(RepublicanReport.org) – Former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may have been small in stature, standing roughly five feet tall in her black robe, lace collars, and oversized glasses. However, as a jurist, she became a living legend among Liberals within her lifetime as a defender of the weak and oppressed. In a curious twist of fate, the MAGA world recently turned to one of her written opinions — thinking she might be able to return from the grave and save former President Donald Trump hundreds of millions of dollars.
The internet recently erupted with conservative websites quoting conservative experts discussing the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against the imposition of “excessive fines.” Trump supporters on social media sites quickly started spreading the news that the “Notorious RBG” had written the majority opinion for a landmark Supreme Court case that could hold some relevance in disposing of the roughly $355 million penalty recently imposed on Trump during his New York civil fraud case.
Timbs v. Indiana, 139 S. Ct. 682 (2019) held that the Eighth Amendment‘s Excessive Fines Clause applied to state and local governments under the 14th Amendment‘s Due Process Clause. Trump supporters argue that the case could be relevant to the former president’s appeal of the massive award granted in the New York case.
This news couldn’t come at a better time. On March 18, Trump’s lawyers filed a reply memorandum of law supporting their request in a stay pending appeal in the Supreme Court of the State of New York’s appellate division. Trump has already filed an appeal to Judge Arthur Engoron’s February 16 decision and order after a non-jury trial.
Trump’s lawyers advised the court that the former president couldn’t secure the full amount of Engoron’s judgment order by the March 25 deadline. Their pleading explained that securing a bond that large was “a practical impossibility,” adding that most bonding/insurance companies don’t “accept hard assets [like] real estate as collateral.”
Theoretically, Trump’s legal team could use Timbs v. Indiana to argue for a reduced cash settlement in the New York Case. In the meantime, the former president hopes the appellate court grants his motion to stave off efforts by New York’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James to start seizing his assets.
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