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Aileen Cannon
Judge Aileen Cannon — perhaps known best for her zany rulings in cases related to former president Donald Trump — seems to have a problem on her hands. The federal judge recently earned herself a New York Times report criticizing the glacial pace with which she’s been handling the Trump documents case. After all, nearly three weeks have gone by since the last hearing, and a trial date has yet to be announced. It appears that Cannon has “allow[ed] a logjam of unresolved issues to build up on her docket,” and it’s been hypothesized that this may be what’s causing the delay. But is it really?
Over at Original Jurisdiction, Above the Law founder David Lat has another idea: Cannon has reportedly had at least two law clerks quit on her, and this may have had a significant impact upon the operation of her chambers. Law clerks play an incredibly important role for judges, and if one or two (or more!) of them decide to up and leave, that could create a real mess for the judge in question. In fact, as Lat notes, losing a law clerk would be “highly disruptive to the work of a chambers.”
Lat goes on to detail the timing on when Cannon’s clerks quit — in October 2023 and December 2023, one after having a child, and the other for “personal reasons” — but further notes that while the judge’s chambers is currently fully staffed, things may still be in disarray due to when her new clerks were hired. Here’s more information:
Judge Cannon received the Trump case in June 2023. Clerks traditionally change over during the summer. So in a chambers with normal turnover, she would have had one set of clerks from roughly the start of the case through the summer, when the trial is currently expected to get underway—a very logical setup or transition point.
But instead, of her four current clerks, one started in August 2023, one started in October 2023, and two started in January 2024 (per the Microsoft Teams page for her chambers that can be accessed by anyone in the federal judiciary). To have this many clerks change over in the middle of a term or judicial year, with a case like the Trump one in chambers, was surely very disruptive and delay-inducing.
So, could Judge Aileen Cannon’s clerkship conundrum be what’s causing all of the delays in her courtroom? It’s certainly something worth speculating on. In the meantime, court watchers eagerly await the judge finally setting a date for trial in the Trump documents case.
Cannon Fodder: Law Clerks Quit On Judge Aileen Cannon [Original Jurisdiction]
Staci Zaretsky is a senior editor at Above the Law, where she’s worked since 2011. She’d love to hear from you, so please feel free to email her with any tips, questions, comments, or critiques. You can follow her on Twitter and Threads or connect with her on LinkedIn.
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