A recent wave of interim injunctions from federal judges hampered President Donald Trump’s early agenda during his second White House term, prompting new questions about how far the administration will go if he chooses to challenge these court orders.
Federal judges across the country blocked Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the US military, ordered the restoration of the US International Development Agency, or the core functions of the USAID, and Elon Musk’s government efficiency organization Doge has stopped monitoring and access to government agencies. They also temporarily suspend or attempted deportation, so judges can consider the relevant laws.
Combined, the wave of ruling encountered rage from Trump administration officials. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt is opposed to the “radical left judges” who use her podium to act on the political agenda to block Trump’s executive order.
“These judicial activists want to unilaterally stop President Trump from deporting foreign terrorists, hiring employees in the enforcement department and deciding on preparing our military,” Leavitt said on X, expanding his remarks made on Wednesday at a press conference.
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Donald Trump (Julia Nikinson Pool/Getty Images)
“They have to be tied up,” she added.
Several Trump supporters in Congress have threatened judges to block the president’s agenda with a bluff, but his critics say the president’s attack on the judiciary will ruin the constitutional system and bring a passionate debate about constitutional separation to the forefront.
Here’s a summary of where things stand.
Court blocks Trump’s agenda
Doge’s efforts ruled Tuesday that Obama’s appointee, U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuan, violated the “U.S. Constitution” “in multiple ways” in “accelerated” and ordered a partial recovery of the agency’s functions, including reviving personnel access to email and payment systems.
Chuan’s preliminary injunction is considered to be the first person to directly evoke Musk himself. Musk said he can interact with USAID employees only after being granted “explicit approval” by agency officials, blocking Doge from engaging in further work at USAID.
Hours later, U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes issued a preliminary injunction banning the Pentagon from enforcing Trump’s orders regarding transgender people serving in the military.
Reyes, the court’s first openly gay member, wrote in a 79-page stern ruling that the Trump administration failed to demonstrate that trans service members would hinder military preparation, and that she relied on “pure speculation” to justify policies and therefore caused undue harm to thousands of current US service members.
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Both rulings are almost certain to be challenged by the Trump administration. In fact, Reyes was convinced that the Justice Department would delay her ruling until Friday to allow time for the Trump administration to file an emergency appeal.
Reyes was not wrong. Administration officials have vowed to challenge the wave of court decisions, but they said it was a court attempt to unfairly infringe the president’s powers.
“We’re hoping for this decision, so we’re going to win,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegses told social media.
“The district court judges have determined that they are commanding the army…is there no end to this insanity?” White House policy advisor Stephen Miller later said in a post in X.
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Judge Ana Reyes has blocked the Trump administration from enforcing a ban on transgender people serving in the military. (Getty | Senatordurbin via YouTube)
Several other well-known cases are played in real time, where difficult relationships between courts and administrative agencies can be tested, and the next step remains very uncertain.
US District Judge James Boasberg warned the Trump administration on Wednesday that temporarily blocking calls to lesser-known wartime laws to immediately force Venezuelan citizens out of US soil, including suspects of gang Tren de Aragua, could have an impact on breaching his court order.
Boasberg handed over a temporary restraining order on Saturday evening around the time the Trump administration expelled hundreds of migrants, including Venezuelan citizens, who are subject to alien enemy laws to El Salvador. He also ordered the bench sentence shortly after the plane carrying these individuals returned to the US.
However, at least one plane of the migrant deported by the law in question touched on it later that night in El Salvador.
“Oopsie, too late,” El Salvador President said in a post on X.
Since then, government lawyers citing national security protections have refused to share information about deportation services in court.
The White House has repeatedly argued that lower court judges like Boasberg should not have the power to prevent the president from doing what he claims is a legal agenda, but the judge in question disagrees that all the president’s actions were in accordance with the law.
“A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movement of aircraft carriers full of foreign alien terrorists physically expelled from US soil,” Leavitt told Fox News.
“We won’t stop,” Trump’s border emperor Tom Homan said in an interview with Fox & Friends this week.
“I don’t care what the judges think. I don’t care what the left thinks. We’re here,” Homan said. “Another battle.
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The prison guards will send exiles from the United States to a terrorist confinement center in Tekolka, El Salvador on Sunday. (President’s Press Office via the AP)
Relief along the way?
All-ensure-free appeals may be more likely than previous cases that reached the appeal court, including those awarded by the Supreme Court against the President.
There are two types in which the parties can be convened for a complete case of interim injunction and temporary restraining orders or TRO merits before a federal judge provides the plaintiff to the plaintiff.
TRO immediately blocks 14 days of action and reserves time for consideration. However, it is a difficult test for plaintiffs to be satisfied. You must prove that the order in question will immediately cause “irreparable harm.” This is especially proof of a particularly burdensome level.
As a result, the range of results is very narrow. We were able to turn to the TRO request granted earlier this month by US District Judge Amir Ali. This forced the Trump administration to pay $2 billion in payments to a previously completed USAID project.
The Supreme Court, which upheld Ali’s ruling 5-4, had little room to intervene because it had not addressed the current contract or ongoing payments.
US District Judge Amir H. Ali is Biden’s appointee of the District of Columbia US District Court. (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia)
However, the request for a provisional injunction is a little more detailed. A successful plaintiff must demonstrate four things to the court when seeking a judgment. First, there is a high chance that you will be successful in the benefits of claims when you hear them later. Stock balance is a hint at their favor. Injunctions must be taken into consideration within the realm of the public interest. And finally, they are likely to suffer irreparable harm without court cases.
This wider level of discretion granted to the district court in a preliminary injunction will induce more scrutiny and will allow the government to appeal the judgment to the High Court if they deem appropriate.
This was the strategy of both legal analysts, and even Trump himself hanged as a possibility that they could try to implement some of the most drastic policy actions.
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Trump proposed this week that Boasberg, who is tasked with overseeing the escalating deportation fight, was bounced each, explaining him in a post on the true society as a “bending” judge, and as someone who was not elected president, unlike himself.
“He didn’t win the popularity vote (with many things!), he didn’t win all seven swing states, he didn’t win 2,750 to 525 counties, he won anything!” Trump said.
This post was responsible for Secretary John Roberts. And on Thursday, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, James Blair, appeared to be slamming the issue on Congress.
He told Politico in an interview that Trump’s comments shine a “big old spotlight” for what he considers partisan’s decision, but the judge noted that he has been appointed Republicans in Congress.
“That’s the speaker’s job, and I don’t talk about what that speaker’s opinion is,” he said. “I think what’s important right now is that the President is emphasizing important issues.”
Breanne Deppisch is a political reporter for Fox News Digital, covering the Trump administration, focusing on the Department of Justice, the FBI and other national news.
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