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Another unelected judge has decided they run the executive branch. A Biden-appointed federal judge, Judge William Alsup, issued a preliminary injunction in the Northern District of California, blocking the Trump administration from enforcing return-to-office requirements for Pentagon employees—and every other federal worker across the government.
As reported by The Associated Press, Judge Alsup’s ruling extends government-wide, preventing the Office of Personnel Management from directing agencies to recall remote workers to their posts. But he didn’t stop there. The administration had been pushing to end the pandemic-era work-from-home arrangements, as outlined in Trump’s executive orders, that have become permanent fixtures for thousands of federal employees.
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 the court’s decision. Taxpayers have been footing the bill for empty office buildings while bureaucrats collect full salaries from their kitchen tables, a point Trump campaigned on and that voters gave him a mandate to address, per campaign statements from the Trump team.
And 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 documented in similar cases by outlets like Fox News. The administration will undoubtedly appeal, 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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