Monday was already a good day in federal court in South Dakota. And then…and then!
When a U.S. Marshal on May 10 refused to follow his order and state whether she had been vaccinated for coronavirus or not, U.S. District Judge Charles Kornmann booted her from his Aberdeen courtroom. When she mouthed off and participated in her bosses’ scheme to sabotage Judge Kornmann’s afternoon docket by removing defendants from the courthouse and denying them their hearings, the flabbergasted Judge Kornmann told her bosses, including the U.S. Marshals’ chief of Staff from Washington, D.C., to come to his courtroom June 14 and explain why he shouldn’t cite them all for contempt of court.
Yesterday, Marshals’ Chief of Staff John Kilgallon, U.S. Marshall Daniel Mosteller, and Deputy U.S. Marshal Stephen Houghtaling trooped into the Aberdeen federal courtroom, all wearing masks, to face the wrath of a judge furious at the law enforcement officers’ disregard for judicial authority:
“This was such an outrageous thing to do,” he said during a hearing on Monday. “Nothing like this that we could find has ever been done in this country. If it is the marshals’ position that they can override court orders, they are badly mistaken” [Joseph Choi, “Federal Judge Charges Marshals with Obstruction in Fight over Vaccination Status Disclosure,” The Hill, 2021.06.14].
…defendants’ safety and due process:
“When you move someone against their will, that’s kidnapping,” said Kornmann. “I don’t care who you are.”
…The proceedings ensued one month after a deputy marshal absconded with three criminal defendants from the federal courthouse in Aberdeen after she’d refused to answer Judge Kornmann’s question of whether she’d been vaccinated or not against COVID-19. After Kornmann ordered her out of the courtroom, citing danger to the criminal defendants, the deputy and other marshals vacated the courthouse with three defendants in their custody, delaying that day and the next’s scheduled hearings [Christopher Vondracek, “‘I Don’t Care Who You Are’: South Dakota Federal Judge Sets Trial Date for 3 US Marshals over Courthouse Vaccination Fight,” Forum News Service via The Dickinson Press, 2021.06.14].
…and science and public health:
The judge railed against what he called “political nonsense” that citizens had absolute “freedom” to abstain from vaccinations, even during deadly pandemics, listing off, for example, the requirement that children be vaccinated against certain communicable diseases before attending public school.
“We’re talking about science,” said Kornmann. “If you are refusing to take the vaccine… let me know” [Vondracek, 2021.06.14].
Judge Kornmann said the Marshals could end the proceedings by apologizing, admitting to civil charges of contempt of court, and, reports Vondracek, each “paying $5,000 to an admitting attorneys fund for the state.” They declined, so Judge Kornmann proceeded to charge them with criminal contempt of court and conspiracy to obstruct justice. The judge imposed no bond, but the two South Dakota-based Marshals, Mosteller and Houghtaling, can’t leave the state and D.C.-based Kilgallon can’t leave the country until after their September 13 trial.
Boy, Marshals, Judge Kornmann sounds really mad. He gave you a chance to admit you were naughty, but you told him to buzz off and earned yourselves a criminal trial. Are you sure you want to die on this hill (and die you will, says very recent court precedent), just because you don’t want your people to tell the judge whether they’ve gotten coronavirus shots and thus pose significantly less risk of exposing people in the judge’s courtroom to coronavirus? Just give up! Plead guilty, pay the fine, and get your shots—or, fine! don’t get your shots, but just tell Judge Kornmann that so he can arrange for more responsible, civic-minded, court-respecting law enforcement officers to provide security in his federal courtroom.
Monday’s beating should have been enough for you marshals; you really don’t want to come back in September for a total thrashing and criminal penalties… which probably don’t look good on a federal law enforcement officer’s record.
“I had always thought that the principal responsibilities of the Marshals Service was the protection of the federal judiciary,” he [Kornmann] wrote in a letter to federal officials in March. “As it stands now, they could well be the most dangerous people in the courtroom.”
Damn right. And Judge Kornmann’s matter-of-fact prescience cuts through the antinomian and anti-science crap symptomatic of millions of wandering, freedom-addled minds in the US that now sees some 600,000 dead of COVID.
This judge must be removed, says vaccinated grudznick. He is a libbie drunk on his own juices.
Well…as I said earlier, the Marshalls are headed for the crow bar hotel. At the least they will be five grand lighter.
Just as a comment, I don’t think anyone should have absolute authority.
That kind of authority is just to easy to abuse.
If it weren’t for the truth about the pandemic, the judge would have a reason to be mad.
We know it’s a scam.
