The House passed legislation Wednesday to limit lower courts from issuing nationwide injunctions, a power that many say has been abused by "activist" judges to block President Trump's agenda.
The bill sponsored by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) passed 219-213. No Democrats voted for the bill, which restricts the scope of court injunctions to just the parties involved, rather than letting judges block a policy nationwide.
A similar bill has been proposed in the Senate by Josh Hawley (MO), but it faces little chance of getting enough Democratic votes to pass.
While nationwide injunctions have faced bi-partisan criticism in the past, Democrats are embracing them to slow down Trump's agenda.
In some cases, district court judges - nominated in many cases by Democratic presidents, although not exclusively so - have ordered Trump to hire back thousands of federal employees or even return foreign nationals deported from the United States.
Frustration with this "judicial activism" has led to calls for impeachment, but Issa's bill takes a more moderate course.
Issa said the bill would discourage partisan litigants from seeking out district courts sympathetic to their agenda, a practice known as forum shopping.
“It may be a timely issue for this president, but that does not make it partisan,” Issa said. “To do the right thing at this time is critical.”
Since Trump returned to office, the rate at which district courts have issued injunctions has skyrocketed.
In just the past few months, district courts have already blocked Trump more times than they did during Biden's four years as president, and Obama's eight. While Trump is not the first president to push the limits of executive power, Democrats say the stark disparity between presidents is simply a consequence of Trump doing "illegal things."
There were 14 injunctions during Biden's term, and 12 during Obama's two terms. That number surged to 64 during Trump's first term - and activist judges are on track to beat that number.
"Since President Trump has returned to office, left-leaning activists have cooperated with ideological judges who they have sought out to take their cases and weaponize nationwide injunctions to stall dozens of lawful executive actions and initiatives,” Issa said.
“These sweeping injunctions represent judicial activism at the worst," he said.
The Supreme Court granted Trump some relief this week, tossing a ruling from Judge James Boasberg, who infamously ordered Trump to turn back deportation flights carrying alleged gang members.
