Trump judge tosses DOJ lawsuit against entire Maryland federal court
A federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice (DOJ) against all judges of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland. The DOJ had challenged a standing order issued by the court’s chief judge,George Russell,which automatically imposed a two-day pause on deportations whenever an undocumented immigrant filed a habeas corpus petition challenging their detention.
judge Thomas Cullen ruled that the lawsuit was unprecedented and violated principles of separation of powers. He emphasized the constitutional role of the judiciary and stated that the DOJ should pursue othre legal avenues, such as appealing the standing order through the U.S. court of Appeals for the fourth Circuit,rather than suing the judges directly.
The Maryland district court has been a frequent venue for legal battles against the Trump management, including a high-profile case involving an immigrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose deportation was delayed due to the court’s standing order. The ruling maintains the pause on deportations while legal challenges continue.
Trump judge tosses DOJ lawsuit against entire Maryland federal court
A federal judge appointed by President Donald Trump has tossed a lawsuit filed by the Department of Justice against every judge on the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland over a blanket order slowing deportations.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen on Tuesday dismissed a June lawsuit filed against the judges over a standing order from the judicial district’s chief judge, George Russell, which automatically granted a two-day pause on deporting illegal immigrants if they file a habeas corpus petition challenging their detention.
Cullen sided with the judges in tossing the case, arguing in the ruling that allowing the lawsuit to proceed “would run counter to overwhelming precedent, depart from longstanding constitutional tradition, and offend the rule of law.”
“In their wisdom, the Constitution’s framers joined three coordinate branches to establish a single sovereign. That structure may occasionally engender clashes between two branches and encroachment by one branch on another’s authority. But mediating those disputes must occur in a manner that respects the Judiciary’s constitutional role,” Cullen wrote, calling the lawsuit “not ordinary.”
The Justice Department, in the lawsuit it filed in June against all of the judges in the judicial district, which only includes one Trump appointee, claimed the standing order was unlawfully interfering in the executive branch’s business.
“Every unlawful order entered by the district courts robs the Executive Branch of its most scarce resource: time to put its policies into effect. In the process, such orders diminish the votes of the citizens who elected the head of the Executive Branch,” the DOJ said in its lawsuit.
Lawyers for the federal judges in Maryland argued the lawsuit was “unprecedented” and “fundamentally incompatible with the separation of powers.”
Cullen said in his ruling that the DOJ “must find a proper way to raise” its concerns, and suggested appealing the standing order in a habeas proceeding to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, among other options to challenge the standing order.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, where the challenged order remains in place, has been the venue for multiple lawsuits against the Trump administration, as the left-leaning bench has become a popular place for opponents of the administration to bring their legal challenges.
WHAT IS NEXT FOR ABREGO GARCIA AFTER BEING DETAINED BY ICE
One of the most high-profile cases the Trump administration has fought in the Maryland judicial district was filed by illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia over his deportation.
The latest volley fired in that legal battle, filed Monday, challenges the Salvadoran national’s deportation to Uganda via a habeas corpus petition. Because of the standing order in the judicial district, his deportation was automatically paused until at least Wednesday, but a judge indefinitely halted his deportation pending the scheduling of an evidentiary hearing in the case.
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