with it, wasn’t there? Like he wouldn’t give a win to those low energy losers who care about “qualifications” and “not publicly complimenting the KKK.” If Talley languished on the floor forever, Trump wouldn’t admit his people were making a joke of the judicial nomination process.

But apparently something happened last night that convinced someone in the White House that their “screw propriety, we can do what we want” management style might be turning people off. And so Brett Talley becomes the second biggest loser in Alabama this morning.

My law school classmate and former Civil Rights Division head Vanita Gupta reacted immediately to point out that this was a victory for the judiciary.

Sponsored

But you know what? I’m gonna miss the kid. There was something magical about the time we all spent with Talley. Every day uncovering yet another wildly comical fact about how unfit he was to serve. The mainstream media made much of the fact that he’d never tried a case, but in all honesty trials are overrated. I can think of several GCs and law professors who would make fine jurists without trial experience. No, the real markings of an unqualified judge piled up as the days wore on. The ABA issued the exceedingly rare — though frighteningly frequent among Trump nominees — “Not Qualified” rating. He appeared to make false claims on a disclosure form submitted to the committee, which is kind of a big deal when there’s a Special Counsel investigation focused largely on “not falsifying disclosure forms.” Then we learned that Talley was a ghost hunter, forcing the Judiciary Republicans to look America in the eye and say, “we’ll give a lifetime job to a guy who believes Poltergeist is a documentary as long as he thinks gay people shouldn’t eat cake.” Then Mark Joseph Stern uncovered a comment board handle that appears to be Talley talking about how the OG KKK was A-OK.

There were, after all, good ghosts on both sides.

It was a performance art piece exposing the GOP’s betrayal of duty to this country with each passing day they tried to spit shine this nomination and honestly we’re all poorer for seeing it end. Because Talley’s nomination was only different in degree, never in kind from so many other unfit judges breezing through the Senate. His presence managed to awake even the most hardened conservative apologist to the fact that something might be broken here and that even the competent, conservative jurists that have gotten nominations from this administration look dimmer by association with this process. He perfectly embodied the wild hubris of a party so obsessed with its own dogma that they would sell out any sound instinct in their bodies to get it — almost a pale mirror of his fellow Alabaman, whose election brought out those same contradictions. Now, the Senate GOP will try to go forward with more judges with glaring flaws, hoping that no one will pay attention now that they’ve offered Talley to throw the hounds off the scent.

But, yes, he will be missed. Who knew what other antics Talley could have gotten up to between now and his confirmation? And what amusing opinions could we look forward to reading for decades to come?

Alas. Not to be. To borrow from Don McLean, I could have told you, Brett, this judiciary was never meant for one as beautiful as you.

Sponsored

UPDATE (12/13/17 2:25 p.m.): We’re receiving reports that Jeff Mateer is apparently out now too. Grassley now saying that Mateer will also not be confirmed.

Professor Carl Tobias of the University of Richmond School of Law, an expert on the federal nominations process, notes that “Chair Grassley deserves some credit for candidly stating that the Senate would not confirm the nominees because they lacked his support and probably that of many other GOP members. It is a huge waste of time for all in the process to have nominees who are not fully vetted or who do not submit sufficient information for the process to operate properly. It is critical to remember that these nominees serve for life, if confirmed.”

White House: Nomination of Alabama Lawyer Brett Talley ‘Will Not Be Moving Forward’ [NPR]

Earlier: Grassley Telling Trump He Really Doesn’t Want To Have To Vote On An Unqualified Ghost Hunter
Trump Judicial Nominee Is A Ghost Hunter, Proving The Bar Can Always Go A Little Lower
Judicial Nominee Brett Talley Loves Ghosts So Much He Apparently Thinks The KKK Were Kind Of Cool
John Kennedy Draws The Line At Ghost Hunting

HeadshotJoe Patrice is an editor at Above the Law and co-host of Thinking Like A Lawyer. Feel free to email any tips, questions, or comments. Follow him on Twitter if you’re interested in law, politics, and a healthy dose of college sports news.

Topics

, , , ,