WASHINGTON, D.C. – A move is on in both houses of Congress this week to address what's been described as judicial overreach.
On Wednesday, Republican senators took aim at ending the practice of universal injunctions by federal judges. This follows the numerous recent court rulings restricting President Trump's executive actions on issues ranging from immigration to firing federal workers.
Republican Senator Chuck Grassley says it's now up to Congress to limit judicial rulings. "Although our founders saw an important role for the judiciary, they didn't design a system that made judges national policy makers," said Grassley.
One decision behind this push came two weeks ago when U.S. District Judge James Boasberg prohibited deportation flights taking alleged gang members to El Salvador.
The Trump administration still completed the flights, however, because it says the planes had already departed before Boasberg made his ruling. Flights have been paused ever since.
"For a single judge to order the government to act with respect to people who aren't even before the court, that reaches far beyond the legitimate authority of the court and becomes policymaking. This is something none of us, Democratic or Republican, should want judges to do," said Grassley.
Despite Grassley's position on this power, he has recently opposed efforts to impeach Boasberg or any other judge simply over a legal disagreement.
Democrat Senator Dick Durbin agreed. "We've heard repeated complaints from Republicans about the number of injunctions issued against this president compared to other presidents. Why so many? They ignore the fact that this president has issued more than 100 executive orders, the most by any president, at this point in his term in at least for decades. Many are clearly illegal," Durbin claimed.
In his testimony, Notre Dame Law Professor Samuel Bray believes universal injunctions are being used as a weapon against our democracy and should be taken away no matter who is in the White House or controls Congress.
"The universal injunction is emphatically not a partisan problem. Universal injunctions and vacaturs are stopping almost every major initiative of the second Trump administration. Just like all the Democratic and Republican administrations in the last ten years, they are a bipartisan scourge at any particular moment," said Bray.
Other Republican senators voiced concern that individual judges have too much impact on the balance of power among the three branches of government. Earlier this week, the House Judiciary Committee also examined constitutional limits on the federal courts.
Congressman Thomas Massie called it a double-edged sword. "Under the Biden administration, he did unconstitutional and unlawful things that were stopped with nationwide injunctions," he said.
Anastasia Boden, senior attorney with Pacific Legal Foundation, says, in some cases there are good reasons for nationwide injunctions, but she's concerned judges are too eager to impose them.
Both houses are pursuing legislation on this issue. The House bill would restrict federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions. Senator Grassley's would limit judicial rulings only to the parties involved, rather than other parties that are in the same situation.
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