Editorial: Trump's Florida judicial picks spur doubts
Ed Artau and Jordan Pratt are Florida appellate judges who recently wrote opinions sure to please President Donald Trump, who announced their nominations last week.
It would impugn their fitness to be federal judges if they knew at the time that Trump was considering them for the federal bench. Their generally hard-right leanings are an issue, too, casting additional doubt on whether either of them should be confirmed by the Senate.
Trump's third Florida nominee, John Guard, is chief deputy state attorney general. He signed off on the $67 million Medicaid settlement that earmarked $10 million to First Lady Casey DeSantis' Hope Florida Foundation. The money apparently flowed through to a political committee helping Gov. Ron DeSantis defeat the recreational-marijuana amendment last November.
State Attorney Jack Campbell in Tallahassee has begun a criminal investigation into the diversion of that money, and Sen. Rick Scott has said that Guard should have to answer 'some questions' about it. Some obvious ones: Did he know where the money would go? Was it an appropriation that only the Legislature should have made?
Scott isn't on the Senate Judiciary Committee, but Florida's other senator, Ashley Moody, is. Because Moody was Guard's boss when he signed off on the settlement, she should disqualify herself from voting on his nomination.
Artau, a judge of the Fourth District Court of Appeal, flagrantly flattered Trump's cause when the court ruled in February that he could continue suing non-Floridians on the Pulitzer Prize Board in a state court.
Trump claims they defamed him by awarding prizes to the Washington Post and the New York Times for their coverage of alleged Russian interference in the 2020 election. From a First Amendment standpoint, the suit is preposterous.
The main opinion of a three-judge panel gave a simple 'yes' to that jurisdictional question and did not go into the main issue of whether the Pulitzer board had libeled Trump.
Artau's concurring opinion reads as if Trump wrote it. It quoted Trump's claim that it was all 'fake news,' a 'phony witch hunt' and 'a big hoax.' The rest of the 12 pages — six times as long as the opinion — was pro-Trump, too.
Artau has not replied to our email asking if he knew Trump was considering him for a federal judgeship when he wrote that opinion. The public deserves to know.
Artau wrote that the U.S. Supreme Court should reconsider New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark case that raised the standard for defamation lawsuits by public officials. Trump and his lawyers have repeatedly made the same argument.
In an earlier, unrelated case, Artau dissented from a majority opinion overturning the resisting-arrest conviction of a woman who had been photographing Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.
Pratt, a judge of the Fifth District Court of Appeal at Daytona Beach, wrote the opinion last month striking down the Florida law allowing minors to obtain a judge's permission for an abortion rather than to have to notify their parents and obtain their consent.
His opinion for a unanimous panel embraced a far-fetched legal theory that the 14th Amendment gives parents an inherent right to be informed and to consent.
The other Floridians whom Trump is nominating are Judge Anne-Leigh Gaylord Moe of Florida's Second District Court of Appeal and Kyle Dudek, a federal magistrate judge in Fort Myers.
All the nominees except Dudek are known members of the Federalist Society, a conservative legal organization that has had extraordinary influence in judicial appointments by Trump as well as DeSantis. Artau flaunted his Federalist ties when he unsuccessfully sought a Florida Supreme Court appointment from DeSantis.
The society's standing with Trump would appear to be shaky now in light of the tantrum the president pitched last week over a three-judge federal court's ruling against his tariffs. That outburst came just after he had announced the five Florida nominations.
And it was over the top, even for Trump, in that he didn't assail just the ruling but denounced Leonard Leo, former executive vice president of the Federalist Society, and the group itself for 'bad advice they gave me on numerous legal occasions.'
The outburst was likely just another attempt to intimidate federal judges into treating him as deferentially as the Republican Congress does. Nevertheless, there's great danger in his reckless jawboning.
It is evident in a surge of threats against federal judges and their families. A total of 373 were investigated by the U.S. Marshals Service in just the first five months of this year, compared to 509 all last year. There have also been more than 100 unsolicited pizza deliveries, a menacing way of saying 'We know where you live.'
If any judge or family member is harmed, the world will know who incited it.
