{"id":111933,"date":"2025-08-26T18:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T18:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/111933\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T18:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T18:53:11","slug":"court-tosses-trump-administration-lawsuit-against-maryland-federal-judges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/111933\/","title":{"rendered":"Court tosses Trump administration lawsuit against Maryland federal judges"},"content":{"rendered":"

BALTIMORE (AP) \u2014 A federal judge on Tuesday threw out the Trump administration\u2019s lawsuit against Maryland\u2019s entire federal bench<\/a> in an emphatic ruling that underscored the extraordinary nature of the suit, slamming it as \u201cpotentially calamitous.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen, who was nominated by President Donald Trump, also criticized the administration\u2019s attacks on the judiciary, highlighting in a footnote that White House officials in recent months had described judges as \u201crogue,\u201d \u201cunhinged\u201d and \u201ccrooked,\u201d among other epithets. <\/p>\n

\u201cAlthough some tension between the coordinate branches of government is a hallmark of our constitutional system, this concerted effort by the Executive to smear and impugn individual judges who rule against it is both unprecedented and unfortunate,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Attorney<\/p>\n

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks with reporters during a briefing with President Donald Trump in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n

Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks with reporters during a briefing with President Donald Trump in the James Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House, Monday, Aug. 11, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo\/Mark Schiefelbein)<\/p>\n

Read More<\/p>\n

At issue in the lawsuit was an order by the chief judge of the Maryland district court that stopped the immediate deportation of migrants challenging their removals. The Justice Department said the automatic pause impeded the president\u2019s authority to enforce immigration laws, and it sought a court order blocking it.<\/p>\n

Cullen said allowing the suit to continue \u201cwould run counter to overwhelming precedent, depart from longstanding constitutional tradition, and offend the rule of law.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn their wisdom, the Constitution\u2019s framers joined three coordinate branches to establish a single sovereign,\u201d Cullen wrote. \u201cThat structure may occasionally engender clashes between two branches and encroachment by one branch on another\u2019s authority. But mediating those disputes must occur in a manner that respects the Judiciary\u2019s constitutional role.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfavorable rulings for Trump<\/p>\n

The lawsuit, which the Justice Department filed in June, was a remarkable legal maneuver, ratcheting up the Trump administration\u2019s fight with the federal judiciary. The department has grown increasingly frustrated<\/a> by rulings blocking Trump\u2019s agenda, repeatedly accusing federal judges of improperly impeding his powers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Maryland court\u2019s order upholds a direct assault on the President\u2019s ability to enforce the immigration laws,\u201d White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement Tuesday. \u201cThis will not be the final say on the matter, and the Trump Administration looks forward to ultimate victory on the issue.\u201d <\/p>\n

Trump has railed against unfavorable judicial rulings and in one case called for the impeachment<\/a> of a federal judge in Washington who ordered planeloads of deported immigrants to be turned around. In July, the Justice Department filed a misconduct complaint<\/a> against that judge.<\/p>\n

The Maryland judges, represented by prominent conservative lawyer Paul Clement, argued the administration\u2019s lawsuit sought to limit the power of the judiciary to review certain immigration proceedings while it pursued a mass deportation agenda<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Among the judges named in the lawsuit was Paula Xinis, who found the Trump administration in March illegally deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia<\/a> to El Salvador \u2014 a case that quickly became a flashpoint in Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown. <\/p>\n

Cullen, who was nominated to the federal bench by Trump in 2020, serves in the Western District of Virginia but was tapped to oversee the case because all 15 of Maryland\u2019s federal judges were named as defendants along with the court clerk and the court itself, a highly unusual circumstance he noted in his ruling.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn casting its wide net, the Executive ensnared an entire judicial body \u2014 a vital part of this coordinate branch of government \u2014 and its principal officers in novel and potentially calamitous litigation,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

Cullen found the administration lacked the legal authority to bring the suit, but he said even if it could, the judges were immune. Instead of the \u201cmore confrontational\u201d approach of a lawsuit, the administration should have appealed the chief judge\u2019s order, he wrote, calling that the \u201ctried-and-true recourse available to all federal litigants.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne branch\u2019s alleged infringement on another\u2019s exclusive power does not license a constitutional free-for-all,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n

What the Maryland judge\u2019s order said<\/p>\n

Signed by Chief Maryland District Judge George L. Russell III, the order at issue in this case prevents the Trump administration from immediately deporting any immigrants seeking review of their detention in Maryland district court. It blocks their removal until 4 p.m. on the second business day after the filing of their habeas corpus petitions, which allow people to challenge their detention by the government.<\/p>\n

The order says it aims to maintain existing conditions and the potential jurisdiction of the court, ensure immigrant petitioners are able to participate in court proceedings and access attorneys and give the government \u201cfulsome opportunity to brief and present arguments in its defense.\u201d<\/p>\n

In an amended order pausing deportations, Russell said the court had received an influx of habeas petitions after hours that \u201cresulted in hurried and frustrating hearings in that obtaining clear and concrete information about the location and status of the petitioners is elusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Attorneys for the Trump administration accused the Maryland judges of prioritizing a regular schedule, writing in court documents that \u201ca sense of frustration and a desire for greater convenience do not give Defendants license to flout the law.\u201d<\/p>\n

Clement, who served as solicitor general under Republican President George W. Bush, denounced the suit during a hearing earlier this month. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe executive branch seeks to bring suit in the name of the United States against a co-equal branch of government,\u201d he said. \u201cThere really is no precursor for this suit\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Thanawala reported from Atlanta.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BALTIMORE (AP) \u2014 A federal judge on Tuesday threw out the Trump administration\u2019s lawsuit against Maryland\u2019s entire federal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111934,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[53878,23,2302,12,793,56568,12805,3138,790,14270,3130,2221,8640,8641,3,56567,14273,111,56566,12202,10585,795,21,792,19,22,20,25,24,5148,800],"class_list":["post-111933","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-abigail-jackson","tag-america","tag-courts","tag-donald-trump","tag-general-news","tag-george-l-russell-iii","tag-george-w-bush","tag-government-and-politics","tag-immigration","tag-kilmar-abrego-garcia","tag-lawsuits","tag-legal-proceedings","tag-maryland","tag-md-state-wire","tag-news","tag-paul-clement","tag-paula-xinis","tag-politics","tag-thomas-cullen","tag-trump-lawsuits","tag-u-s-department-of-justice","tag-u-s-news","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-government","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-virginia","tag-washington-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111933","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111933"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111933\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}