“The executive branch seeks to bring suit in the name of the United States against a co-equal branch of government,” attorney Paul Clement said. “There really is no precursor for this suit.”
A federal judge has dismissed the Trump administration’s unprecedented lawsuit against Maryland’s entire federal court system.
As LegalReader.com has reported before, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against all of Maryland’s federal judges after a ruling prevented the federal government from deporting migrants with pending appeals.
In a Tuesday decision, U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen granted a request by the judges to discard the case, saying that to do otherwise “would run counter to overwhelming precedent, depart from longstanding constitutional tradition, and offend the rule of law.”
“In their wisdom, the Constitution’s framers joined three coordinate branches to establish a single sovereign,” Cullen wrote in the order. “That structure may occasionally engender clashes between two branches and encroachment by one branch on another’s authority. But mediating those disputes must occur in a manner that respects the Judiciary’s constitutional role.”
Cullen, notes PBS, is a Trump-appointed judge. He ordinarily serves in the Western District of Virginia but was asked to oversee the Maryland case, as all 15 of that state’s federal court judges had been named as defendants.
In earlier hearings, attorneys for the Maryland judges claimed that the lawsuit is intended to limit the power of the court system to review immigration proceedings.
“The executive branch seeks to bring suit in the name of the United States against a co-equal branch of government,” attorney Paul Clement said. “There really is no precursor for this suit.”
The order that prompted the lawsuit was signed by Chief Maryland District Judge George L. Russell III. It prevents the administration from deporting any immigrant who seeks a review of their detention through a Maryland district court, with removal blocked until at least 4 p.m. on the second business day after which a petition has been filed.
Russell explained his order by saying that the court wishes to ensure that immigrant petitioners are able to exercise their rights to participate in court proceedings, access licensed attorneys, and give the government ‘fulsome opportunity to brief and present arguments in its defense.”
The Department of Justice, in contrast, said that the Maryland judiciary is making it impossible for the Trump administration to enforce federal policy.
“The United States is a plaintiff here because the United States is being harmed,” Justice Department Elizabeth Themins Hedges said.
PBS notes that one of the judges named in the lawsuit is Paula Xinis, who determined that the Trump administration violated federal law when it deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador.
Sources
Court throws out lawsuit by Trump administration against all 15 Maryland federal judges
Judge throws out ‘potentially calamitous’ Trump lawsuit against Maryland judges
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