With
Calvinball
the
order
of
the
day
at
One
First
Street,
it’s
a
relief
to
the
see
the
Justice
Department’s
bad
faith
shenanigans
get
spanked
in
court.
And
it’s
especially
gratifying
when
the
judge
delivering
that
spanking
is
one
of
Trump’s
own
appointees.
So
Judge
Thomas
Cullen
benchslapping
the
Justice
Department
for
its
preposterous
lawsuit
against
all
the
federal
judges
in
Maryland
is
an
exceptionally
delightful
read.
The
verdict:
Dismissed.
And
God
help
ya
at
the
Fourth
Circuit,
PAM.
Bad
faith
After
the
Trump
administration
openly
defied
Chief
Judge
James
Boasberg’s
order
to
“turn
the
planes
around”
and
not
deport
any
alien
detainees
to
CECOT
in
El
Salvador,
DHS
embarked
on
a
nationwide
shell
game.
Detainees
like
Mahmoud
Khalil
and
Rumeysa
Ozturk
were
arrested
in
blue
states
and
rapidly
transferred
to
far
flung
detention
centers,
mostly
in
the
Fifth
Circuit,
in
a
blatant
attempt
to
deprive
local
courts
of
jurisdiction
over
habeas
claims.
Worse
still,
DHS
refused
to
commit
to
any
delay
in
deporting
immigrants
with
pending
habeas
petition,
despite
this(!)
Supreme
Court
ordering
the
government
to
give
detainees
“reasonable”
time
to
contest
their
deportation.
And
so
Chief
Judge
George
Russell
III
of
the
District
of
Maryland,
where
DHS
snatched
up
Kilmar
Abrego
Garcia
and
summarily
deported
him
to
the
one
country
on
earth
where
it
was
illegal
to
send
him,
took
steps
to
proactively
block
the
government
from
evading
the
jurisdiction
of
the
federal
court
in
Maryland.
In
a
May
28
standing
order,
Judge
Russell
noted
that
the
“recent
influx
of
habeas
petitions
concerning
alien
detainees
purportedly
subject
to
improper
and
imminent
removal
from
the
United
States
that
have
been
filed
after
normal
court
hours
and
on
weekends
and
holidays
has
created
scheduling
difficulties
and
resulted
in
hurried
and
frustrating
hearings
in
that
obtaining
clear
and
concrete
information
about
the
location
and
status
of
the
petitioners
is
elusive.”
Pursuant
to
the
All
Writs
Act,
which
allows
courts
to
take
all
necessary
action
to
preserve
their
jurisdiction
over
a
pending
case,
he
enjoined
the
government
from
deporting
any
immigrant
for
two
full
business
days
after
the
filing
of
a
habeas
petition.
This
would
obviate
the
problem
of
the
government
immediately
whisking
immigrants
out
of
the
country
before
a
judge
could
adjudicate
their
habeas
claims,
as
it
would
have
succeeded
in
doing
in
the
Western
District
of
Texas
without
the
1
am
intervention
of
this(!)
Supreme
Court.
After
which
Attorney
General
Pam
Bondi
lost
her
shit.
“The
American
people
elected
President
Trump
to
carry
out
his
policy
agenda:
this
pattern
of
judicial
overreach
undermines
the
democratic
process
and
cannot
be
allowed
to
stand,”
she
fulminated.
And
then
she
did
something
even
crazier:
She
sued
every
federal
judge
in
the
state
of
Maryland,
even
including
the
ones
on
senior
status.
Bad
law
The
complaint
characterized
Judge
Russell’s
order
as
a
part
of
a
pattern
of
insolence
by
trial
court
judges,
who
“have
used
and
abused
their
equitable
powers
to
interfere
with
the
prerogatives
of
the
Executive
Branch
to
an
unprecedented
degree.”
The
DOJ
whined
that
courts
have
no
right
to
issue
equitable
relief
without
a
live
case
before
them
to
adjudicate,
and
they
demanded
injunctive
relief
to
block
the
standing
order.
Because
every
single
judge
in
Maryland
—
including
those
on
senior
status
—
was
a
named
defendant,
the
Fourth
Circuit
reassigned
the
case
to
Judge
Thomas
Cullen,
a
Trump
appointee
to
the
Western
District
of
Virginia.
