Kerstin Diehn
gavel 5
On multiple occasions, judges have stepped into the fray to rein in his administration’s lawless inclinations. Here are a few examples from recent weeks. (On the downside, Trump is doling out lifetime appointments to dozens of hardcore conservative judges who are unlikely to stand up to rightwing executive power.)
July 10: U.S District Court Judge Dolly Gee of California rejected the Trump Administration’s attempts to evade restrictions on detaining immigrant children as “cynical,” “ill-considered,” and “wholly without merit.” She later ordered the government to transfer immigrant minors out of a detention facility in Texas due to allegations of abuse and over-medication.
July 25: U.S. District Judge Peter Messitte of Maryland denied the U.S. Justice Department’s effort to shut down a challenge brought by state attorneys general over Trump’s continuing financial interest in a Washington, D.C., hotel frequented by foreign officials. He said the plaintiffs have “plausibly alleged” the President is violating the Constitution.
August 1: The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California found Trump’s threats to withhold federal funding from “sanctuary cities” unconstitutional. “Absent Congressional authorization, the administration may not redistribute or withhold properly appropriated funds in order to effectuate its own policy goals,” Chief Judge Sidney Thomas wrote for the majority.
August 3: U.S. District Judge John D. Bates of the District of Columbia reversed Trump’s cruel decision to suspend the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. He called the administration’s arguments “a hodgepodge of illogical or post-hoc policy assertions.”
August 9: U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the District of Columbia threatened to hold Attorney General Jeff Sessions in contempt unless he halted the deportation of a mother and her daughter who were sent back to El Salvador before their asylum requests were considered. “I’m not asking, I’m ordering,” the judge said in court. The pair were promptly returned.
August 9: The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency broke federal law in keeping a dangerous pesticide on the market despite warnings from its own scientists. Judge Jed S. Rakoff, writing for the majority, found “no justification” for the decision and ordered the pesticide removed from sale.
August 25: U.S. District Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the D.C. Circuit declared that Trump “exceeded his authority” in issuing executive orders undermining the ability of federal employees to engage in collective bargaining.
September 12: U.S. District Judge Randolph Moss of the D.C. Circuit struck down U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s plan to delay Obama-era regulations to ease the loan debt of students incurred at questionable for-profit colleges.