Trump's Trials - DOJ sues entire federal district court in Maryland over policy on immigration cases

Episode Date: July 8, 2025

The DOJ has sued the entire federal district court in Maryland over an order that puts a temporary hold on deportations, intensifying a confrontation between the Trump administration and the courts.Support NPR and hear every episode of Trump's Terms sponsor-free with NPR+. Sign up at plus.npr.org.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

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The Trump administration has repeatedly attacked federal judges that ruled against it this year. A recent lawsuit might take the antagonism to a new level. The Justice Department has sued the entire federal district court in Maryland over an order that puts a temporary hold on deportations. Here's NPR's Carrie Johnson. Andre Davis is a retired federal judge from Baltimore. He learned the Justice Department had decided to sue his former colleagues when he boarded

a flight to Charlotte with some of them recently. And it's outrageous that they actually named individually in their official capacities all 15 judges of the court. And so you have to ask yourself, what is going on here? Davis says what's going on is an attack on judicial independence that threatens the separation of powers. The dispute in Maryland began in May when the chief judge there ordered a 48-hour pause in every case where an individual migrant had petitioned to try to block their removal from the U.S. with a habeas petition. Georgetown University law professor Emily Chertoff explains.

The reason the court implemented it is because there have been so many requests for habeas petitions and so many people who are being subject to abrupt precipitous deportation orders and courts need time to be able to consider these requests. Lingering in the background is the case of Kilmar Abrego-Garcia. He's the Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador in what the Justice Department later called an administrative error. Ramping up immigration enforcement is one of the top priorities of the Trump administration. And Attorney General Pam Bondi said the court order in Maryland was overreaching and undermining

the executive branch. It's an aggressive move by the DOJ, but arguably this is an aggressive move by the district court. Andrew Arthur is a senior fellow at the Center for Immigration Studies who's sympathetic to the DOJ argument. Arthur says lower court judges do not have jurisdiction to impose these kinds of temporary pauses on deportations. Injunctive relief itself is supposed to be exceptional. And yet through its standing order, the district court has made it not only mundane, but automatic. It's rare for the Justice Department to sue a federal court, but the Trump DOJ says it's happened before.

Again, Georgetown professor Emily Cherdoff. It's not unprecedented for litigants to sue a judge, you know, in order to say the judge is taking an action and we think that the judge's action is wrong and we want the judge's action to be staged. Most of the time it's the job of Justice Department lawyers to defend a judge who's being sued, but this time it's the DOJ doing the suing. So the judges in Maryland have enlisted noted conservative lawyer Paul Clement to represent them. The case has been moved out of Maryland since the entire district court bench is a defendant. Instead, a judge in Roonoke, Virginia, who was appointed by President Trump, will be

in charge. For Andre Davis, the episode's part of a broader breakdown in civility and respect that's seen more threats and calls for impeachment of judges this year. To respond, he and 50 other retired judges formed a nonpartisan group called the Article 3 Coalition. We have come together to raise our voice in unison to defend the rule of law, to push back against unwarranted and dangerous attacks against judges and against the judiciary in general. Legal experts predict the case against the Maryland judges could end up at the Supreme Court one day.

Carrie Johnson, NPR News, Washington. Washington. Before we wrap up, a reminder, you can find more coverage of the Trump administration on the NPR Politics Podcast, where you can hear NPR's political reporters break down the day's biggest political news with new episodes every weekday afternoon. And thanks, as always, to our NPR Plus supporters who hear every episode of the show without sponsored messages. You can learn more at plus.npr.org. I'm Scott Detro.

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