Since Jan. 20, several federal judges have issued orders blocking President Donald Trump from pursuing his America First policy agenda.
As Vice President JD Vance said in a post on X in February: “Judges aren’t allowed to control the executive’s legitimate power.” Yet, that’s exactly what is happening. The United States is facing what El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele described as a “judicial coup.”
Here are some examples:
Reinstate USAID
U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang — an Obama appointee — ordered Tuesday that the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) must have its functions reinstated.
As part of their efforts cut waste and abuse of taxpayers by USAID, the Trump administration took efforts to shut down USAID, including putting employees on leave, reducing the global workforce and putting in place a pause on foreign aid programs pending review.
Chuang ruled that the actions “not only harmed the plaintiffs, but also the public interest, because they deprived the public’s elected representatives in Congress of their constitutional authority to decide whether, when, and how to close down an agency created by Congress.”
Chuang’s ruling comes just weeks after Biden-appointee U.S. District Court Judge Amir Ali ruled the Trump administration had to pay out $2 billion in funds to foreign aid contractors and grant recipients.
Judge Orders US To Keep Violent Venezuelan Gang Members
On Sunday, a flight carrying more than 200 alleged members of the Tren De Aragua gang who were illegally residing in the U.S. arrived in El Salvador as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to deport illegal aliens. Trump used the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
But Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order to stop the administration from protecting Americans.
Activist Judge Blocks Pentagon From Keeping Mentally Ill Persons Out Of Military
On Tuesday Judge Ana C. Reyes issued a preliminary injunction blocking the enforcement of Trump’s executive order that bans mentally ill men who believe they are women from serving in the military and vice versa. Trump’s directive declared the “medical, surgical, and mental health constraints on individuals with gender dysphoria” are “inconsistent” with the “high standards for troop readiness, lethality, cohesion, honesty, humility, uniformity, and integrity.”
The preliminary injunction is delayed until Friday in order to “give the administration time to appeal,” according to the New York Post.
Reyes, a Biden-appointee, wrote the executive order “is soaked in animus and dripping with pretext. Its language is unabashedly demeaning, its policy stigmatizes transgender persons as inherently unfit, and its conclusions bear no relation to fact.”
Notably, Reyes is a prominent Democrat donor, The Federalist’s Shawn Fleetwood reported.
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole also blocked the Trump administration from sending a man cosplaying as a woman to a men’s prison. Trump issued an executive order recognizing that there are only two sexes and as a result, any male would be sent to a men’s prison and vice versa.
Dept. Of Education Grants
U.S. District Court Judge Julie R. Rubin ordered the Department of Education to cough up $600 million in grants that were cut as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to end the leftist diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives. The grants were used to train teachers in “social justice activism,” critical race theory, and DEI ideology, as reported by The Federalist’s Breccan Thies.
[READ NEXT: Biden Judge Who Blocked Trump’s DEI Orders Worked For Law Firm Stacked With Democrat Partisans]
“The grants were used to fund institutions and nonprofits involved in training teachers on concepts like ‘anti-racism’ and claims about white privilege and white supremacy,” Thies reported. “The grants also helped fund discriminatory staff recruiting strategies that targeted candidates based on their race.”
Rubin ruled the termination of the grants is “likely to be proven arbitrary and capricious, because the Department’s action was unreasonable, not reasonably explained, based on factors Congress had not intended the Department to consider” and “not in accordance with the law.”
Federal Spending Freeze
Trump issued a spending freeze on Jan. 27 in order to assess the mass waste and abuse of taxpayer funds. The order was later rescinded by the Office of Management and Budget after District Court Judge Loren AliKhan granted a temporary restraining order on Jan. 28 that blocked the spending pause. As explained by The Federalist’s Beth Brelje, “OMB rescinded the memo and later told the court the case was moot because the pause was no longer in effect.”
District Court Judge John McConnell Jr., also issued a temporary restraining order blocking Trump from pausing the federal spending. McConnell, as summarized by The Washington Times, ordered that Trump must restart the spending “across the board, including specifically at the National Institutes of Health and money that was to be spent under the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act.”
Federal Buyout
The Trump administration offered a federal employee buyout program that gave federal workers the option to leave their current role with full pay and benefits through September 30, 2025. The order was challenged by several unions, which argued the order violated “federal law.”
U.S. District Judge George O’Toole Jr., temporarily blocked the buy-out program, though he “did not express an opinion on the legality of Trump’s buyback program,” Fox News reported. But as former federal prosecutor and current criminal defense attorney Andrew Cherkasky told The Federalist, it was likely O’Toole was blocking the order “on speculative grounds — perhaps arguing that it conflicts with statutory provisions — but executive authority over the federal workforce has long been upheld, particularly when aligned with cost-saving and efficiency rationales.”
DOGE Access To Treasury Records
The Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) was hit with a roadblock when U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer blocked DOGE from accessing Treasury Department records that include personal information such as Social Security and bank account numbers. Nineteen Democratic attorneys general sued to stop Musk and DOGE from accessing the data.
Less than one month later, however, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly rejected efforts by two labor unions and a group of retirees’ seeking to block DOGE from accessing the payment system. Kollar-Kotelly said while privacy concerns are “understandable,” the Plaintiffs failed to show Defendants “have such a plan” that would make the Plaintiffs private information public or put it at risk, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Birthright Citizenship
Trump signed an executive order ending birthright citizenship for the children born to illegal immigrants. The order was immediately met with a barrage of lawsuits from the left.
Both Biden-appointee U.S. District Judge Deborah Boardman and Bush-appointee U.S. District Judge Joseph N. Laplante issued separate preliminary injunctions while Reagan-nominee U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour blocked Trump’s order as well. The Trump administration is now asking the Supreme Court to intervene to stop the lower courts from blocking his efforts.
The Federalist’s Senior Legal Correspondent Margot Cleveland provides further in-depth analysis on lawsuits challenging Trump’s funding freezes and terminations which can be found here.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2
