Sometimes who you hang with really does tell the whole
tale............
Anyone not familiar w/the Federalist Society, I suggest
you do some research.......
***
Federal Judge Aileen M. Cannon, the controversial jurist
who tossed out the classified documents criminal case
against Donald Trump in July, failed to disclose her
attendance at a May 2023 banquet funded by a conservative
law school.
Cannon went to an event in Arlington, Va. honoring the
late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, according to
documents obtained from the Law and Economics Center at
George Mason University. At a lecture and private dinner,
she sat among members of Scalia’s family, fellow
Federalist Society members and more than 30 conservative
federal judges. Organizers billed the event as “an
excellent opportunity to connect with judicial
colleagues.”
A 2006 rule, intended to shine a light on judges’
attendance at paid seminars that could pose conflicts or
influence decisions, requires them to file disclosure
forms for such trips within 30 days and make them public
on the court’s website.
It’s not the first time she has failed to fully comply
with the rule.
In 2021 and 2022, Cannon took weeklong trips to the
luxurious Sage Lodge in Pray, Montana, for legal
colloquiums sponsored by George Mason, which named its
law school for Scalia thanks to $30 million in gifts that
conservative judicial kingmaker Leonard Leo helped
organize.
Current rates for standard rooms at Sage Lodge can exceed
$1,000 per night, depending on the season. With both
Montana trips, Cannon’s required seminar disclosures were
not posted until NPR reporters asked about the omissions
this year as part of a broader national investigation of
gaps in judicial disclosures.
Cannon did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
In response to questions from ProPublica, the clerk in
the Southern District of Florida wrote in an email that
Cannon had filed the Sage Lodge trips with the federal
judiciary’s administrative office but had “inadvertently”
not taken the second step of posting them on the court’s
website. She explained that “Judges often do not realize
they must input the information twice.”
The clerk said she had no information about the May 2023
banquet.
“Judges administer the law, and we have a right to expect
every judge to comply with the law,” said Virginia
Canter, chief ethics counsel for the watchdog group
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
Cannon’s husband, Joshua Lorence, a restaurant executive,
accompanied her to the 2021 and 2022 colloquiums, which
featured noted conservative jurists, lawyers and
professors as well as lengthy “afternoon study breaks,”
according to records obtained by ProPublica. Cannon
emailed university staff to submit airport parking
expenses and inquire about rental car reimbursement.
The rule for paid seminars is among the policies set by
the Judicial Conference. Federal judges are also required
by law to file annual financial disclosures, listing
items such as assets, outside income and gifts.
Cannon’s annual disclosure form for 2023, which was due
in May and offers another chance to report gifts and
reimbursements from outside parties, has yet to be
posted. (Cannon reported the two Montana trips on her
annual disclosure forms, but the required 30-day
privately funded seminar reports had not been posted. In
2021, Cannon incorrectly listed the school as “George
Madison University.”)
The court’s administrative office declined to say if she
requested a one-time extension to give her until Aug. 13
to file. A spokesperson would not discuss whether she met
the deadline or the status of her disclosure, which must
be reviewed internally.
Cannon’s performance during almost four years of a
lifetime appointment has drawn criticism from lawyers,
former federal judges and courtroom observers who told
ProPublica that she doesn’t render timely decisions and
has made unpredictable rulings in both civil and criminal
matters. On July 15, she threw out the case brought by
Special Counsel Jack Smith that alleges Trump mishandled
classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence; Cannon
called Smith’s appointment unconstitutional since he was
not nominated by the president and approved by the
Senate.
Smith is appealing to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in
Washington has asked the court to remand her decision and
replace her.
By contrast, Trump, who appointed Cannon in 2020 to the
Fort Pierce courthouse, has praised her brilliance, and
Federalist Society founder Steven Calabresi called her a
heroine for throwing out the criminal case against Trump.
For decades, judicial education programs sponsored by
George Mason’s Law and Economics Center have drawn in
5,000 state and federal judges and four current Supreme
Court justices, according to its website. The school says
its programs strive for balance and intellectual rigor.
But conference agendas and speaker lists that the
university must file with the courts detail lectures and
panel discussions built around Federalist Society
principles that are associated with conservative legal
movements.
Ken Turchi, associate dean for external affairs, said the
law school plays no role in judicial disclosures.
“Judges’ decisions to submit (or not submit) disclosure
forms are theirs alone — it’s a self-reporting process,”
he said.
The guest list for the May 2023 Scalia Forum included
William H. Pryor Jr., chief judge of the 11th Circuit,
which is now hearing Smith’s appeal. Pryor and dinner
speaker Kyle Duncan, a 5th Circuit judge, did file their
required disclosures for the Scalia dinner.
Pryor’s court has overruled Cannon twice in the Trump
case. It sided with the government in September 2022 on a
motion for a stay and found that it “had established a
substantial likelihood of success on the merits.” In
December 2022, it ruled that she erred in naming a
special master to examine classified documents seized
from Mar-a-Lago. After that decision, Cannon had to
dismantle an expensive operation set up by her special
master, a senior federal judge in New York.
Gabe Roth, who directs Fix the Court, a nonprofit
judicial reform group, said compliance with the privately
funded seminar rule has improved in some circuits since
his group pressed for compliance with the Administrative
Office of the Courts.
“They’re a more effective way for litigants and the
public to get a sense of what types of individuals and
groups a judge might be hanging out with and learning
from,” he said.
Records show that Cannon submitted minor reimbursement
requests related to the Scalia Forum trip after she
returned, including the 158 miles she drove round trip to
the airport. She inquired with George Mason staff about
details for an Alaska excursion recommended by a former
lawyer in the Trump-era White House Counsel’s Office.
Cannon registered for George Mason’s Hill Country
Colloquium at a Texas resort in December 2023 but had to
back out for scheduling reasons.
“I hope to join that event, and others, in future years,”
she wrote.
If you have information about Judge Aileen M. Cannon,
please contact Marilyn W. Thompson at
marilyn.thompson@propublica.org.
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