It’s over.
Just give-up.
My God, John Dale.
What did your father do to you to instill such a need to be a victim?
Grab your sack and stand up like a proper patriot.
Nobody is out to get you and even if they are, why cry like a baby and claim false victimhood?
You look like a spineless kook and you can cry about that on Dakota War College, like you always do.
grudz knows not what the word liberal means – he believes it to be some sort of insult I suppose – thus he knows not how to interpret the application of law in relationship to that term.
Rachael Levy
@rachael_levy
NEW: The White House has laid out a government-wide approach to combating domestic terrorism, including more funding for the FBI and the promotion of programs for civic education and digital literacy.
Educate hrdz&dale DAVE!! Fkn chipmunk maturity.grdz
Cont. “The national strategy recognizes that we cannot prevent every attack,” Garland said. “The only way to find sustainable solutions is not only to disrupt and deter, but also to address the root causes of violence.”
Exactly what Kornmann is using his power, correctly, to do. Sustainable solutions. Science. Proper application of law.
Looks like a couple of new security guards at Walmart will start soon…. Of course, they will have to wear or do mandated directives from old Sam’s kin, theirownselves. Sucks to be so obtuse.
You can tell who the real patriots of our fine country are. Thank you Judge Kornmann for holding these anti American marshalls accountable for their selfish and risking behaviors. They never should have had an honorable job in the first place.
I’d rather be a libbie than an idiot.
Grudz, in what way is Judge Kornmann drunkenly ignoring the rule of law, due process, worker rights, or any other proper standard of behavior? Against Judge Kornmann’s defense of judicial authority, are you going to run some whining liberal argument about worker rights?
Don’t try chanting “Blue Lives Matter” in defense of the Marshals, because Judge Kornmann will reply, “All Lives Matter!” and win the argument.
John Dale, we are beating the pandemic because patriots are getting their shots. Coronavirus lingers and mutates only when it has willing human partners who refuse to act in the best interest of our species.
Besides, in the courthouse, it is not law enforcement’s job to dictate law, science, or facts to the judge. Cops can believe all the conspiracy theories they want on their own time, but when they pin on their badges and go to the courthouse, they are to enforce the law as written by the Legislative Branch and as interpreted by the Judicial Branch. They are also to follow the basic rules of the courtroom established by the Judicial Branch.
Got goats?
No goat has been got… and as usual, no answer to the question has been given, demonstrating the superficiality of your response. Judge Kornmann has a solid case here; the Marshals have no case for ignoring the direction of the judge in the courtroom.
Law Enforcement defying the orders of a judge? And they still have a job? Boss of these marshal’s should have fired them yesterday, and the day before, and every day before that. That badge should be ripped from their uniform shirts, ‘Branded’ style. They don’t in any way show that they represent the law enforcement or the oath they took.
Principal duties: eating donuts, reading gun magazines and seduction by extreme right wing militarized militias.
On Federal Marshalls:
I know about federal marshals and personally became good acquaintances with several, at one time.
Backstory:
I cooked at a place only a mile from a federal prison. The marshals that were assigned there, to a tee, loved my Philly cheesesteaks and came in for lunch often. It was an open kitchen so I chatted up the boys and listened to their banter, over lunch and coffee. (We also served lots of sheriff’s deputies and city cops.) *The owner gave them free food, for peace of mind on the security end, so there was almost always a cop in uniform at the counter.
What federal marshals prided themselves on most are:
-Being federal and thus holding their jobs way above any other cops.
-Tracking down and apprehending escapees. The stories were fascinating about how to track down a prison runaway. (Go to their mother’s or girlfriends home, tap their phone and wait. Escapees don’t want trouble. They’re just lonely for family, in almost every case.)
-Federal marshals consider being assigned to a court as the lowest rung of their employment ladder. It’s where troublemakers, rabble rousers, and misfits on the force end up.
My question to Judge Kornmann’s security team is the same one I posed to Pat Powers about his FBI agent father.
“What did you do the get stationed in the worst job, in the worst environment in America?”
So, it’s pretty understandable that these marshals would do something stupid like this.
Remember, they’re federal employees, with a strong union representation, and they almost can’t be fired.
And idiot cowgirl governors in camouflage. :)
Actually “drunk on his own juices“ is Trump’s scientific diagnosis. He is as if drunk, dry-drunk, on his own adrenalin fueled narssacist life-long pathological and criminal spree. Republicans knowingly nominated and elected him. 74 million ignorant selfish voters. Civil war on the heated hirizon. Stockpiled AR-15s. Low IQs. They are going to “burn it all down.” Exactly what billionaire Bob Mercer said when he bailed out Trump’s failing 2016 campaign. Sour grapes mythology. Steve Bannon was the pilot. With those three what could go wrong? Thus, a Marshals service that has lost its way, top down and inside out.
