The Trump administration’s Department of Justice filed suit this week against all 15 federal district court judges in Maryland, challenging what it described as “an order that pauses any deportations under legal challenge in the state for 48 hours,” according to a new report.
“The complaint alleges that Chief Judge George L. Russell III of the U.S. District Court in Maryland issued an ‘unlawful, antidemocratic’ order in May that grants a two-day stay of deportation to any detainee in immigration custody who files a petition for habeas corpus, which is a lawsuit alleging wrongful detention,” the Washington Post reported.
The lawsuit marks an unprecedented step, as numerous legal challenges to the Trump administration’s policies have been litigated in Maryland’s federal courts, leading critics to believe that left-wing groups and state Democratic officials have essentially ‘court-shopped’ to get decisions that favor them.
In his standing order, Russell noted that the sudden rush of habeas petitions for detained migrants led to rushed decisions.
“The recent influx of habeas petitions concerning alien detainees … 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,” Russell wrote.
The Justice Department said that a “sense of frustration and a desire for greater convenience do not give Defendants license to flout the law.” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a post on X Wednesday: “This is just the latest action by @AGPamBondi’s DOJ to rein in unlawful judicial overreach.”
Democrats quickly condemned the lawsuit as an assault on the judiciary, though they have not had any issues with the judiciary’s assault on the power and authorities of the Executive Branch.
“After blatantly violating judicial orders, and directing personal attacks on individual judges, the White House is turning our Constitution on its head by suing judges themselves,” said Maryland Gov. Wes Moore. “Make no mistake: this unprecedented action is a transparent effort to intimidate judges and usurp the power of the courts.”
Carl Tobias, a law professor at the University of Richmond, described the lawsuit as a significant escalation in the Trump administration’s clash with the judiciary, though he acknowledged that it raised valid legal arguments.
“I think they’re trying to claw back their jurisdiction,” Tobias said. “There’s a performative aspect to all this stuff. It’s mind-boggling. … The American people don’t need to be manipulated, and certainly the federal courts don’t need that.”