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Another unelected judge has decided they run the executive branch. According to court documents from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Judge William Alsup, a Biden appointee, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump administration from enforcing return-to-office requirements for Pentagon employees and extending it government-wide to prevent the Office of Personnel Management from directing agencies to recall remote workers.
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 Alsup’s ruling, which claims the administration can’t force civilian Defense Department employees back to their desks.
And it doesn’t stop there. The Trump 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, according to campaign statements and election results. Taxpayers have been footing the bill for empty office buildings while bureaucrats collect full salaries from their kitchen tables, a point raised in administration briefs.
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, as seen in similar cases 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.
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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