A federal judge on Tuesday threw out the Trump administration’s unprecedented lawsuit against all 15 federal judges in Maryland, delivering a stinging rebuke to what he called the executive branch’s “confrontational” approach to the judiciary.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen, who was nominated to the federal bench by Trump in 2020, granted Maryland judges’ request to dismiss the case, saying he had “no choice” given overwhelming legal precedent. The ruling came despite Cullen’s Trump appointment, with the judge writing that “to hold otherwise would run counter to overwhelming precedent, depart from longstanding constitutional tradition, and offend the rule of law.
The extraordinary lawsuit, filed in June, targeted Maryland’s entire federal bench over a standing order by Chief Judge George L. Russell III that temporarily blocked deportations of migrants challenging their removals. The order prevented the administration from deporting immigrants for two business days after they filed habeas corpus petitions seeking judicial review of their detention.
In his opinion, Cullen referenced the administration’s harsh rhetoric against judges, noting the “concerted effort by the Executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it is both unprecedented and unfortunate.”
“But as events over the past several months have revealed, these are not normal times—at least regarding the interplay between the Executive and this coordinate branch of government,” Cullen wrote. “It’s no surprise that the Executive chose a different, and more confrontational, path entirely.”
The Justice Department had argued Russell’s order violated Supreme Court precedent and impeded the president’s constitutional authority to enforce immigration laws. Government lawyers claimed the automatic two-day pause acted as an unlawful blanket injunction that judges must assess on a case-by-case basis.
Every unlawful order entered by the district courts robs the Executive Branch of its most scarce resource: time to put its policies into effect,” the administration stated in court documents.
During an August hearing, Cullen had expressed scepticism about the lawsuit’s merits. “I don’t have a very good poker face,” Cullen told Justice Department attorney Elizabeth Themins Hedges. “I think you probably picked up that I have some scepticism.”
Paul Clement, the prominent conservative lawyer who served as solicitor general under President George W. Bush and represented the Maryland judges, called the lawsuit completely unprecedented. “The executive branch seeks to bring suit in the name of the United States against a co-equal branch of government,” Clement argued. “There really is no precursor for this suit.”
The case arose amid heightened tensions over immigration enforcement, particularly following the high-profile case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The Maryland man was illegally deported to El Salvador in March in what the Justice Department later acknowledged was an “administrative error.” Abrego Garcia was held in a notorious Salvadoran megaprison, where he claims to have been beaten and tortured, before eventually being returned to the United States.
Russell issued the standing order in May citing an influx of after-hours habeas petitions that “resulted in hurried and frustrating hearings in that obtaining clear and concrete information about the location and status of the petitioners is elusive.” The order aimed to preserve the court’s jurisdiction and ensure migrants could participate in proceedings and access lawyers.
Cullen noted the administration could have pursued less confrontational alternatives, such as appealing individual cases or filing a rules challenge with the Judicial Council. Instead, “the Executive decided to sue—and in a big way,” he wrote.
The Trump administration’s lawsuit represented an unprecedented escalation in its conflicts with the federal judiciary. Trump has railed against unfavourable judicial rulings, and in one case called for the impeachment of a federal judge in Washington who ordered planeloads of deported immigrants to be turned around.
That led to an extraordinary statement from Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts, who said “impeachment is not an appropriate response to disagreement concerning a judicial decision.”
Maryland’s federal judges argued in their motion to dismiss that Russell’s order was a “modest exercise of docket management” that is “plainly in the public interest.” They noted similar standing orders exist in the First, Second, Third and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal, none of which have been challenged.
Housing Minister Matthew Pennycook called the lawsuit part of “a series of gimmicks” that would not work. He noted the European Convention on Human Rights underpinned key international accords, including the Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of violence in Northern Ireland.
The lawsuit drew condemnation from Democrats, including Maryland Governor Wes Moore, who called it “a transparent effort to intimidate judges and usurp the power of the courts.”
Retired federal Judge Andre Davis, who served on both the district court and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, said he and 50 other retired judges were working with the nonpartisan group Keep Our Republic’s Article Three Coalition to defend judicial independence.
“We have come together to raise our voice in unison to defend the rule of law, to push back against dangerous and unwarranted attacks against judges and against the judiciary in general,” Davis said.
Cullen’s decision marks the latest setback for the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement agenda. The judge, who also served as U.S. Attorney under Trump’s first administration with backing from Virginia’s two Democratic senators, was brought in from the Western District of Virginia to oversee the case because all Maryland judges were named as defendants.
Legal experts predicted the case could eventually reach the Supreme Court, though Tuesday’s dismissal represents a significant victory for judicial independence in the face of executive branch pressure.
Follow for more updates on Britannia Daily
Image Credit (Shortened):
Donald Trump speaking at a Phoenix campaign rally (18 June 2016) – by Gage Skidmore, licensed under CC BY‑SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
