Posted on 03/20/2025 4:44:58 PM PDT by Twotone
The Trump administration has been inundated with lawsuits. While this is hardly surprising, the sheer volume — well over 100 as of this writing — and the speed at which unfavorable rulings have been issued against the president are remarkable.
The rapid pace of these cases has muddled key legal issues. Notably, many cases involving contracts, back pay, and civil service protections likely do not belong in federal district court at all. These courts have, in turn, successfully backlogged Trump’s agenda by issuing temporary restraining orders — a unilateral command to back down without any opportunity to appeal.
The Department of Justice should explore creative legal strategies to steer these cases away from federal courts toward the appropriate venues: the Court of Federal Claims and the Merit Systems Protection Board. At the same time, the White House should take steps to ensure that these are fair venues for claims against the administration rather than partisan courts presided over by residual Biden appointees.
A jurisdiction problem
The trouble with these cases is that they probably don’t belong in district court at all. Congress — which has plenary power over the lower courts — has determined that contract disputes belong in the specialty Court of Federal Claims.
Similarly, cases involving adverse personnel actions under civil service laws are designated for the Merit Systems Protection Board. Yet many of these cases end up in the district courts.
The Department of Justice has urged the Supreme Court to force district courts to abide by their jurisdictional limits. However, the Trump administration has another weapon in its arsenal to force the issue sooner: invoking the ancient writ of prohibition.
Revive the writ of prohibition
The writ of prohibition, originating in English common law, was popularly used to resolve jurisdictional court disputes. If a court improperly exercised jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical matter, for instance, the King’s Bench could issue a writ of prohibition to divest it of authority.
In the United States, this writ was initially rare but gained broader applicability with the creation of modern circuit courts of appeal, allowing appellate courts to act in aid of their jurisdiction. According to one appellate court, to invoke the writ, there needs to be a clear instance of a court violating its jurisdiction without any other available way to challenge its actions — precisely the situation Trump faces.
In many of these lawsuits against the administration, the district court simply lacks jurisdiction. For example, if a plaintiff seeks to force USAID to pay out a contract, that case would fall under the jurisdiction of the CFC, not a federal district court. The same principle applies to personnel actions, which should be heard before the MSPB rather than in district courts.
If the district court grants a temporary restraining order in both cases, the government effectively has no way to appeal. Trump, therefore, has a right to seek a writ of prohibition to prevent district courts from exceeding their jurisdiction when given no adequate appellate remedy. That’s exactly why the writ exists.
Replace Biden appointees
This jurisdictional battle highlights another critical issue for Trump: his appointments. If the Department of Justice succeeds in redirecting contract cases to the CFC, they would currently land before a Biden appointee. Trump has the authority to change that immediately, and he should.
The situation at the MSPB is more complex. Trump previously dismissed its chairman, who subsequently sued him. However, a vacancy remains on the board. Trump should move quickly to fill it, ensuring the MSPB is well positioned to handle the influx of personnel claims.
“Government by temporary restraining order” will persist until a higher court intervenes. The writ of prohibition is an underused but powerful legal remedy that the Justice Department should consider pursuing.
Meanwhile, Trump must ensure that if cases are rerouted to the CFC and MSPB, those bodies are not controlled by Democrats when they don’t need to be. The president has the power to make the CFC and MSPB great again — and he should use it.
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This guy must have read my post from last night.
SCOTUS has an opinion day tomorrow. If Roberts really wants to save the legacy, reputation, and legitimacy of the Supreme Court, the first thing that will be done is for an Order to be released stopping the activist federal judges in their tracks and tell them to get back into their lane.
If Roberts really wants to save the legacy, reputation, and legitimacy of the Supreme Court”
Roberts is not the least bit concerned about that. He gave the green light to these hacks last week. He sees that they are well over 100 harassment lawsuits already and is happy about it. The reality is 5 of the 9 SC Justices hate the President. I don’t know how Trump beats that. Right now much of his and our agenda has been halted.
Well, Pres. Trump could simply do what we elected him to do. There’s only one remedy, impeachment. Do they want a fresh young J.D. Vance in the Oval Office? Eligible for reelection, too.
You might want to do a bit more research.
The administration has been very busy—taking thousands and thousands of specific actions.
The courts have looked at a relative handful of them.
The court activity makes a lot of headlines—but it is important to keep it in proper perspective.
More than 95% of the administration activity is moving along right on schedule.
The way to do the research is to focus on one federal agency at a time.
Make a list of every action they have taken—and see how many of those have actually been affected by court activities.
You can do that by going to the agency web site and looking through the administration press releases.
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Anecdote time: I was getting my haircut done today. The lady cutting my hair had a relative laid off from a federal agency in Atlanta (not CDC—not sure which one). They were given several weeks notice and were fired. They are gone. No court activity. Just gone.
The only court the POTUS is answers to is the SCOTUS.
All other courts are in SCOTUS parlance “inferior courts”.
“inferior courts” were created to lessen SCOTUS caseload.
Congress should eliminate the “inferior courts”. Let every case large and small go the the SCOTUS
Precisely, Roberts is not going to change his position that he has already firmly planted. The partisanship is palpable.
Put the onus upon the SC. Have Trump say they’ll respect the decision of the SC’s review, but only then. This would discourage frivolous action and make the SC police their own.
Even with the slim democrap control the fjb gang defied the court all the way to the supreme on the student loan mess and not a thing happened.
Problem is, the pubbies are not reliable to stay on Trump’s side of anything. Some of them would like to see him gone even more than the dims. Trump is getting too close to their honey pot.
“The only court the POTUS is answers to is the SCOTUS. All other courts are in SCOTUS parlance “inferior courts.”
I would agree in theory - BUT inferior courts and inferior executive branch officers ARE on equal footing. I don’t think there’s much of a dispute (legally, at least, whether you don’t like it isn’t really relevant) that while a District Court may not be able to enjoin the president, they can enjoin the secretary of Department X. So unless the president wants to do everything himself, effectively I’m not sure there’s any real teeth to the argument.
He doesn't care about all that, he just wants to nail Trump's hide to a wall and that's plain as day. He won't allow the court to side with Trump on anything.
Americans shouldn't have to stand for this.
trump should consider, soonest an SCourt spot opens, appointing a young conservative to be the Chief justice and demote Roberts.
we don’t. plenty we can do to let Roberts and others know they can play their games but we know what they are doing and in the end they WILL lose bigly. eternity is a long time and they are not currently doing things in line with God, they are inline with pleasing their self.
In any event, a judge can't rule on such a writ against his order. It usually goes to an appellate court, which would take some time.
Thus Judge clearly does not have jurisdiction.
Thus Judge clearly does not have jurisdiction.
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The Administration can easily appeal a writ of prohibition, and the place to do that quickly is the Circuit Court of Appeals. I have no idea whether the Trump Admin. lawyers have made that move yet, but it’s the next legal thing to do - unless we’ve abandoned the law and Constitution for something else.
Time to aggressively go after the criminal Congress.
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