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Another unelected judge has decided they run the executive branch. A Biden-appointed federal judge, Judge William Alsup, as per his preliminary injunction 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.
And he didn’t stop there. The ruling, according to court documents, 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, as outlined in the administration’s policies.
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. The Trump administration had been pushing to end the pandemic-era work-from-home arrangements that have become permanent fixtures for thousands of federal employees, a move supported by campaign promises and voter mandates. Taxpayers have been footing the bill for empty office buildings while bureaucrats collect full salaries from their kitchen tables, according to reports from government oversight groups.
But the judicial resistance continues. This is the same playbook we’ve seen for months—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 involving immigration enforcement and spending cuts. Now basic personnel management is forbidden, based on these rulings. The administration will undoubtedly appeal, drawing from standard legal procedures, but the damage is done.
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.
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