Professional Liars and the People Who Represent Them

Leah Litman has an excellent post about the revelations that the Trump administration lied to the Supreme Court about its intentions to help secure a favorable ruling in Jennings v. Rodriguez:

The third and final point is about government lawyers in the Trump administration. When the Trump administration began, there were many reasonable debates about whether honorable lawyers with integrity should serve in the Trump administration, including in ostensibly non-political positions in the Department of Justice. At this point, based on all that has happened over the last two plus years, government lawyers should know that the government is being led by a bunch of fraudsters and bigots who will lie and gaslight and kick and scream until they get what they want (and what they want are apparently a bunch of grifts and xenophobic policies). My guess is that lawyers in the Office of the Solicitor General didn’t know–and reall had no idea–that the administration was planning on rescinding a guidance authorizing parole while Rodriguez. But the point is that you have to expect that the liars and bigots in the administration will not be honest or forthcoming with you. And you have to expect the worst from them, too. Because they’ve proven time and time again that it’s always going to be so much worse than you expect.

The 10,000th spoon when all you need is a Democratic-nominated median vote on the Supreme Court is that the lies probably didn’t affect the outcome of the case; the current Court majority is nothing if not Donald Trump’s partner in governance.