Legal Challenges Mount Against Trump Administration's Executive Actions
Mattathias Schwartz reports on the federal courts from Philadelphia.
The legal war over President Trump's blizzard of executive actions is intensifying, with new lawsuits and fresh rulings emerging now day and night.
Judges are already making their mark: As of Saturday, eight rulings have at least temporarily paused the president's initiatives. Other cases have not been decided. No matter the initial rulings by judges, many decisions are likely to be appealed, and some might reach the Supreme Court in the months to come.
Here is a breakdown on the dozens of suits. The array of lawsuits fall into four main categories.
Immigration
The Trump administration's crackdown on immigration -- both legal and illegal -- has resulted in at least 10 lawsuits, seven of which challenge his executive order revoking universal birthright citizenship. The plaintiffs seeking to defend the 14th Amendment's longstanding guarantee to birthright citizenship include two groups of state attorneys general, nonprofits representing pregnant mothers, and an attorney from Orange County, Calif., who is representing his pregnant wife.
So far, the judges hearing these cases have been skeptical of Mr. Trump's move, issuing two preliminary injunctions that have put the president's order on ice. But one of the cases yet to be heard is before Judge Timothy James Kelly of the District of Columbia, who was nominated to the bench by Mr. Trump.
The other lawsuits against the president's immigration policies challenge immigration agents' authority to enter houses of worship; a memo that speeds up and broadens the scope of deportations; and an order that makes it harder for refugees to claim asylum in the United States. On Friday, San Francisco and other cities sued to block an executive order that would withhold federal funds from cities that do not assist with enforcing Trump administration immigration policies.
Budget Freezes and Firings
This category of litigation will likely grow as the administration attempts to assert its control over federal employees, lay the groundwork for potential mass firings and withhold spending that has been previously appropriated by Congress.
Mr. Trump's attempt to freeze as much as 3 trillion USD in federal funding has run aground in two cases, one filed by a group of nonprofits in conjunction with Democracy Forward, and another by a group of 22 state attorneys general. An effort to gut the United States Agency for International Development is also at least partially on hold.
The administration's "Fork in the Road" offer, sent by email to roughly two million federal employees by the government's Office of Personnel Management, encouraging them to resign, was blocked, for now, by a Massachusetts judge on Thursday.
Three lawsuits challenge Mr. Trump's effort to overhaul the civil service, stripping away job protections from tens of thousands of employees and giving the White House unilateral firing authority if they fail to "faithfully implement administration policies."
Other lawsuits challenge the Trump administration's attempts to unilaterally fire a member of the National Labor Relations Board, one of several agencies that are supposed to be independent of the executive branch. A lawsuit to stop Elon Musk's team from accessing sensitive data at the Treasury Department yielded an agreement to do so for now.
Transgender Rights
Two lawsuits challenge an effort by the Trump administration to force the transfer of transgender women in federal prisons to men's housing, and to deny them gender-transition medical care. One of those suits led to a restraining order that will temporarily keep the new policy from being implemented.
Out of more than 150,000 federal inmates, fewer than 50 are transgender women who are housed in women's facilities, according to an administration official.
Other lawsuits address Mr. Trump's attempts to ban transgender people from serving in the military, to deny federal funding from hospitals that offer gender-transition care to people under the age of 19, and to prevent transgender people from having their identities reflected on their U.S. passports.
Jan. 6 Investigators
Two groups of F.B.I. agents and bureau employees sued to block Mr. Trump from releasing the names of agents and staff members who participated in the investigations into the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, trying to head off what they fear is a looming purge. On Friday, the government agreed not to release the names while the case is being heard by Judge Jia M. Cobb of the District of Columbia, a nominee of President Biden.
Charlie Savage, Zach Montague, Madeleine Ngo and Eileen Sullivan contributed reporting.
