President Donald Trump has signed more than 80 executive orders since returning to the White House in January, prompting more than 100 lawsuits against his administration.
Democrats accused the Trump administration of launching a “constitutional crisis” within the United States as a result of these orders, but the White House argued that “low-level” judges have issued an unconstitutional injunction banning Trump from implementing his agenda.
“We cannot have a low-level district court judge who will file an injunction to take away the US president’s executive authority,” White House press chief Caroline Leavitt told reporters Friday. “That’s totally ridiculous… It’s very clear that there are judicial activists across the judiciary sector trying to block this president’s enforcement body.”
There are some judges appointed under the Obama and Biden administrations.
James Boasberg
Boasberg has been the Supreme Court judge for the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia since March 2023 and was first appointed as a district court judge under the Obama administration in March 2011.
Boasberg issued several important rulings on various cases during Trump’s first administration. For example, he blocked Arkansas, Kentucky and New Hampshire from implementing work requirements exemptions for Medicaid recipients, after the Trump administration’s health department announced policies that would allow exemptions for Medicaid recipients.
Ultimately, the U.S. DC Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled in February 2020 in favor of Boasburg’s previous decision in Kentucky and Arkansas cases. In its ruling, the Court of Appeal said former Health and Human Services Director Alex Hazard “we could not analyse whether demonstrations promote the main objectives of Medicaid – providing medical assistance.”
The Supreme Court then dismissed all pending cases related to Medicaid labor requirements in April 2022.
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James Bourseberg has served as the Supreme Court Judge for the District of Columbia U.S. District Court since March 2023 (Valerie Press/Bloomberg via Getty)
On Saturday, Boasberg issued an order to halt the Trump administration to deport immigrants under the Alien Enemy Act of 1798.
However, the flight continues to unload Salvador immigrants, and Leavitt said on Sunday that the order “has no legal basis” since Boasberg issued it after its departure from US airspace.
Boasberg graduated from Yale University in 1985 and Yale Law School in 1990. He also served a seven-year term in the US Foreign Intelligence Report Monitoring Court from 2014 to 2021.
Leo Sorokin
Obama’s appointee, Sorokin, joined the US District Court for the Massachusetts, in 2014 after previously serving as a magistrate at the same court.
Sorokin led the program by scheduling a Massachusetts delay standard program known as repair, investment, success, emergence or rise. The program provides some offenders with a one-year delay in the sentence of criminal offenders who are eligible for pretrial release when they are undergoing an intensive supervision program.
“We’re excited about how the restorative justice part of Rise has disappeared, so we’re expanding,” Sorokin said at an event at Columbia Law School in 2020. “I think it’s legal. I think it’s right.
Sorokin said the motivation to launch the Rise program came from a conversation with a man convicted of bank robbery.
Sorokin blocked the Trump administration from implementing an executive order in February to ban birthright citizenship. The Trump administration requested a Supreme Court step on Friday, allowing it to execute the order, and the Supreme Court requested a response from the Challenger by April 4th.
Sorokin attended Columbia Law School and worked as a professor at Boston University Law School.
Amir Ali
Biden’s appointee, Ali, was one of the newest judges in the District of Columbia’s US District Court in December 2024, and joined the court. Ali helped launch the Washington, D.C. branch of the MacArthur Judicial Center in 2017, a nonprofit law firm specializing in criminal justice reform and civil rights issues.
Ali, who ultimately led the company as executive director, controversed two cases in the Supreme Court on behalf of the MacArthur Judicial Center.
Ali’s relationship with the company was scrutinized during a confirmation hearing before the Senate in February 2024. In the Senate, lawmakers asked him about what he said in 2020 by his MacArthur Judiciary Center colleague Cliff Johnson.
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District Judge Amir H. Ali is Biden’s appointee of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. (U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia)
However, Ali told lawmakers he did not support these views or support the MacArthur Judicial Center.
“Let’s be very clear about this,” Ali said. “I have never insisted on taking police funds away. I will never take that position. The MacArthur Judicial Center is not taking that position.”
