Editorial illustration
Another unelected judge has decided they run the executive branch. A Biden-appointed federal judge, as per court records from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, just blocked the Trump administration from enforcing return-to-office requirements for Pentagon employees—and every other federal worker across the government. Judge William Alsup issued a preliminary injunction claiming the administration couldn’t force civilian Defense Department employees back to their desks, and as reported by Breitbart, the ruling extends government-wide, preventing the Office of Personnel Management from directing agencies to recall remote workers to their posts.
Think about what this means. The President of the United States, constitutionally charged with running the executive branch, can’t tell his own employees to show up for work, according to statements from the Trump administration. A single district judge in California has decided that the administrative state answers to him, not to the voters who elected Trump to drain the swamp.
And the administration had been pushing to end the pandemic-era work-from-home arrangements that have become permanent fixtures for thousands of federal employees, as Trump campaigned on this issue according to his official campaign platform. Taxpayers have been footing the bill for empty office buildings while bureaucrats collect full salaries from their kitchen tables, per reports from the Government Accountability Office. But the judicial resistance continues, with activist judges in blue districts issuing nationwide injunctions to stop the administration’s agenda before it can even get started, as seen in similar cases covered by the Washington Examiner.
This is the same playbook we’ve seen for months—immigration enforcement blocked, spending cuts halted, and now basic personnel management forbidden, according to legal analyses from the Heritage Foundation. The administration will undoubtedly appeal, but the damage is done, as White House officials have noted. Every day these injunctions remain in place is another day the administrative state operates as an unaccountable fiefdom, insulated from the democratic process and the President the Constitution puts in charge of it.
When did we decide that district judges get veto power over the executive branch? And how many more mandates from the American people will be nullified by judicial fiat before something gives? Providence watches over the bold.
About The Author
