"The effect of this order is confined to this proceeding." [View all]

[Prairie Gates]

So ends the first paragraph of the Cannon dismissal in the documents case.

The argumentation is more general - claiming Smith's appointment is unconstitutional in principle, and all of his funding violates the Appropriations clause of the Constitution as well. Since both Cannon and everybody else knows a second case is proceeding in another district, this sentence is doubly meaningful. First, and most obviously, Cannon is acknowledging that she only has the power to make a ruling on a case that she was assigned to in her own district. Yes, fine. That's the manifest meaning of "The effect of this order is confined to this proceeding." The secondary meaning, however, is an invitation to the Supreme Court to get itself involved, and quickly.

If the special counsel's appointment is deemed unconstitutional in one federal district, while a case by that same special counsel proceeds apace in another, we have a constitutional issue on our hands. Appealing up through the circuit courts is certainly the proper order of events, but it won't answer the general question. How can the special counsel's appointment be unconstitutional in the Southern district, but perfectly constitutional in the District of Columbia? That's an intolerable constititional situation that the Supreme Court will have to jump in on.