Administrative State

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A federal judge has tossed out the Trump administration’s lawsuits against 15 Maryland judges who have ruled against President Donald Trump’s policies.

The Justice Department filed a lawsuit against all 15 judges with the US District Court for the District of Maryland in June. The complaint challenged Chief Judge Georga Russell III’s order pausing deportations for two business days when a detained illegal immigrant files a habeas corpus petition. The agency referred to the ruling as an “automatic injunction” that hampered the government’s ability to enforce immigration laws.

The DOJ asserted that district courts do not have jurisdiction over matters related to immigration. The complaint demanded that the judges recuse themselves from immigration-related cases.

In a scathing ruling, Judge Thomas Cullen, a Trump appointee, threw out the DOJ’s lawsuit, calling the case improper and constitutionally reckless. The judge argued that the policy was temporary and based on appellate court procedures. It also allowed judges time to properly evaluate the case.

Cullen acknowledged the administration’s objections to the judge’s rulings. “Fair enough, as far as it goes. If these arguments were made in the proper forum, they might well get some traction,” he wrote. However, he criticized the White House for bypassing regular channels like appeals or judicial council petitions. Instead, “the Executive decided to sue—and in a big way,” by suing every single judge in the Maryland district, the judge noted.

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Friday, a federal judge in Florida ordered the famed “Alligator Alcatraz” detention and deportation center for illegal aliens closed and dismantled. My colleague Brad Slager had that story:

Judge Kathleen Williams, late Thursday evening in a Miami courtroom, issued a temporary restraining order requiring the state to refrain from bringing in any additional detainees, and declared that in 60 days the facility needs to be cleared of all of those being held, and the process of hauling out the installed infrastructure begins to take place.

Williams, a Barack Obama appointee, stated that an environmental impact assessment was to have been conducted prior to installing the new structures and other operational needs. She noted that no such advance research was conducted by the defendants, although the state did argue with a reference to a “Preliminary Ecological Assessment” that was conducted in late July. While that study alluded to several species possibly endangered, the state asserted that installations around the facility were erected to shield those in the surrounding area.

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A Kentucky man who was sentenced to 14 years in prison last year but was put back on the street five months after his sentencing has been arrested after a Louisville woman and her children were kidnapped at knifepoint.

Armond Langford. 32, was arrested Friday after a six-hour manhunt, according to WHAS-TV.

Before his arrest, a woman and her two children were kidnapped. The woman said she was forced to drive to a bank as Langford demanded $20,000.

“He opened our back door and told them to get in the car…. They got in the car. They drove to the bank. He held a knife at her the whole time, he was telling her to drive faster,” Brandon Strong, husband and father of the victims, told the TV station.

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President Donald Trump expressed his frustration with Republican Senate leaders over the lack of votes on his judicial nominees, including his nominees for federal judgeships and U.S. attorney positions. With the August recess fast approaching, the Republican-controlled Senate has confirmed a historically low number of judicial nominees.

As of this report, just one Article III judge has been confirmed by the U.S. Senate when Judge Whitney D. Hermandorfer was confirmed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. There are currently 11 nominations awaiting Senate action, three for the courts of appeals and eight for the district courts.

The pace of judicial confirmations in Trump’s second term is historically slow. For comparison, the average number of judicial confirmations by this point in a term stands at 11, with former President Barack Obama having 26 of his nominees confirmed by July 29.

In a lengthy Truth Social post, President Trump pressed Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-IA) to pick up the pace. “Chuck Grassley, who I got re-elected to the U.S. Senate when he was down, by a lot, in the Great State of Iowa, could solve the ‘Blue Slip’ problem we are having with respect to the appointment of Highly Qualified Judges and U.S. Attorneys, with a mere flick of the pen,” the president wrote, adding that Senate Democrats are determined to block any and all nominees.