Sen. Cruz Calls Out Activist Judges Working to Undermine Trump Administration’s Policies
WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Committee on the Judiciary, this week at a full committee hearing focused on the challenges of universal injunctions, highlighted the disparity between universal injunctions filed during the eight years of the Obama administration and the past three years of the Trump administration, discrediting criticisms from the Left that the Supreme Court is lifting too many injunctions.
Pointing to a handful of activist district court judges who are using their lifetime-tenured position to undermine President Trump's policies, Sen. Cruz said:
"Last Friday, Justice Sonia Sotomayor made national news when she wrote a dissenting opinion in which she attacked her colleagues on the Supreme Court. And she accused the federal government of seeking stays ‘in an unprecedented number of cases demanding immediate attention and consuming limited court resources by claiming one emergency after another.' Notably, in this dissenting opinion, not a single one of her colleagues joined her in that opinion.
"If you look to the facts of what's happening with nationwide injunctions, I think it will explain why the Department of Justice has had to ask the Supreme Court to intervene over and over and over again. Nearly one-third of the nationwide injunctions issued against the Trump Administration have come from courts in the state of California. Two-thirds of the states, their district courts have issued a total of zero nationwide injunctions. So, you have a handful of courts that are driving this problem.
"But to put it in perspective, in the eight years of the George W. Bush Administration, district court issued a total of 12 universal injunctions against the Bush Administration. 12 universal injunctions in eight years. In the eight years of the Obama Administration district courts issued 19 universal injunctions against the Obama Administration. In just three years of the Trump Administration, we have already had 55 national universal injunctions issued against the Federal Government. That is what has necessitated the Department of Justice going to the Supreme Court.
"Because I believe we have a handful of judges who are operating effectively as part of the resistance movement trying to put themselves in the way of Trump policies they happen to disagree with. And so, I have to say, I read Justice Sotomayor's complaint about, ‘gosh we're getting all of these emergency appeals at the Supreme Court.' I read it a little bit like an arsonist complaining about the noise from the fire trucks. The reason there are so many emergency appeals is you've had 55 nationwide injunctions from far too many judges who are not honoring their oath, they are not following the law. Instead, they're operating as partisan political activists."
Watch Sen. Cruz's full remarks here.
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