Republican senators unveil bill curbing nationwide injunctions

(CN) — A coalition of Republican senators filed a bill on Tuesday targeting “woke, activist judges” who are issuing injunctions against some of President Donald Trump’s key executive orders. Led by U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the Judicial Relief Clarification Act would ban judges from issuing nationwide injunctions in the absence of a class action.

Other federal court orders would be limited to the parties directly before the court, “ending the practice of universal injunctions and clarifying the constitutional role of the judicial branch,” according to an accompanying news release from Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama, who joined Grassley and 18 other Republican colleagues in signing the bill.

More specifically, the bill would amend the Administrative Procedure Act and the Declaratory Judgment Act while making temporary restraining orders (TROs) immediately appealable.

In a statement, Grassley acknowledged the bill was in response to an increasing number of “sweeping orders from individual district judges that dictate national policy.” In an accompanying fact sheet, Grassley suggested such orders were rare or nonexistent before 1963 but have “become common in the last decade.”

The bill is part of a broader Republican effort to push back against rulings that have prevented Trump from such immediate actions as rolling back birthright citizenship, deporting immigrants and preventing transgender people from serving in the military. Separately on Tuesday, Republican Congressman Darrell Issa of California spoke in support of his similar bill — the No Rogue Rulings Act — during a meeting of the House Judiciary Committee.

“The federal judiciary isn’t interpreting the law, it is impeding the presidency,” Issa said. “It is in fact not co-equal, but holding itself to be superior.” His bill was scheduled to be considered by the full House of Representatives as early as this week.

In comments to the media on Tuesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson said 67% of nationwide injunctions since 2000 were against President Trump, and 92% of those were issued by Democrat-appointed judges.

“You have activist judges who are abusing the system to legislate from the bench,” he said. “This is not how the system our founders designed is supposed to work.”

Johnson pushed back against accusations Republicans were attempting to “defund the courts,” suggesting each branch of government has the authority and duty to keep others in check and his party in Congress was simply interested in exercising that authority.

“We’re not doing anything other than limiting the ability of a judge to issue a nationwide injunction,” he said.

Meanwhile, in an environment where the Trump administration is also advocating for the impeachment of federal judges who oppose his policy and attempting to cripple adversary law firms, defendants of the judiciary are raising alarms about threats to the rule of law.

On a press call Monday, Democratic Congressman Dan Goldman of New York encouraged those targeted by Trump to fight back rather than capitulate.

“If we allow the erosion of our fundamental rights and fundamental values by caving to Donald Trump on an individualized basis, we allow the full erosion of the rule of law and our democracy,” he said.

At the House Judiciary Committee meeting on Tuesday, Democratic Congressman Joe Neguse of Colorado said Republicans are attempting to flip the script after obtaining some 14 nationwide injunctions against President Joe Biden during his four-year tenure. Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland, an attorney and law professor, said the large number of injunctions against Trump corresponds to the president’s large amount of unlawful actions.

“Unconstitutional executive orders should always be enjoined by the courts,” he said.

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