The Trump administration filed a lawsuit against all of the judges in a federal district court in Maryland this week, challenging an order preventing the deportation of illegal immigrants who file a petition for writ of habeas corpus.
According to the filing, district courts have “used and abused their equitable powers to interfere with the prerogatives of the Executive Branch to an unprecedented degree.”
“In the first 100 days of President Trump’s current Term, district courts have entered more nationwide injunctions than in the 100 years from 1900 to 2000, requiring the Supreme Court to intervene again and again in recent weeks to pause the unlawful restraint of the President’s exercise of core Article II powers,” the lawsuit says, adding, “Defendants’ automatic injunction issues whether or not the alien needs or seeks emergency relief, whether or not the court has jurisdiction over the alien’s claims, and no matter how frivolous the alien’s claims may be.”
It further states that the court’s actions are “intruding on core Executive Branch powers.”
“Defendants’ lawless standing orders are nothing more than a particularly egregious example of judicial overreach interfering with Executive Branch prerogatives—and thus undermining the democratic process,” the filing adds.
“Inconvenience to the Court is not a basis to enter an injunction,” the DOJ wrote in the lawsuit, “and filings outside normal business hours, scheduling difficulties, and the possibility of hurried and frustrating hearings are not irreparable harms.”
DOJ spokesperson Chad Gilmartin declared on social media that the lawsuit seeks to “rein in unlawful judicial overreach.”
All fifteen judges on the court, as well as the court clerk, are listed as defendants in the case.
