Editorial illustration
Another unelected judge has decided they run the executive branch. According to a ruling by Judge William Alsup, a Biden-appointed federal judge 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.
As detailed in Judge Alsup’s preliminary injunction, the administration couldn’t force civilian Defense Department employees back to their desks, and the ruling 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 judge’s order that gives a single district judge in California veto power over executive decisions.
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 Trump campaigned on this issue and voters gave him a mandate to address it. Taxpayers have been footing the bill for empty office buildings while bureaucrats collect full salaries from their kitchen tables, according to reports from the Trump administration’s policy statements.
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 evidenced by similar court actions on immigration enforcement and spending cuts.
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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