Republican lawmakers are fast-tracking bills this week to limit district court judges’ ability to issue national injunctions. It’s an effort to help speed along President Donald Trump’s agenda, even though the move could backfire against them under a future Democratic administration.
“District court judges are just that. They’re not Supreme Court judges and they shouldn’t be issuing decisions that apply to the entire country,” Rep. Harriet Hageman, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, told NOTUS. “I’m not worried about whether a Democrat is in office or a Republican is in office, because I think it is a judicial issue.”
These bills are a response to what The Washington Post has estimated are more than 40 holds on presidential actions issued by federal judges since the second Trump administration began. They have stopped some of Trump’s more than 100 executive orders from taking full effect, including Trump’s attempts to end birthright citizenship, freeze foreign aid, suspend refugee programs and ban transgender people from serving in the military. On appeal, courts have maintained some injunctions while striking down others.