Yesterday in a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) torched rogue judges for utilizing nationwide injunctions to unlawfully halt many of President Trump’s policies. The hearing comes after Senator Hawley introduced legislation to ban nationwide injunctions at the district court level.
In his remarks, Senator Hawley noted that members of the judiciary have weaponized nationwide injunctions in a partisan manner, especially in recent years with an enormous uptick during the first Trump administration. He pointed out that Obama was subject to 12 nationwide injunctions and Biden to 14 nationwide injunctions, in comparison to a whopping 64 in Trump’s first term alone. President Trump has been subject to at least 15 universal injunctions in his second term already.
“It shouldn’t be one rule for Democrats, one rule for Republicans – let’s make it one rule across the board that no matter who appoints you, a judge can only bind parties that are before her or him, that there are no nationwide injunctions,”asserted Senator Hawley. “Let’s make that the standard and return these courts to the proper function of our constitutional system.”
Senator Hawley also noted how partisan judges have weaponized the use of temporary restraining orders (TROs), since TROs lack the ability to be immediately appealed due to their short – and temporary – nature.
Watch Senator Hawley’s full remarks here.
###