Trump Goes Off on the Federalist Society For Recommending Judges When He Was ‘New to Washington,’ Slams Federal Judges Who Blocked Him From Imposing Tariffs

The Gateway Pundit ^ | May 29, 2025 | Cristina Laila

[Dr. Franklin]

President Trump went off on the Federalist Society for recommending him judges when he was ‘new to Washington’ after a three-judge panel on the US Court of International Trade blocked him from unilaterally imposing tariffs.

On Wednesday, a three-judge panel at the US Court of International Trade ruled President Trump exceeded his authority to unilaterally impose tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977 (IEEPA).

The three judge panel included: Gary Katzmann (Obama), Timothy Reif (Trump) and Jane Restani (Reagan).

The Trump DOJ immediately appealed the federal court’s permanent injunction and the federal circuit court’s en banc order (court’s entire slate of judges) granted the Trump Administration an immediate administrative stay less than 24 hours later.

Trump went off on the judges in a lengthy Truth Social Post on Thursday evening:

[dennisw]

“I agree. Don’t forget that one of the justices used to be a dean of a fampous (famous and pompous) law school.”

Elena Kagen has some common sense and is less loony lib than Sotomayor and Katangi (am I in Africa?) whatever she is, who is certifiable.

There are 4 female SC Justices! It used to be that one female (Sandra Day O’Conner) was more than enough sob sisters. They ruin the Supreme Court the same way Nancy Pelosi ruined Congress, back when she was riding high and riding dirty...... Before Pelosi the male leaders/Dems/Republicans would adjourn for a few drinks, to negotiate, horse trade, settle matters quickly. So that real budgets were voted and passed, rather than continuing resolutions. This boys club came to a halt when Pelosi came to power.

[Dr. Franklin]

The Federalist Society has been the most effective conservative organization in America for the last 25 years. That’s conservative, not MAGA, which are two different things.

There is nothing conservative about the open borders gang. Roberts and Barrett thought it was OK for Biden to open the Southern border and bring all of the illegals into the country. Texas rightfully called it an invasion.

[GrootheWanderer]

Federalist Society judges overturned Roe, overturned racial preferences, upheld Second Amendment rights, gave us multiple landmark cases defending religious liberty, overturned Chevron deference, blocked Biden’s unconstitutional student loan forgiveness. I could go on.

[Dr. Franklin]

Just sign this resignation letter right here. Then I can submit your name to the Senate.

I was never a member of the Federalist Society. I have nothing from which resign.

[Dr. Franklin]

Just sign this resignation letter right here. Then I can submit your name to the Senate.

I was never a member of the Federalist Society. I have nothing from which resign.

[Dr. Franklin]

Just sign this resignation letter right here. Then I can submit your name to the Senate.

I was never a member of the Federalist Society. I have nothing from which resign.

[Dr. Franklin]

Just sign this resignation letter right here. Then I can submit your name to the Senate.

I was never a member of the Federalist Society. I have nothing from which resign.

[Dr. Franklin]

Federalist Society judges overturned Roe, overturned racial preferences, upheld Second Amendment rights, gave us multiple landmark cases defending religious liberty, overturned Chevron deference, blocked Biden’s unconstitutional student loan forgiveness. I could go on.

We can do better than the judges Trump appointed in his first term.

[Dr. Franklin]

Federalist Society judges overturned Roe, overturned racial preferences, upheld Second Amendment rights, gave us multiple landmark cases defending religious liberty, overturned Chevron deference, blocked Biden’s unconstitutional student loan forgiveness. I could go on.

We can do better than the judges Trump appointed in his first term.

[GrootheWanderer]

As of today, Trump has nominated five judges. At this point in his presidency, Joe Biden had nominated 20.

There are currently 48 vacancies. At this pace, Trump will nominate some to fill all of them just before the end of his term.

[Dr. Franklin]

As of today, Trump has nominated five judges. At this point in his presidency, Joe Biden had nominated 20.
There are currently 48 vacancies. At this pace, Trump will nominate some to fill all of them just before the end of his term.

It's better that he take his time and nominate the right people. Trump nominated many duds in his first term. Nominating someone is the easy part. The hard part is getting the nominee confirmed by the Senate, and the Rats of threatened to slow that process to a crawl. He may just want to make his policies and nominees a campaign issue in 2026, and that may be needed for confirmation.

[Dr. Franklin]

The federalists were the big national government advocates.

The federalists staged a counter-revolution. After they allied with the masses to win independence from Britain, they wanted to assume the role of the nation's elites. The constitution is how they did it. The E.U. today is similar to the U.S. under the Articles of Confederation. Their central government operates more by consensus and isn't as strong as ours, but it works, as the we might have done under the old system.

[Dr. Franklin]

But it is the law schools that create the culture that is memorialized in opinions. Yes, courts can and do make new Law and can even blaze new paths with new goals, new priorities, and a new vocabulary to fit the new law, but these innovations are invariably rooted in the dynamics of the law schools. Like the Marine Corps, law schools commence their training of young minds by annihilating everything those minds thought they knew to prepare the ground to sow a whole new cognition. At this point of philosophical uprootedness, the student is open to a philosophical, moral, and intellectual rebuild that produces the legal mind.
Historically, the opportunity was used to inculcate the tools of the trade, the vocabulary, the knowledge of precedent, the technique of argumentation, the agility and nimbleness of multisided analysis. But the opportunity thus created also permits the insinuation of a whole new value system, a new philosophy, a new worldview that feads on a kind of cynicism created in the process that results in a cynical, opportunistic view of the lawyer and his role. Equally, it promotes cynicism about the law; it can convert law to be not something to be discovered but to be invented.
The modern law school actually despises the responsibility of a trade school, and has shifted the emphasis entirely to producing a cadre of young lawyers bent on effecting public policy through law. This shift was greatly accelerated in the civil rights era when stain of Jim Crow morally and intellectually demanded reform. Today, it has become accepted that the law should be shaped to accommodate reform. Trump derangement syndrome has only reinforced that process.