And
so
Judge
Cullen
had
to
schlep
up
to
Baltimore
from
Roanoke
to
hear
this
dumb
turkey
in
person.
At
a
hearing
on
August
13,
he
seemed
dubious
of
the
DOJ’s
right
to
sue
judges.
“I
think
you
probably
picked
up
on
the
fact
that
I
have
some
skepticism,”
he
warned
DOJ
lawyer
Elizabeth
Themins
Hedges.
But
the
order
that
he
released
on
August
26
makes
it
clear
that
he
was
a
lot
more
than
skeptical.
You
are
bad,
and
you
should
feel
bad,
PAM!
Judge
Cullen
took
the
Trump
administration
to
task
for
its
full-blown
assault
on
the
independence
of
the
judiciary.
“The
coordinate
branches
together
form
the
government
of
the
United
States
of
America,
and
together
they
are
the
sovereign
in
this
Nation,”
he
notes,
reminding
the
Justice
Department
that
“the
executive
branch
is
not
the
sole
sovereign
in
the
United
States
of
America.”
He
excoriates
the
DOJ
and
its
leadership
for
their
constant,
inappropriate
attacks
on
the
judiciary
as
a
whole
and
on
individual
federal
judges:
Indeed,
over
the
past
several
months,
principal
officers
of
the
Executive
(and
their
spokespersons)
have
described
federal
district
judges
across
the
country
as
“left-wing,”
“liberal,”
“activists,”
“radical,”
“politically
minded,”
“rogue,”
“unhinged,”
“outrageous,
overzealous,
[and]
unconstitutional,”
“[c]rooked,”
and
worse.
Although
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.
And
he
lambasted
the
executive
branch
for
carelessly
initiating
a
battle
with
the
judicial
branch
which
could
easily
escalate
into
a
massive
constitutional
crisis.
“If
the
case
were
to
survive
a
motion
to
dismiss,
the
parties—the
individual
judicial
defendants
and
principal
officers
of
the
Executive,
including
the
Secretary
of
Homeland
Security
and
the
United
States
Attorney
General—would
potentially
be
required
to
sit
for
depositions
and
produce
documents,
including
emails
and
other
internal
communications,
relevant
to
the
issuance
of
the
standing
orders
and
the
actual
reasons
for
filing
suit,”
he
railed.
“These
discovery
demands,
in
turn,
would
almost
certainly
trigger
claims
of
privilege—
executive,
judicial,
deliberative-process,
and
the
like—and
invariably
compound
this
constitutional
standoff
into
epic
proportions.”
GTFO
Judge
Cullen
found
that
the
judges
were
immune
from
suit,
the
president
had
no
standing
to
sue,
and
“the
Executive
fails
to
identify
a
legitimate
cause
of
action
that
allows
it
to
bring
this
lawsuit.”
But
other
than
that
…
bang
up
job,
fellas!
He
dismissed
the
case
without
reaching
the
gravamen
of
the
complaint,
although
he
did
note
that
the
Fourth
Circuit
has
its
own
standing
order
imposing
an
automatic
two-week
stay
of
removal
upon
notice
of
appeal,
compared
to
which
“the
District
of
Maryland’s
recent
stopgap
measure
appears
considerably
more
modest.”
Judge
Cullen
also
expressed
astonishment
that
the
DOJ
didn’t
do
the
normal
thing
and
just
challenge
the
48-hour
order
in
a
relevant
case,
rather
than
declare
war
on
Maryland’s
judiciary.
“But
as
events
over
the
past
several
months
have
revealed,
these
are
not
normal
times—
at
least
regarding
the
interplay
between
the
Executive
and
this
coordinate
branch
of
government,”
he
wrote.
“It’s
no
surprise
that
the
Executive
chose
a
different,
and
more
confrontational,
path
entirely.”
And
perhaps
it’s
no
surprise
that
this
abnormal
regime
immediately
noticed
an
appeal
to
the
Fourth
Circuit.
That
court
has
not
been
particularly
friendly
to
the
DOJ
of
late.
Even
Judge
Wilkinson
gave
it
the
back
of
his
hand
when
it
demanded
a
get-out-of-discovery-free
card
in
the
Abrego
Garcia
case.
But
the
Supreme
Court
has
been
lighting
trial
judges
on
fire
for
sport
of
late
so
…
might
as
well
give
it
a
go,
right?