Judge Cannon, who presided over the classified documents handling case that has embroiled candidate Donald Trump in a Georgia court battle, has dismissed all charges against the defendant. This, which marks a significant legal victory for Trump, comes just a few days after a vigilante sniper attempted to assassinate him at a rally in Pennsylvania, and in the midst of the Republican National Convention where Trump is expected to accept the party’s nomination for the office of President of the United States (again).
The surprise ruling, which appears to contravene several decades worth of established precedent, sees Judge Aileen M. Cannon of the U.S. District court finding that special council Jack Smith, who is working for the justice department, was appointed by a man who did not have the authority to order a special prosecutor to look into the affairs of a former U.S. President. That man? Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The appointment, she rules, was illegal because it constituted an unconstitutional appropriation the powers granted I the Appointments Clause of the U.S. Constitution. In that clause, a procedure is laid out for the appointment of “officers of the of the United States.” Such power rests with the Legislative branch of government, not with the Executive Branch. Unfortunately for Smith, and the Biden administration which sponsored his appointment, the Merrick Garland leads the Department of Justice, which is part of the Executive branch of the Federal government.
This decision breaks from previous judicial tradition which has developed since the Watergate era, where various federal courts have declined to rule special prosecutors out-of-order when appointed by the Justice Department.
Cannon’s reasoning, if upheld on appeal, means that cases brought by other special prosecutors, including that of David Weiss—who is in charge of the prosecution of the president’s son Hunter Biden—are also categorically illegitimate.
This ruling is the latest in a series of surprise rulings from the Cannon court, and as litigation continues it has the potential to change the way politics and accountability work in the United States.