The idea is to create sophists who shamelessly just make things up to support the elitist agenda. The train their students that both law and facts are malleable by skilled advocates. So, we have arrived at the present state of affairs that men can pretend to be women and invade women's private space in rest rooms, locker rooms, and showers. This is the zenith of the ABA's monopoly on certifying law schools.

[Dr. Franklin]

This country is getting flooded with fentanyl, which is a leading cause of death for younger people.
It is an emergency. I believe Trump can tariff China, Mexico and probably Canada as a result.
The 10% base tariff for all countries is dubious.
Trump needs to say that tax cut continuation is not possible given judicial meddling.

If Trump can make judicial obstructionism a campaign issue in 2026, MAGA should win seats in Congress. Free trade also means greater opportunities for drug smugglers, money launderers, and invasive species. The establishment doesn't like to talk about that.

[Dr. Franklin]

Looks like about everyone lied to him when he was first elected - he’s smarter now ....

Trump trusted people who he thought were friends like Christie The Hutt. He has been picking loyalists now. Hopefully, he will keep doing that with his judicial nominees.

[Dr. Franklin]

If Trump hired a lemon, he has only himself to blame.
That’s what responsibility means.

Since federal judges must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate, it's a bit more complicated than that. Trump can't just put anyone he wants in to office as a federal judge. He needs the support of 50 senators assuming his VP is loyal to him. There was the issue of politics in getting a nominee confirmed, and Trump needed to depend on Turtle McConnell. The Turtle is in his shell in Trump's second term, and about to be retired. So, now he's just one vote in the Senate, and things can be different.

[sphinx]

The Federalist Society has for decades been the refuge of the originalist/constitutionalist/textualist remnants in the law schools and surrounding domains. It has stood against the hegemony of the woke, activist, results-driven partisanship of the LeftWorld advocates of judicial overreach.

That doesn’t mean the Federalist Society is perfect. And it certainly doesn’t mean the Federalist Society is one homogenous block of groupthink; it actually encourages principled debate and tolerates disagreement. For this, it has been relentlessly demonized by the left, which has at times tried to make any participation in Federalist Society forums disqualifying, as the left wants to reduce the legal profession to another goosestepping parade of leftist partyliners.

Trump doesn’t have to give his proxy to the Federalist Society, but using it to vet his judicial nominees was one of the wisest things he did in his first term. Who else should Trump consult? The ABA? Or maybe his personal lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen? Does anyone here really think Trump knows his way around the higher reaches of the legal profession?

The administrative state needs to be reined in. The current Supreme Court, the Federalist Society justices in the lead, has made some initial moves in that direction, and the left has been on a nonstop tirade against the emerging challenge to government overreach by either activist judges or executive branch agencies. But that’s a principle that will constrain Trump’s executive actions as well. The law is not whatever the man on the white horse decrees at the moment.

I’m deliberately sidestepping the underlying merits of the current furor over Trump’s tariffs. But the constitution clearly gives the power to set tariffs to Congress. The current issue is just how much of that power Congress has delegated to the executive and whether Trump has overstepped those limits. Trump has asserted essentially unchecked power to impose massive tariffs overnight, and remove them just as suddenly, entirely by executive fiat. That’s not a power I want to yield to any president.

Trump’s response is, “Oh, but this is an economic emergency, so all checks and balances are waived.”

Just like the democrats have deemed climate change an emergency ... and poverty and child nutrition are emergencies ... and health care ... and gender affirmation ... and the humanitarian crisis created by mass illegal immigration ... and gun violence ... and what’s next?

Executive autocracy legally “justified” by unilateral declarations of an emergency situation is not where conservatives should be planting our flag.

[central_va]

Thank god trump is taking action on trade. The us constitution is not a suicide pact.

[central_va]

First term judges were McConnell judges.

[Dr. Franklin]

The Federalist Society has for decades been the refuge of the originalist/constitutionalist/textualist remnants in the law schools and surrounding domains. It has stood against the hegemony of the woke, activist, results-driven partisanship of the LeftWorld advocates of judicial overreach.

The original intent of the founders of the U.S. Constitution was to create a strong independent judiciary. They left Article III as short as possible for the exact limits of federal judicial power to be determined later by the courts themselves, and the first Congress which found it necessary to codify the Bill of Rights. While celebrated, it remains as a bunch of technicalities which modern judges finesse their way around leaving them mostly worthless rights.

Federalists, by definition, want a strong federal government which does encroach on the rights of individuals and the former sovereign states. The Federalist Society embraces a specific school of federalism while dissenting from another school of federalism, the Liberals, who have invented novel rights for a modern age. However, both of those schools of federalism want a strong federal government and independent courts, but for different goals and policies. Consequently, they fight like mad to get their judges confirmed to the courts. I am suggesting a third way, an actual checks on the judges themselves, e.g., an independent court of judicial discipline which need not require that its decisions be appealed to SCOTUS, and a return to the common law jury system, which the U.S. Constitution gutted.