Trump’s DOJ sues an entire federal court trying to block deportations
The Justice Department took the unusual step of suing an entire federal court, saying the judges in Maryland were taking extreme measures to give breaks to illegal immigrants facing deportation.
Legal experts said they couldn’t think of a precedent for the lawsuit, which names all 15 active judges on the U.S. District Court in Maryland as defendants.
The Justice Department is objecting to a “standing order” issued last month by Chief Judge George Russell III that creates an automatic short-term blockade on deportations for illegal immigrants who file a “habeas” challenge to their detention and potential removal.
Government attorneys called the move “unlawful,” and Attorney General Pam Bondi characterized it as part of a wall of resistance from federal judges who are stretching the law to stop President Trump, particularly on immigration cases.
“The American people elected President Trump to carry out his policy agenda. This pattern of judicial overreach undermines the democratic process and cannot be allowed to stand,” she said.
The lawsuit was filed a day after the Trump administration asked the Supreme Court to step in and deliver a legal rebuke to a federal judge in Massachusetts who was blocking the administration from carrying out the deportations of eight major felon illegal immigrants to South Sudan.
Solicitor General D. John Sauer said that was in defiance of the Supreme Court, which hours earlier ruled against Judge Brian Murphy’s injunction on deportations to “third countries.” Mr. Sauer said Judge Murphy was engaged in “a lawless act of defiance.”
Judge Murphy is a Biden appointee to the court in Massachusetts, where all but one of the 12 active judges were appointed by Democrats.
According to The Washington Times’ database, at least 40 legal challenges to Trump administration actions have been brought in the court, and 25 have had substantive rulings. The administration has lost, or is currently losing, all but one.
In Maryland, all but two of the active judges and senior judges were appointed by Democrats.
The Times’ database shows 18 cases that have reached substantive rulings, and the president is prevailing in five.
Josh Blackman, a professor at South Texas College of Law who has been tracking the Maryland standing order, said he couldn’t think of any precedent for this type of lawsuit filed by the Justice Department against an entire federal court.
With every judge a named defendant, he said, the case likely will have to be transferred. --->READ MORE HERE
Trump’s justice department sues entire bench of Maryland judges over order restricting deportations
Order bars US government from deporting undocumented immigrants for at least a day after they file legal challenge
Donald Trump’s justice department has sued the federal judiciary in Maryland over an order that bars the government from deporting undocumented immigrants for at least one day after they file a legal challenge to their detention.
Chad Gilmartin, a spokesperson for Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, said in a post on X on Wednesday: “This is just the latest action by @AGPamBondi’s DOJ to rein in unlawful judicial overreach.”
The state’s federal court issued an order last month aimed at managing a wave of lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s moves to swiftly deport undocumented migrants.
Maryland’s federal court was the site of one of the most contentious cases under Trump’s deportation policy when Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran national, was deported and later sent back to the US after the supreme court ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return.
Ábrego García is currently facing federal charges of unlawfully trafficking undocumented immigrants. Last week, the supreme court also ruled that the administration can resume deporting migrants to countries they are not from without additional due process requirements.
The Department of Justice lawsuit against Maryland’s federal judges includes Paula Xinis, the judge overseeing Ábrego García’s case. Xinis is considering whether to sanction government officials for their initial refusal to facilitate Ábrego García’s release from custody.
The legal back-and-forth is part of an ongoing battle between the Trump administration and the federal judiciary over primacy in immigration matters, with some legal experts describing the move as an attack on judicial independence.
Government lawyers argue in the lawsuit that the action “involves yet another regrettable example of the unlawful use of equitable powers to restrain the executive”.
The complaint alleges that Maryland’s chief judge, George Russell, issued an “unlawful, antidemocratic” order granting a two-day stay of deportation to any detainee in immigration custody who files a petition alleging wrongful detention. --->READ MORE HERE
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