After a routine Supreme Court argument on Wednesday, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked the lawyer who had represented the government to return to the lectern.
“You have just presented your 160th argument before this court, and I understand it is intended to be your last,” the chief justice told the lawyer, Edwin S. Kneedler, who is retiring as a deputy solicitor general. “That is the record for modern times.”
Chief Justice Roberts talked a little more, with affection and high praise, thanking Mr. Kneedler for his “extraordinary care and professionalism.”
Then something remarkable happened. Applause burst out in the courtroom, and that led to a standing ovation for Mr. Kneedler, with the justices joining, too.
“It was a rare moment of unanimity and spontaneous joy from all nine justices on the bench,” said Richard Lazarus, a law professor at Harvard. “They were all beaming.”
Kannon Shanmugam, a veteran Supreme Court lawyer, said it was “one of the most electric moments I’ve ever seen in the courtroom.”
The tribute to Mr. Kneedler’s candor and integrity came against the backdrop of a different kind of courtroom behavior. In the early months of the second Trump administration, its lawyers have been accused of gamesmanship, dishonesty and defiance, and have been fired for providing frank answers to judges.
Mr. Kneedler presented a different model, former colleagues said.
“Ed is the embodiment of the government lawyer ideal — one whose duty of candor to the court and interest in doing justice, not just winning a case, always carried the day,” said Gregory G. Garre, who served as solicitor general under President George W. Bush.
Mr. Shanmugam said Mr. Kneedler’s loyalty was to the rule of law. “He would much rather get the law right at the risk of losing,” Mr. Shanmugam said, “than win at the cost of misrepresenting the law.”
Seth P. Waxman, who was solicitor general in the Clinton administration, said Mr. Kneedler was the opposite of a partisan.
“In all the years that I worked with Ed in the Justice Department, I did not know his politics,” Mr. Waxman said.
Mr. Kneedler joined the Office of the Solicitor General, the elite unit of the Justice Department that represents the federal government in the Supreme Court, in 1979, served in many administrations and helped tutor the solicitors general who came and went.
“I was incredibly lucky to have Ed as a deputy when I was S.G.,” Justice Elena Kagan, who served as solicitor general in the Obama administration, said in a statement. “There’s pretty much no legal question he can’t answer. And he has a bone-deep understanding of the traditions and ethos of the S.G.’s office.”
She added: “I learned from him every day, and I did my job far better because he was there. In all the time I’ve spent in government, I’ve never known a finer public servant.”
That was something like a consensus view among former solicitors general. Mr. Waxman, for instance, called Mr. Kneedler “a national treasure.”
Noel J. Francisco, the solicitor general in the first Trump administration, said that Mr. Kneedler was “not just a font of knowledge, but of wisdom.”
Elizabeth B. Prelogar, the solicitor general in the Biden administration, said that “Ed Kneedler represents the very best of what it means to be a lawyer for the United States.”
Mr. Kneedler’s retirement is part of a wave of departures from the solicitor general’s office, which is quite small. After the solicitor general and a handful of deputies, there are just 16 line lawyers. About half of them are leaving, The Washington Post reported this month.
Mr. Kneedler, 79, did not respond to requests for an interview. When he received an award this month from the University of Virginia’s law school, his alma mater, he said he was “a career civil servant, not in the press if I can avoid it.”
At the ceremony, Mr. Kneedler gave extended remarks, making points that in another era might have seemed unremarkable. These days, they verged on provocative.
Calling himself a “citizen lawyer,” he praised the many federal employees he had worked with, saying he had been impressed by their “compassion and understanding for our country, and dedication to our country.”
He said his office analyzed legal issues with rigor and care, at least in cases on the court’s regular docket. Since Mr. Trump took office in January, the government has filed a torrent of emergency applications on what critics call the court’s shadow docket.
“When we don’t have emergencies like we have a number of now,” Mr. Kneedler said, “we have a very structured decision-making process.”
Leslie Kendrick, the Virginia law school’s dean, asked Mr. Kneedler a few questions, one of which was premised on his office’s “commitment to providing nonpartisan representation for the United States, regardless of cause, regardless of the political leadership of the other two branches.”
Mr. Kneedler did not quite adopt the premise. “We are lawyers for the United States,” he said, “and the administration in office is the ultimate determiner of what the interests of the United States are.”
But he ended his remarks on a hopeful note. “We’re all part of a process that is leading us to a more perfect union,” he said, “which means a union in which we are coming together, not apart.”
