Attorney General Jeff Sessions is telling Justice Department lawyers to push back against federal judges who have imposed nationwide injunctions against many of the Trump administration’s policies.
“A number of such injunctions in recent years have brought to the fore the problem of judges acting outside the bounds of their authority and granting relief that reaches far beyond the confines of the particular case or controversy before them,” Sessions said in a memo to 94 U.S. Attorney’s Offices on Thursday, adding, “Consistent with the longstanding position of the Executive Branch under Administrations of both parties, the Department of Justice opposes the issuance of such nationwide injunctions.”
According to Sessions, the Trump administration has faced 25 nationwide injunctions in less than two years, including on policies on travel and sanctuary cities.
In the memo, Sessions tells lawyers to remind the courts that they are bound by the U.S. Constitution — which limits their authority “to issue injunctions that extend beyond the parties to the case before them if such action is unnecessary to provide relief to the parties to the case.”
“Increasingly, we are seeing individual federal district judges go beyond the parties before the court to give injunctions or orders that block the entire federal government from enforcing a law or policy throughout the country,” Sessions said in a statement, slamming what he called historic “judicial activism.”
Sessions also urged lawyers to argue to the courts that nationwide injunctions could make some defendants hesitant to sue, which could “further undermine the public’s confidence in the judiciary because they may be perceived as a sign of disrespect from one court to another.”
“This trend must stop. We have a government to run. The Constitution does not grant to a single district judge the power to veto executive branch actions with respect to parties not before the court. Nor does it provide the judiciary with authority to conduct oversight of or review policy of the executive branch. These abuses of judicial power are contrary to law, and with these new guidelines, this Department is going to continue to fight them,” said Sessions.
The issue of the memo comes amid tensions between the White House and the Justice Department.
Trump on Tuesday — the anniversary of 9/11 — tweeted attacks on the Justice Department and FBI, seizing on allegations from a Republican ally on Capitol Hill regarding two former FBI officials who have become infamous for trading anti-Trump texts: Peter Strzok and Lisa Page.
He also has frequently and repeatedly attacked the special counsel’s Russia investigation, as well as Sessions for his recusal from the investigation.
[Related: Trump: Strzok, Page are an ’embarrassment’ to FBI]
