Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) introduced a bill Monday to limit the scope of judicial rulings, the latest in a string of GOP bills targeting the judicial branch.
Under Grassley’s bill, judicial rulings would be limited to the parties involved, meaning any judge’s order would not apply to others who may be similarly situated but did not file litigation.
It also requires litigants to pursue class action lawsuits if they seek relief for those beyond just the parties suing.
Any such move would bring a sledgehammer to a number of different lawsuits currently challenging Trump administration policies.
Grassley’s bill comes as the White House has feuded with a judge who temporarily barred the Trump administration from carrying out deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act as it has pushed to expel Venezuelan migrants under the law. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg was nominated to his current role by former President Obama. President George W. Bush previously appointed him to serve as a judge of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia.
“For a number of years, but particularly in the last few months, we’ve increasingly seen sweeping orders from individual district judges that dictate national policy. Our Founders saw an important role for the judiciary, but the Constitution limits judges to exercising power over ‘cases’ or ‘controversies.’ Judges are not policymakers, and allowing them to assume this role is very dangerous,” Grassley said in a statement.
“The Judicial Relief Clarification Act clarifies the scope of judicial power and resolves illegitimate judicial infringement upon the executive branch. It’s a commonsense bill that’s needed to provide long-term constitutional clarity and curb district courts’ growing tendency to overstep by issuing sweeping, nationwide orders.”
While Republican voices have criticized judges who issue nationwide injunctions as “activist judges,” the injunctions themselves are designed to prevent additional parties from being harmed by a potentially unlawful policy or action even if they did not sue.
Doing so could also create confusion in enforcement, as a select few individuals wouldn’t be subject to a new law or policy while the rest of the country would be.
Temporary restraining orders and temporary injunctions are also limited in their duration, often only in place for part of a suit while a judge determines whether an action was legal.
“Federal district courts across the country play a critical role in our government’s system of checks and balances. Injunctive relief is one tool in this system that is used to rein in executive overreach from administrations of both political parties by blocking implementation of federal policies that could cause irreparable harm,” the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) wrote in a Monday document opposing a similar bill in the House.
While the Trump administration has been critical of Boasberg on the Alien Enemies Act, judges routinely issue nationwide injunctions in cases where they believe the White House may have acted unlawfully and have done so across administrations.
And while the GOP has hammered judges for the routine actions, the Trump administration recently made a similar move — filing a case in a one-judge district in Texas asking for a declaratory judgement that its plans to clamp down on federal government unions is legal.
Grassley’s bill would similarly amend the Administrative Procedure Act and Declaratory Judgment Act to limit relief under those statutes only to the parties that sued — two laws routinely used as a basis for suits to challenge administration policies.
Were Grassley’s bill adopted, it would undercut a number of pending cases.
In the case challenging Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, for example, the American Civil Liberties Union has sought a class action certification.
But under Grassley’s bill, Boasberg’s temporary restraining order would only apply to the five Venezuelan migrants who have sued over the executive order. That would leave the Trump administration free to continue to deport Venezuelans it has accused of being members of the Tren de Aragua gang to a Salvadoran prison.
Another provision of Grassley’s bill would make temporary restraining orders like the one ordered by Boasberg immediately appealable.
Such temporary orders are generally not appealable, but the Trump administration has urged appeals courts to intervene by accusing district judges of overstepping their authority in blocking the president’s policies.
The House is expected to consider this week similar legislation that would also limit judge’s abilities to impose nationwide injunctions.
Zach Schonfeld contributed.
Updated at 7:10 p.m. EDT
