Grassley on Unchecked Judicial Power

“The President of the United States shouldn’t have to ask permission from more than 600 different district judges to manage the executive branch he was elected to lead… The practice of sweeping nationwide injunctions, broad restraining orders and judicial policymaking must end. It’s unconstitutional, it’s anti-democratic and it’s imprudent..."

I happen to agree with some Democrats that in previous years have said some judges have gone way beyond what a judge should do on national injunctions. I know Democrats have made that same accusation about district court judges in one district out of 93 in the United States applying their decision nationally. I won’t stand by and allow my colleagues to imply that the “Rule of Law,” those three words, only matters when there’s a Republican President. The silence we heard from Democrats about the rule of law during the Biden years was quite deafening..."

For a number of years, but particularly in the last few months, we’ve seen increasingly sweeping, potentially lawless orders coming from any one of our 600 district judges out of the 93 districts we have. Although our founders saw an important role for the judiciary, individual district judges have empowered themselves to become nationwide policymakers, as opposed to interpreting the law. I consider this as very dangerous..."

In the last few weeks, individual, unelected judges made policy decisions for the whole country. Some examples include: Ordering the President to stop deporting foreign terrorists; Directing the military to enlist and retain transgender servicemembers; Directing who will and will not staff the President’s administration; Ordering the immediate expenditure of billions of dollars. The practice of sweeping nationwide injunctions, broad restraining orders, and judicial policymaking must end. It’s unconstitutional, it’s anti-democratic and it’s imprudent. 

In 2022, Justice Elena Kagan correctly observed, “It just can’t be right that one district judge can stop a nationwide policy in its tracks and leave it stopped for the years it takes to go through the normal process.....”

* Excerpts From Grassley's Senate Speech

Full Speech:

 

H/T MJA

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