Trump admin implores Trump-appointed judge to enjoin entire federal district court over automatic stays

Source: Law & Crime

Jul 4th, 2025, 4:30 pm


The Trump administration is imploring a federal judge to make quick work of his colleagues' standing orders that automatically grant injunctions against the government in response to petitions for writs of habeas corpus filed by immigrants facing deportation. In a 26-page motion for a preliminary injunction filed Thursday, the Department of Justice asked U.S. District Judge Thomas T. Cullen, who was appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term, to block the standing order while the underlying litigation plays out.

"Like other government officials, judges sometimes violate the law," the motion begins. "When a judge or court does so in a standing order that harms the federal government's sovereign interests on a repeated and ongoing basis, the government—like any other litigant—may and often does seek relief from that order through the judicial process."

The underlying lawsuit in the case, which was re-assigned to the Western District of Virginia judge this week, was filed on June 24, several weeks after Chief U.S. District Judge for Maryland George L. Russell III, a Barack Obama appointee, cited a recent deluge of emergency immigration proceedings to justify the preemptive, though time-limited, ban on deportations in the Old Line State.

The original two-page order – which also applies to any government effort to change an immigrant's legal status – purports to alleviate administrative headaches caused by the influx of habeas proceedings. One week later, an amended standing order impose additional obligations – to provide notice – on the government.

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