Response to My Motion to Unseal Material in Pennsylvania Sen. Douglas Mastriano’s Lawsuit Related to His Ph.D. Thesis

I wrote final month about my movement to intervene and unseal on this case, and Sen. Mastriano’s lawyer (former Maryland Home of Delegates member and former gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cox) simply filed the response to my movement to intervene and unseal. Some excerpts:

Memorandum of Legislation …

Volokh, whose half-million annual wage is funded by a California College caught receiving darkish cash,1 seeks intervention apparently with such funded assist and for his or her behalf as a way to provide his benefactors with an anticipated written product for monetary return. Volokh has no Article III or Rule 24(b) standing to intervene. As a substitute, he seeks to apparently advance a scheme to assist Defendants herein along with his personal third-party monetary assist and has no legitimate “restricted” third-party curiosity….

1 “Stanford’s Settlement with the Justice Division Exhibits Simply How Deep China Has Its Claws in Our Universities.” Moore, Paul. The Hill information on-line, October 11, 2023. “Fudan College is a outstanding Chinese language analysis establishment, and Stanford’s ties with it are intensive. Stanford codirects the Fudan-Stanford Institute for China Monetary Expertise and Threat Analytics, and its Graduate College of Enterprise companions with the Fudan College of Administration. In 2019, Fudan College altered its constitution by promising its adherence “to the management of the Chinese language Communist Celebration (CCP)” and “the get together’s academic coverage.” The CCP’s dominance of Fudan College assures that analysis developed there could also be totally utilized within the CCP’s military-civil fusion efforts that compose a crucial a part of China’s efforts to eclipse the army and financial capabilities of the U.S. and its allies by 2025. Regardless of this, Stanford’s ties with Fudan stay undiminished. Stanford did not report greater than $64 million in Chinese language donor identities — disclosure failures that coincided with Stanford’s unprecedented enlargement of its Chinese language operations.” https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4246080-stanfords-settlement-with-dojshows-how-deep-china-has-its-claws-in-our-universities/ (accessed August 6, 2024 at 5:50 p.m.)….

Memorandum of Legislation

I. Volokh has no Article III standing to intervene.

Whereas Volokh avers his personal curiosity in intervention professional se, he does so speciously on behalf of the State of California-funded Stanford College (a College in partnership with the Individuals’s Republic of China, CCP2), and Cause Journal. Volokh Mot. Interv. Pg. 1, ¶ 2. He does so utilizing his Stanford College e-mail, funded partially by the taxpayers who pay his half-million annual wage. He seeks to intervene as a way to not solely advance his acknowledged entities’ financial pursuits, however his personal financial pursuits.

2 Colonel Mastriano is a former USA officer supporting NATO’s mission. NATO lately issued a stern warning to the PRC, stating: “26. The PRC has change into a decisive enabler of Russia’s conflict towards Ukraine by means of its so-called “no limits” partnership…27. The PRC continues to pose systemic challenges to Euro-Atlantic safety. Now we have seen sustained malicious cyber and hybrid actions, together with disinformation, stemming from the PRC.” https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/official_texts_227678.htm (accessed August 7, 2024)….

V. Plaintiff’s Public Official Standing Is Irrelevant to Volokh and his Public Curiosity Argument.

Volokh, a resident of California, turns lastly to Plaintiff’s standing as an elected official in Pennsylvania to say a lessened customary for him to seal a file, permitting unsealing of information underneath the district case in Parson v. Farley, 352 F. Supp. 3d 1141 (N.D. Okla. 2018). Volokh Mot. Unseal at 9. But this can be a Volokh crimson herring on at the least two grounds. First, authorities officers should not protected much less underneath legislation than others and don’t quit their rights to query malicious libel, in any other case society might merely make up outrageous false accusations or use akin to extortion towards each particular person operating for workplace they dislike with out repercussion, or to acquire their votes or obedience to a different official, or perhaps a to international energy such because the one sponsoring Volokh’s college that pays his wage. Extra much less contemplating the truth that Volokh has no relation to, or doable stake in, a Pennsylvania election, nor does his California and federally funded employer….

The response additionally makes numerous substantive arguments, although I do not assume they’re notably robust. Within the Western District of Oklahoma, “Reply briefs are non-obligatory and never inspired,” and I am undecided whether or not there’s something in these substantive arguments that basically requires a reply. However I would love to listen to what our readers assume.