Introduction

On September 8th, a federal district court judge dismissed a lawsuit for a failure to state a claim for which legal relief can be granted. Donald Trump was suing Hillary Clinton, former FBI director James Comey, Democratic House member Adam Schiff, and a whole lot of other people. In April, the plaintiff had argued that Judge Middlebrook should disqualify himself from the case because he was appointed by a Democrat. But there's something else very interesting, buried in a footnote in his order, denying Trump's motion for disqualification. This is what the judge wrote: "I note that plaintiff filed this lawsuit in the Fort Pierce Division of this district, where only one federal judge sits"