Solicitor General John Sauer, one of President Donald Trump’s many former criminal defense attorneys rewarded with a high-level government job, wrote a letter Monday to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that is truly unhinged. Sauer wants the appellate court to stay a lower court decision blocking some of Trump’s tariffs, and says that if the court won’t, the entire American economy will collapse. No, really.

Sauer’s letter is ostensibly one that is updating the court on “pertinent and significant authorities” that have come to a party’s attention only after filing their brief. This occurs often enough that there’s even a federal rule of appellate procedure about how to do it. Usually, it’s because a new and relevant case was decided while the appeal was pending, but it could also apply t

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