Trump’s Lawyers Will Get Away with Facilitating His Anti-Democratic Antics and They Know It

AUSTIN SARAT

Austin Sarat—Associate Provost and Associate Dean of the Faculty and William Nelson Cromwell Professor of Jurisprudence & Political Science at Amherst College—predicts that because the lawyer discipline process is broken, President Trump’s lawyers will get away with facilitating his anti-democratic misconduct. Professor Sarat notes that Lawyers Defending American Democracy (LDAD) released a letter calling on bar authorities to investigate and punish members of Trump’s post-election legal team, but he points out that while LDAD can shame those members, it still lacks the ability itself to discipline or disbar.

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Stelly v. Duriso

Docket: 19-20160

Opinion Date: December 11, 2020

Judge: Catharina Haynes

Areas of Law: Civil Rights, Constitutional Law, Labor & Employment Law, Personal Injury

Plaintiff filed suit against the unions she was affiliated with, as well as a maritime association, for sexual harassment under federal employment law, arguing that defendant's conduct created a hostile work environment. Plaintiff also filed suit against defendant himself for intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED) under Texas state law. The district court entered a default judgment in plaintiff's favor on the IIED claim and plaintiff ultimately prevailed at trial against the other defendants. The Fifth Circuit first held that a party's failure to file a motion to set aside a default judgment in the district court does not prevent the party from appealing that judgment to the court. On the merits, the court vacated the default judgment on the IIED claim, concluding that plaintiff could not pursue an IIED against defendant in light of the other statutory remedies available to plaintiff. The court explained that a plaintiff generally cannot sustain an IIED claim if the plaintiff could have brought a sexual harassment claim premised on the same facts. In this case, the gravamen of plaintiff's IIED claim is for sexual harassment; plaintiff used defendant's conduct as a basis for her Title VII claims against the other defendants; plaintiff ultimately prevailed on those claims against the union; and the availability of those statutory remedies on the same facts forecloses her IIED claims against defendant. Accordingly, the court remanded for further proceedings.

Quezada v. Internal Revenue Service

Docket: 19-51000

Opinion Date: December 11, 2020

Judge: E. Grady Jolly

Areas of Law: Tax Law

After the IRS assessed taxpayer in 2014 for tax deficiencies dating back to 2005, taxpayer contends that the assessment is barred by the Internal Revenue Code's three-year limitations period, which runs from the date "the return" is filed. The district court held that the limitations period never began to run because taxpayer never filed "the return." The Fifth Circuit vacated the district court's judgment allowing the tax assessment and held that taxpayer filed "the return" that started the limitations clock when he filed forms containing data sufficient to (1) show that he was liable for the taxes assessed and (2) calculate the extent of his tax liability. In this case, taxpayer's Forms 1040 and 1099 constitute "the return" that begins the running of the Internal Revenue Code's three-year assessment limitations period. Because the IRS assessment came more than three years after taxpayer filed those forms, the court concluded that the assessment is barred by the limitations period. The court remanded to the district court with instructions to remand the case to the bankruptcy court for entry of judgment in accord with the opinion.