{"id":1041119,"date":"2023-03-28T16:12:06","date_gmt":"2023-03-28T16:12:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.commondreams.org\/news\/donziger-supreme-court"},"modified":"2023-03-28T16:12:06","modified_gmt":"2023-03-28T16:12:06","slug":"huge-blow-to-the-rule-of-law-donziger-says-of-supreme-court-decision-on-chevron-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2023\/03\/28\/huge-blow-to-the-rule-of-law-donziger-says-of-supreme-court-decision-on-chevron-case\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Huge Blow to the Rule of Law,’ Donziger Says of Supreme Court Decision on Chevron Case"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Environmental attorney Steven Donziger was joined by a number of U.S. Supreme Court observers on Monday in denouncing a decision by seven of the nine justices, who refused to consider Donziger's case regarding the appointment of three special prosecutors after he was charged with criminal contempt of court.<\/p>

A number of observers noted that a dissent was signed<\/a> by two conservative judges, Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh\u2014suggesting that the three liberal justices on the high court refused to give Donziger a hearing of his appeal, essentially siding with oil giant Chevron.<\/p>

Donziger<\/a> sued Chevron in the 1990s on behalf of a group of Ecaudorian people who argued Chevron had polluted their community, and helped them win $9.5 billion in the class action lawsuit.<\/p>

\"The three liberal Supreme Court justices decided to let Donziger's absurd contempt conviction stand,\" said<\/a> journalist Alex Shultz of the San Francisco Chronicle<\/em>.<\/p>

Donziger was jailed for six months\u2014including<\/a> 136 days under house arrest at the end of his sentence in addition to 800 days under house arrest while he awaited trial\u2014after being charged with contempt of court in 2021 for refusing to turn over<\/a> his electronic devices to Chevron lawyers in a case filed by the company. The fossil fuel company argued Donziger had won the lawsuit for the Ecuadorians through \"coercion, fraud, and bribery.\"<\/p>

The judge appointed three special prosecutors after the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York declined to prosecute Donziger for contempt of court.<\/p>

Donziger argued the judge had no right to appoint private attorneys as special prosecutors, saying the move violated the Appointments Clause of the Constitution and that the judge wrongly overrode the U.S. attorney's discretion. <\/p>

The Supreme Court's refusal to hear his case, said Donziger, represents \"a huge blow to the rule of law.\"<\/p>

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