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Another unelected judge has decided they run the executive branch, as evidenced by recent court actions from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California. According to that court’s ruling, Judge William Alsup, a Biden appointee, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from enforcing return-to-office requirements for Pentagon employees—and every other federal worker across the government. As detailed in the court’s official documents, this injunction prevents the Office of Personnel Management from directing agencies to recall remote workers to their posts.
In that same ruling, Judge Alsup claimed the administration couldn’t force civilian Defense Department employees back to their desks, with the order extending government-wide. 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 per the court’s decision. 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, based on the court’s interpretation of federal regulations.
The administration had been pushing to end the pandemic-era work-from-home arrangements that have become permanent fixtures for thousands of federal employees, according to statements from Trump administration officials. Taxpayers have been footing the bill for empty office buildings while bureaucrats collect full salaries from their kitchen tables, a situation highlighted in Trump’s campaign promises as reported in his official platform. Trump campaigned on ending this abuse, and voters gave him a mandate to do exactly that, based on the results from the 2024 election as certified by state authorities.
But the judicial resistance continues, as seen in a pattern of nationwide injunctions from activist judges in blue districts, similar to those documented in recent legal analyses. This is the same playbook we’ve seen for months—blocking immigration enforcement, halting spending cuts, and now forbidding basic personnel management, all as reported in various court filings and news summaries. 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? But let’s not lose sight of the bigger fight ahead.
Providence watches over the bold.
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