Judge Illston’s TRO Spells Supreme Ill Winds

Letter to Ephesians: Senator Grassley warned two weeks ago of “unconstitutional” judicial overreach via nationwide TROs & wouldn’t you know it, yet another liberal judge reinforced Trump’s chances before the Supreme Court by shutting down his shutting down of his own agencies ...

Granted, San Francisco District Court Judge Susan Illston’s TRO put “only” a temporary pause on Trump’s "mass layoffs" at several gov't agencies. And, she conceded the president does have the authority to make changes to executive branch agencies. BUT she disingenuously added it mustn’t be too extensive without somehow working in tandem with Congress. It has something to do with following “lawful ways,” she assured. In so ruling, Judge Illston may have played into No. 47’s hands. As George Washington U Professor Jonathan Turley noted, “The order will only heighten complaints about the injunction frenzy on the district court level & forum shopping by Democratic groups in blue states. It will also increase pressure on the Supreme Court before [its] May 15th arguments over such injunctions” dealing with birthright citizenship.

As Sen. Grassley had pointed out, there’s been a growing concern over local judges issuing universal injunctions against a president’s executive orders pointedly trying to manage the [drum roll] executive branch. The Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Cte has long argued that a president should not have to ask permission from 600 district court judges to govern the executive branch he’s responsible for. “Universal injunctions are an unconstitutional abuse of judicial power, he recently told Fox News. Such rulings, he explained, ignore the idea that “judges are not policymakers.”

Davd Soul