Before the standing ovation at the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Chief Justice Roberts, himself a veteran of the solicitor general’s office, added what he called a personal note as he spoke to Mr. Kneedler.
“I recall that on two occasions you and I argued on the same side here, me representing a private client and you the United States,” the chief justice said. “We lost each of those cases. I’m sure it was my fault. Mr. Kneedler, thank you for your outstanding service to court and country.”
Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs’ defense will cross-examine his ex-girlfriend and main accuser Cassie Ventura as he faces trial for sex-trafficking and racketeering in New York.
The music mogul kept a poker face this week as a pregnant Cassie described being physically and emotionally abused throughout their 10-year relationship.
In humiliating detail, she recounted a turbulent relationship with Combs that she said was consumed by violence and his obsession with a form of voyeurism where ‘he was controlling the whole situation.’
That included directing her encounters with male sex workers right down to the copious amounts of baby oil she applied to maintain the ‘glistening’ look he desired – as many as 10 large bottles a session.
Combs’ defense says he is guilty of domestic violence, but not of sex-trafficking or racketeering, and that the government is targeting him for his sexual preferences.
All the explosive testimony from inside Diddy courtroom on Daily Mail’s podcast The Trial
To hear all the explosive testimony from singer Cassie Ventura and the other witnesses in Sean ‘Diddy‘ Combs’ trial, tune in to Daily Mail’s hit podcast The Trial.
From sworn testimony to video evidence and the rapper’s every subtle move, our team of journalists take you inside the courtroom of the world’s biggest celebrity case.
Daily Mail has been following Diddy’s downfall from the very beginning. Join us as we hear from experts involved in the case, and members of the rapper’s inside circle.
New Diddy accuser claims he raped her with ‘tootsie roll-sized penis’
A woman going by Jane Doe filed a lawsuit against Diddy saying he raped her – but that she was relieved when she saw the size of his penis ‘because she knew it wouldn’t hurt that much,’ according to TMZ.
Jane Doe says she met the mogul in 2001 and the two hung out a few times before he raped her at his Manhattan apartment.
She claims Diddy pushed her down on his bed, put his hand on her throat and said: ‘I’m going to suck the life out of you.’
The suit claims Diddy held her down before ‘pulling out his erect bare-skinned penis which appeared to be the length and girth of a large Tootsie Roll.’
Diddy became violent over Cassie’s romance with Kid Cudi, jury hears
Cassie said Diddy found out that she had been dating Kid Cudi after going through her phone following a Freak Off in Los Angeles in 2011.
‘It was a time when we were not in the greatest place,’ Cassie said of her relationship with Diddy.
‘I remember him pulling a wine bottle opener between his fingers and lunging at me. Eyes blacked out, super angry and I got out of there.’
He told me about videos he had he was going to release and he was going to hurt Scott (Cudi) and I.
Cassie said after the assault she used a burner phone to call Cudi, who then picked her up.
The singer’s settled lawsuit with Diddy claimed he blew up Kid Cudi’s car after learning of their romance.
Cassie wears a power suit as she heads to be grilled by Diddy’s lawyers
Diddy’s lawyers are expected to begin cross-examining Cassie on Thursday, when they will get the chance to challenge her credibility or poke holes in her account of what happened.
Cassie told the jury Diddy raped her in 2018
The R&B singer testified Wednesday that the mogul raped her when she ended their decade-long relationship, after he locked her in a life of physical abuse by threatening to release degrading sexual videos of her.
Cassie said Combs forced his way into her Los Angeles apartment and raped her on the living room floor after she said she was breaking up with him.
Prosecutors accuse Combs of exloiting hsi status as a powerful music executive to violently force Cassie and other women to take part in sexual encounters. He is charged with crimes including racketeering and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. Several other accusers are set to testify.
50 Cent continues trolling Diddy
50 Cent has continued using his social media to troll Diddy as he stands on trial.
He shared a post on Instagram mocking Diddy after a lawsuit claimed he had a ”tootsie roll-sized penis.’
The rapper also shared an AI-generated image showing shirtless Diddy sitting in a blue inflatable children’s paddling pool in a back yard while riding on a large inflatable yellow duck.
The images appear to have been inspired by Cassie’s claim under oath that Diddy had ordered her to get into an inflatable pool filled with baby oil while clothed in an outfit purchased from a sex shop.
Share or comment on this article:
Diddy rape lawsuit unflatteringly compares rapper’s penis to popular candy bar: Trial live updates
