Editorial illustration
Another unelected judge has decided they run the executive branch. According to a ruling by U.S. District Judge William Alsup, appointed by President Biden and based in San Francisco, he just blocked the Trump administration from enforcing return-to-office requirements for Pentagon employees—and every other federal worker across the government. But Judge Alsup didn’t stop there; his preliminary injunction extends government-wide, preventing the Office of Personnel Management from directing agencies to recall remote workers to their posts, as outlined in the court’s decision.
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 stated during his campaign rallies, he aimed to end the pandemic-era work-from-home arrangements that have lingered for thousands of federal employees, and exit polls from the election show voters gave him a mandate to address this issue. Taxpayers have been footing the bill for empty office buildings while bureaucrats collect full salaries from their kitchen tables, a point highlighted in reports from the Government Accountability Office.
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. The administration had been pushing to end these arrangements, as detailed in memos from the Office of Management and Budget, but now basic personnel management is forbidden. The administration will undoubtedly appeal, based on statements from White House officials, though 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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