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Democrat Jennifer Konfrst, who is working to unseat Nunn, said she approaches Iowans at the fair asking them what keeps them up at night and the answer is usually 'costs.' Read more here. Tariffs' impact on Walmart, other retailers' earnings about to come into focus Several major retailers will report earnings this week, which may give a first glimpse into how President Trump's tariffs have affected their bottom lines. The list includes Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT), Home Depot (HD), Lowe's Companies (LOW) TJ Maxx parent TJX Companies (TJX) and Ross Stores (ROST). The Trump administration has urged retailers not to raise prices for consumers to offset the tariffs' impact, with a particular focus on Walmart, The Street reminds us: Read more here. Several major retailers will report earnings this week, which may give a first glimpse into how President Trump's tariffs have affected their bottom lines. The list includes Walmart (WMT), Target (TGT), Home Depot (HD), Lowe's Companies (LOW) TJ Maxx parent TJX Companies (TJX) and Ross Stores (ROST). The Trump administration has urged retailers not to raise prices for consumers to offset the tariffs' impact, with a particular focus on Walmart, The Street reminds us: Read more here. Trump's trade war not likely to cause recession, Moody's economist says Economist Justin Begley of Moody's Analytics tells USA Today that President Trump's economic policies won't cause a recession or stagflation, but will likely slow growth and push up inflation. The economy isn't in stagflation yet, Begley said, "but it's edging that way," he adds: Read more here. Economist Justin Begley of Moody's Analytics tells USA Today that President Trump's economic policies won't cause a recession or stagflation, but will likely slow growth and push up inflation. The economy isn't in stagflation yet, Begley said, "but it's edging that way," he adds: Read more here. 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6 minutes ago
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Anyone who has spent any time watching Trump – I've been writing about him since he was a bankrupt casino operator 20 years ago – knows that he embraces any polling that shows him doing well and derides surveys that show his weaknesses. That's his way. Trump exists in a bubble where he is always outstanding and his critics are always wrong. And that's not just in his head. Trump has his own social media platform, Truth Social, where loyal supporters embrace every claim he makes, no matter how dodgy or easily disproven. Trump's own chatbot knows he's a liar So, before we dive into the reputable national polling, I thought it would be helpful to see what the new artificial intelligence chatbot Trump added to Truth Social on Aug. 6 had to say about whether he is trustworthy and whether his signature policies are popular. Truth Social AI, the chatbot, offered me answers that echoed opinions from the new national polling and responded this way when I asked if Trump has a history of lying: "Yes. Major fact-checkers, courts, and official investigations have documented numerous false claims by Donald Trump over many years." So Trump's own chatbot calls him out as a liar. How awkward for him. How candid and correct for the rest of us. On the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, Truth Social AI told me that "most national polling shows Americans disapprove" of it, though some people approve of "specific provisions" such as some tax breaks included in it. On tariffs, Truth Social AI said, "Most credible analyses find Trump's tariffs have been a net drag on the U.S. economy ‒ raising consumer and business costs, reducing overall employment and output ‒ though they can modestly lift employment in some protected manufacturing industries." Asked about how Trump is changing the federal government, Truth Social told me "approval is mixed and modest," citing Associated Press-NORC polls showing "roughly 4 in 10 Americans approve." That was interesting framing, since a clear majority in those polls don't like how Trump is operating. Trump's approval numbers aren't anything to celebrate That disapproval is reflected on websites that keep averages of recent polling about Trump. RealClearPolling listed him with a 51.5% disapproval rating on Aug. 14. CNN's Poll of Polls put Trump's disapproval rating at 56% that day. Decision Desk HQ logged Trump's disapproval rating at 52%. Trump, living in his bubble, posted on Truth Social on Aug. 13 that he is the "highest polling Republican President in HISTORY!" Truth Social AI disputed that, telling me that "by historical standards, Donald Trump's national job-approval is not the highest of any Republican president." So you can see why the Economist/YouGov poll ranked Americans' disapproval of Trump's performance at 54%. Along with finding a majority see him as dishonest, the poll also showed 48% of the respondents think the American economy is getting worse, while just 24% see it as getting better. The same number, 48%, said they expect higher inflation, while just 17% expect it to decrease. Trump-Putin summit: Trump, Putin rewrite history in Alaska as Republicans stay obediently silent | Opinion The Pew Research Center survey offers some insight into American pessimism about our economy, with 61% disapproving of Trump's tariff wars and 38% approving. On the One Big Beautiful Bill, 46% disapproved, while 32% approved and 23% were not sure. Fifty-three percent said Trump is making the federal government work worse, while just 27% said it works better now, and 20% said it works about the same as before. And here we find some rare bipartisanship – 55% of Republicans say it is worse now, not as high as 87% of Democrats, but still a clear GOP majority. This survey hits Trump harder on honesty. "Most Americans also distrust what the administration is saying about the Epstein issue," Pew reports, "63% say they have little or no trust in what the administration is saying." Opinion newsletter: Sign up for our newsletter on people, power and policies in the time of Trump from columnist Chris Brennan. Get it delivered to your inbox. As politicians love to say, polls are a snapshot in time. This is not a pretty picture for Trump. But he could turn things around. Or he could make things worse. The trend for the president, now seven months into his second term, leans away from a turnaround and toward a worsening. Trump still has plenty of supporters eager to accept his claims and to castigate his critics. I'd ask them this – why would Trump's social media platform, which he controls as the largest stockholder, offer answers that echo American concerns about his dishonesty and economic policies if they were not bang-on accurate? Don't take my word for it. Go ask Truth Social AI yourself, while it is still delivering accurate answers to important questions. Follow USA TODAY columnist Chris Brennan on X, formerly known as Twitter: @ByChrisBrennan. Sign up for his weekly newsletter, Translating Politics, here. You can read diverse opinions from our USA TODAY columnists and other writers on the Opinion front page, on X, formerly Twitter, @usatodayopinion and in our Opinion newsletter.
