Mark Meadows lost badly last month when a federal appeals court panel smacked down his attempt to remove his Georgia state criminal charges to federal court. But a new filing reminds us that his fight isn’t over — and that it may be headed to the Supreme Court.
That filing is a “petition for rehearing en banc,” meaning Meadows wants the full complement of 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges to review the case, as opposed to just the three-judge panel that ruled against him. The panel said the removal law at issue doesn’t apply to former federal officers like Meadows and that, even if it did, the events giving rise to the former Trump White House chief of staff’s election subversion charges weren’t related to his official duties.
Meadows doesn’t have a clear path to victory in the 11th Circuit. Indeed, one member of the panel was the conservative chief judge, William Pryor, in addition to two Democratic appointees, so it’s not as if the full circuit would necessarily provide a different view. But even if Meadows doesn’t convince the circuit to reverse course, he may have his sights set on a higher court.
On that front, Meadows’ rehearing petition is notable for having brought on top Supreme Court litigator Paul Clement. His petition notes that the panel is “the first court in 190 years to deny a federal forum to federal officers sued after they left office,” and he also argued:
Inevitably, at least some of the Nation’s 2,330 chief local prosecutors, distributed across jurisdictions red and blue, will view the panel’s opinion as a green light to make a name for themselves by filing ‘day-after’ indictments following the next change in administration.
That novelty and doomsday scenario might not scare the circuit into disavowing the panel’s ruling. But it may serve as a preview of the arguments we could see Clement make to the Supreme Court if Meadows loses again in this latest step in the process.
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