On March 11, Ali issued a ruling that held the Trump administration likely exceeded constitutional authorities when the State Department and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) tried to stop payments due to contractors that approved the $2 billion funding.
Ali has also taught civil, criminal and appeal litigation classes at schools, including Harvard Law School and Georgetown University Law Center.
Beryl Howell
Obama’s appointee Howell joined the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in 2010. She previously served on the US Senate Committee on Justice from 1993 to 2003.
Howell opposed the Trump administration on March 6, writing in her ruling that Trump has no authority to fire members of the National Labor Relations Committee freely. The Trump administration rejected Gwyn Wilcox, chairman of the National Labor Relations Commission, in January, and urged Wilcox to file a lawsuit against the Trump administration for violating the National Labor Relations Act, which states negligence and misconduct are the sole cause of the firing of board members.
“Presidents who promote their image of themselves as “king” or “dictator” are fundamentally misconstruing their role under Article II of the US Constitution, perhaps as a vision of effective leadership,” Howell wrote in the ruling.
Howell also ordered Wilcox to return to her position.
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President Trump fired Gwyn Wilcox, a member of the National Labor Relations Committee, to the left. Judge Beryl Howell ordered the Trump administration to revive Wilcox in his March 6 ruling. (NLRB; AP Photo; US District Court)
Howell attended the College of Law at Columbia University and served as deputy chief of the drug dispensary and aide to the US attorneys at the US Law Office in the Eastern District of New York from 1987 to 1993.
Her work at the US Lawyer’s Office in the Eastern District of New York received the Attorney General’s Award for outstanding performance and other accolades for her work focusing on international drugs, money laundering and public corruption cases.
She also works as a professor of legal ethics at the Washington School of Law at American University.
Ana Reyes
Biden’s appointee, Reyes joined the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in February 2023 after a career as a litigation attorney for Williams & Connolly LLP, focusing on international litigation representing foreign governments, foreign government officials and multinational corporations.
Previous pro bono work also included representing groups of refugees, such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. She also received the Hispanic National Bar Foundation’s “Judicial Leader Award” in 2023.
Reyes oversees a lawsuit filed in February by the LGBTQ legal advocacy group Glad Law and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, filed in February against the Trump administration due to an executive order that prohibits transgender individuals from serving the military.
The group is seeking a temporary injunction suspending the ban while the lawsuit is pending, and Reyes is expected to issue a final decision on the interim injunction by March 25th.
Reyes attended Harvard Law School and jointly won classes on trial practice and advocacy in international arbitration at Yale Law School and Georgetown University Law Center.
Lauren Alican
Biden’s appointee, Alican, previously served as a deputy judge for the DC Court of Appeals, joined the District of Columbia US District Court in December 2023.
Alican opposed the Trump administration in February, causing the Trump administration to freeze federal grants and loans indefinitely. The ruling stems from a lawsuit against a group of nonprofits filed in January after Trump administration executives announced a suspension of loans and grants. The administration has revoked the memo, but the White House has made it clear that the order is still there to freeze funds.
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White House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt told reporters Friday that the Trump administration will appeal the unfavorable ruling. (Evan Vucci/AP)
“The easiest thing to do is not a problem from the start,” Alican wrote in a February ruling. “The defendant wanted to suspend federal spending up to $3 trillion in practically overnight, or expected each federal agency to review its grants, loans and compliance funds within 24 hours. The width of that order can be hardly calculated.
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Alican attended Georgetown University Law Center and supported Harvard Law School’s LLP’s Supreme Court and Appeal Clinic, as well as O’Melveny & Myers, the Yale Law School law writing program.
She was awarded the National Association of Attorney Generals’ Staff of the Year Award in 2020.
Fox News Breanne Deppisch, Jake Gibson, Andrea Margolis, Lucas Y. Tomlinson and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
Diana Stancy is a political reporter for Fox News Digital, covering the White House.
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