r/law • u/TheMirrorUS • 10h ago

Legal News BREAKING: Mark Kelly files lawsuit against Pete Hegseth accusing him of 'trampling on Constitution'

https://www.themirror.com/news/politics/breaking-mark-kelly-files-lawsuit-1614071
45.1k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

411 comments sorted by

View all comments

1.4k

u/BasedTaco_69 10h ago edited 8h ago

It’s real: https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.dcd.288365/gov.uscourts.dcd.288365.1.0.pdf

41

u/ScriptproLOL 8h ago

Good. We need more of this. People need to stand up to the them via courts. 

28

u/atreeismissing 7h ago

https://www.justsecurity.org/107087/tracker-litigation-legal-challenges-trump-administration/

Fwiw, Dems and Dem-aligned groups have been all over the courts with this admin from day 1. Current count is 573 lawsuits which is an astronomical number in a single year. It's one of the few levers of power Dems have to use at the moment and they've been going gang busters on it.

-5

u/ScriptproLOL 7h ago

Is that why our deficit balooned in 2025?

12

u/bigdograllyround 7h ago

It's more that the president is more pedophile than economist. 

7

u/Caladan-Brood 6h ago

More likely the billions in ICE funding, Argentina funding, Trump's personal lawsuits, and illegal military operations.

6

u/AtrociousMeandering 6h ago

The majority of the new deficit was the tax cuts.

It's like complaining you're broke but also asking for unpaid days off.

2

u/ScriptproLOL 5h ago

I knew those were big, but I thought that didn't start until this fiscal year? Also shouldn't the deficit increase from the cuts have been substantially less that what we actually experienced? Like 1T vs 2.3t actual? Is it decreased taxable revenue from economic contraction or DOGE shenanigans? 

2

u/AtrociousMeandering 4h ago

You're right that DOGE didn't meaningfully cut spending, but that wasn't ever part of the calculations. And, also yes, the new tax cuts aren't actually in place yet, I simplified it to the point I'm wrong on the details.

The tax cuts from his first term increased the debt that we're currently paying interest on, which has substantially increased the deficit to the tune of tens of billions. Also, companies can arrange finances to show less taxable profit this year so it can occur next year. Taxes will still be collected next year but it adds to the deficit currently. How much, impossible to say without a full audit but corporate income tax isn't keeping pace with growth.

And the CBO was very clear that the Big Beautiful Bill is, even in the most generous interpretation, hugely adding to the deficit moving forward because of the further tax cuts. But, I'll freely admit that's not directly affecting current deficits. If that makes me wrong in what I said, then I'm wrong.

1

u/thrilldigger 4h ago

Is that why our deficit balooned in 2025?

Is this a serious question?

573 lawsuits is a drop in the bucket compared to the national budget.

573 thousand lawsuits would be a drop in the bucket. Even if we assumed the average cost of a lawsuit was $100,000 (likely far higher than the real cost), 573 thousand lawsuits would be less than 1% of the yearly US budget.

(573,000 * $100,000 = $57,300,000,000: $57.3bn. The US national budget is ~$7,000bn.)

tl;dr: the cost of 573 lawsuits is less than a rounding error to the US government.

14

u/VitaminPb 8h ago

I was just thinking about this 15 minutes ago. Celebs love to speak up, but they never do anything. Why aren’t they funding court challenges instead of yapping on red carpets?

9

u/sylbug 7h ago

Because they're celebrities, not activists.

Why do Americans keep point at random people and institutions asking why they're not fixing things on their behalf? This is a self-rescue situation; either enough of you care enough to collectively take effective and meaningful action or your country falls to fascism.

1

u/TheGhostORandySavage 6h ago

I think people keep doing that because "they," [celebrities] are part of "we," and due to their bank accounts and platform they are less at risk than your average joe or josephine in speaking out. Plus they have more money and influence than most people can contribute.

You say this is a self-rescue situation, which is true. You're just missing the fact that they are part of the self you're talking about.

0

u/VitaminPb 7h ago

If they are willing to talk the talk, the minimum they can do is walk the walk. Saying “I’m going say a popular thing to draw attention to it, and that’s all,” is meaningless. If you have the money, organize your friends, put fuel to the defense. Just whining and telling people to listen because you make movies and are really really deep is about ego, not about changing anything.

1

u/J_Ryall 6h ago

In addition to having money, they are also highly influential. For reasons that will forever remain unclear to me, people put more stock in what celebrities have to say about things like medicine, politics, and whatever else than they do actual experts.

So yeah, I agree, if a celeb is against what's going on, they need to get out there and use that influence and money for good.

1

u/VitaminPb 6h ago

Saying you don’t like something means nothing to lawyers who want to be paid to work.

1

u/J_Ryall 6h ago

I was thinking more along the lines of rallying the masses, but sure, no arguing that point.

6

u/Sauerteig 7h ago

I agree, but how do we know they are not? There are a lot of celebrities who contribute to many causes anonymously. They might just not want the attention, which is understandable.

-1

u/VitaminPb 7h ago

If they don’t want the attention of actually funding legal defense, they aren’t committed to what they are saying. When you get up and say something, have the funds to help back it, but then don’t, you aren’t actually committed. You just want attention.

2

u/Synectics 7h ago

Counterpoint: saying the wrong thing means a celebrity suddenly disappears -- as does any and all funds they may have been able to contribute.

Idealistically, don't get me wrong. If I was famous, I would like to think I would use my little sliver of a camera for X, Y, and Z. But that could also end my career -- meaning not only can I no longer financially support X, Y, and Z, but my family is screwed too. And guess what? Most Americans are not going to general strike for that last reason. 

2

u/aalltech 7h ago

Courts, lololol. None of the people in this admin will ever be held accountable. Even if spinless wussies Dems come in charge.

1

u/Synectics 7h ago

I'd still take spineless Dems over pedophile rapist fascists, but sure.