Rejecting a bid
A federal judge on Tuesday threw out an aggressive, unusual lawsuit the Trump administration brought earlier this year against all 15 federal judges in Maryland, rejecting a bid by the Justice Department to limit court power in fast-moving immigration cases.
The opinion on Tuesday framed the lawsuit as a major constitutional standoff, with Judge Thomas Cullen writing the Justice Department couldn’t pursue a “constitutional free-for-all.”
The ruling from Cullen, who was appointed to the bench by President Donald Trump during his first term and brought in from another district to handle the case in Maryland, said the government lacked the legal right — known as standing — to bring the challenge and that the judges are immune from such suits brought by the executive branch.
“Any fair reading of the legal authorities cited by Defendants leads to the ineluctable conclusion that this court has no alternative but to dismiss. To hold otherwise would run counter to overwhelming precedent, depart from longstanding constitutional tradition, and offend the rule of law,” Cullen wrote in the 39-page decision.
Of course all those are exactly what Trump wants to do.
“Dismissal of the Executive’s suit is appropriate because it has not pointed to a cause of action that permits this court to entertain a lawsuit between two coordinate branches of government, and this court will not be the first to create one,” he wrote.
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In finishing his opinion, Cullen underscored the unusual nature of the lawsuit, which came as the Trump administration faced a slew of immigration-related cases amid its effort to deport an unprecedented number of undocumented immigrants from Maryland and elsewhere.
“Much as the Executive fights the characterization, a lawsuit by the executive branch of government against the judicial branch for the exercise of judicial power is not ordinary,” he wrote. “Whatever the merits of its grievance with the judges of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, the Executive must find a proper way to raise those concerns.”
Judicial rulings can be very enjoyable to read.
Can he take this to SCOTUS? If so, will the judicial branch be stupid enough to rule in Trump’s favour and effectively cede their power to the Executive branch?
I’ve seen some politically aware US lawyers express the view that the Roberts SCOTUS has failed to substantially reign in Trump because (1) they sympathise with many of his aims and (2) if they were to say no to Trump it might crystallise the moment where Trump ignores the Court completely and thereby makes them irrelevant. Roberts especially clearly deeply prizes the baubles of power.