Over 600k scam deaths, Johnny Rabbit Hole. Why haven’t you glommed on to the Noem for Numbnuts campaign? You’d certainly fit the bill of bloviating bs’ers.
Rabbit Hole’s delusions are closing in on him…..
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jun/15/facebook-posts/2010-rockefeller-foundation-report-does-not-show-c/
Covid and world wide pandemic was not predicted 10 years ago.
I want to see Grudz’s vaccine card that proves he as taken the vaccine
mike from iowa,
take a brief look at this;
https://www.davidquammen.com/spillover
Be interesting if it ever came to fruition, but he is not saying much if anything new. Predictions are all over the place and mostly false. Thanks for the link.
The judge is great, however Grudz is right, he needs to retire so he can be replaced by Biden with someone who Grudz will hate even more whos 40 years old.
Grudz, you might be right about Demon weed, look what its done to the mind of John Dale.
Edwin, read the US Constitution. The judge’s power is not absolute. The marshals may appeal.
We the people are sick and tired of the justice-created law of “qualified immunity”. “Qualified immunity” fostered the law enforcement community to forget for whom they work. If law enforcement doesn’t want to be looked down upon as an occupying army, then maybe law enforcement should not have their own flag.
Why does Cory prevent so many users from posting multiple sources for their claims so we can improve the level of discourse but does nothing about the constant spewing of misinformation from John Dale? Any time he is called out on it and people push back on his claims, he ignores them and just moves on to the next conspiracy. But try to make a post with multiple sources in an attempt to make falsifiable claims and the post vanishes into the ether. Are you actively trying to make sure the level of rhetoric remains low here, Cory?
Real villain here, seems to me to be the head of the Marshall’s Service; which I believe was put in place by Trump and is attempting to act like Trump in his defiance of standards expected not only by law, but of society. Like Trump, he will face Justice also, however slow, but “Justified”!
Kornman’s proposed solution would have been ‘easy way out’ for them, had they chosen to wisely take it. Now they will have to face the music.
So grudz, you think kidnapping of a prisoner should result in a slap on the wrist?
Defiance of a judge’s orders a ‘nothing’? Are YOU really a ‘conservative’? Don’t you ‘believe in law and order’? Is Kornman a “liberal” because he won’t let the marshalls run his courtroom? Do marshals set court dates/times? Are rules rules to you?
Just where’n hell are you coming from or are you just regurgitating ‘taters n gravy’ like a cow chewing cud?!!!! C’mon, man.
Jake, drumpf will be reinstalled as Poltus in August so these scofflaws are waiting for their pardon.
No, Dicta, I just have a spam filter that automatically moderates comments with multiple comments. I’ll review and authorize shortly.
(An easy workaround, Dicta: post each link in a separate comment.)
In this case, Kornmann is a conservative, advocating the conservative position in favor of the rule of constitutional law and the constitutional authority of the judiciary, not the usurpation of power by rogue police to make up their own rules for judicial proceedings.
Amen, Cory. 199% right you are. But scofflaws such as the grudz don’t quite fathom the rule of law meant for the benefit of society as a whole. Neither, does J Dale and others who might want to claim their “my rights as a free ‘merican to do as I want” crowd!
We need more Judge Kornmans throughout society..
Similarly, a Federal Judge orders lawyer signers of pleadings concerning advocating the “kraken” bullsheit to appear at a July hearing for Rule 11 sanctions.
This is in MI where the Dem governor is a former AG and her Secretary of State is also similarly qualified. The state where Republicans and radical AR15 carrying militias attempted kidnapping, assassination of the governor, and the take-over of the MI Capitol occurred after Trump incitement-tweeted “liberate Michogan”, much like troll Dale posts “Soros with boobs”. Catchy? Complete Fox News Neanderthals.
I know scientific evidence points toward Neanderthals’ likely superiority, but the “cave man” low mentality meme will HTDFTTB.
F*cking idiots.
Kornmann recused. “The case is styled United States of America v. John Kilhallon, et al. But the Plaintiff is not the United States. It is a single judge who abused his discretion. Judge Kornmann makes Judge Emmet Sullivan seem reasonable by comparison.” conservative twtr/blogger
Dicta, quite often Cory’s blog hesitates to publish posts, especially those link-“heavy”. No worries. I just post “essential” links.