Lawmakers are debating the power of district judges to impose nationwide injunctions.
House Republicans introduced bills designed to limit the powers of judges after district courts issued far-reaching blocks on Trump administration actions.
"These rogue judge rulings are a new resistance to the Trump administration and the only time in which judges in robes in this number have felt it necessary to participate in the political process," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the sponsor of one such bill to limit nationwide injunctions, The Hill reported.
"The federal judiciary isn't interpreting the law. It is impeding the presidency. It is, in fact, not co-equal, but holding itself to be superior."
Issa and Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, introduced legislation that would bar nationwide injunctions, limiting relief only to the parties that have directly sued.
Democrats support the judges' decisions as ways for the judiciary to stop President Donald Trump from implementing executive actions that exceed the bounds of the law.
"We've heard repeated complaints from Republicans about the number of injunctions issued against this president compared to other presidents. Why so many?" said Sen. Dick Durbin. D-Ill., ranking member on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
"They ignore the fact that this president has issued more than 100 executive orders, the most by any president at this point in his term in at least four decades. Many are clearly illegal."
Trump and fellow Republicans have escalated their attacks on judges who have impeded his executive actions: to purge federal workers, shutter agencies, slash federal funding, bar transgender people from military service, target perceived enemies, and broadly roll back workplace diversity programs, among others.
The president's call for Congress to impeach U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, who issued an order to halt the swift deportation of alleged Venezuelan gang members after Trump invoked a little-used 1798 law, drew an extraordinary rebuke from U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts. The stakes are escalating, with Boasberg on Thursday suggesting Trump's administration had violated his order.
Several judges have blocked Trump's attempt to restrict birthright citizenship and a San Francisco-based federal judge reinstated 16,000 probationary employees fired by the Trump administration.
Grassley admitted that lawmakers often question the injunctions with which they disagree and support those they like.
"Most of us in this room have at various times supported or opposed universal injunctions. My fellow Republicans and I sometimes like them when there's a Democratic president, and my Democratic colleagues probably like them right now, even though they criticized them a few months ago under President [Joe] Biden," Grassley said.
"Too often we accept politics over principle, but the truth is that we all know this isn't how government and the judiciary should operate."
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Charlie McCarthy ✉
Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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