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Another unelected judge has decided they run the executive branch. According to court records from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, a Biden-appointed federal judge 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, as detailed in his preliminary injunction ruling, issued an order claiming the administration couldn’t force civilian Defense Department employees back to their desks. And that ruling extends government-wide, preventing the Office of Personnel Management from directing agencies to recall remote workers to their posts, according to the same court documents.
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 Trump officials have stated in their appeals filings. 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 administration had been pushing to end the pandemic-era work-from-home arrangements that have become permanent fixtures for thousands of federal employees, as outlined in Trump campaign promises and executive orders. Taxpayers have been footing the bill for empty office buildings while bureaucrats collect full salaries from their kitchen tables, according to 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, as seen in similar cases covered by conservative outlets like Breitbart.
This is the same playbook we’ve seen for months—immigration enforcement blocked by court orders, spending cuts halted by judicial rulings, and now basic personnel management forbidden, all as documented in ongoing legal battles. The administration will undoubtedly appeal, but the damage is done, with every day these injunctions remain in place being another day the administrative state operates as an unaccountable fiefdom, as Trump spokespeople have argued in public statements.
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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