Why do anti-Trump judges always seem to understand his cases?
U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who blocked President Donald Trump from deporting hundreds of Venezuelan migrants, is among the judges who have drawn the attention of critics. “Fox News @ Night” takes a closer look.
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An Obama-appointed judge blocked President Donald Trump from firing Roger Rogoff, the court-appointed U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, ordering the Justice Department to recognize Rogoff as the rightful incumbent and restore his ability to serve.
“This is yet another ruling by an activist judge who is attempting to thwart President Trump’s agenda and undermine his constitutional authority. U.S. attorneys serve at the pleasure of the president,” White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Fox News Digital.
Judge Stanley Bastian, first appointed by Obama in 2013, issued a preliminary injunction reinstating Rogoff and prohibiting the administration from treating him as having been lawfully removed from office. The ruling sets off a legal battle over whether a president can fire a U.S. attorney appointed by federal judges. A 1979 Justice Department opinion and a 2000 federal appeals court ruling both concluded that the president had this authority.
“We disagree with the decision and intend to seek an immediate stay and will appeal,” the DOJ’s Rapid Response brief wrote.
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President Donald Trump’s administration has secured an interim victory at the Supreme Court, allowing it to continue deportations to third countries while the legal battle plays out. (Getty Images)
Some legal experts and conservative lawyers took to social media to sharply criticize the decision, arguing that it undermines the president’s constitutional authority over the executive branch.
“Another illegal and dangerous decision. Violating the separation of powers. By another Democratic activist judge. This time? Judge Stanley Bastian of Seattle Obama,” wrote Article III founder and president Mike Davis.
“The Democratic judges chose their own U.S. attorney. The president, through his attorney general, fired him. Under Article II of the Constitution, the president clearly has executive authority to fire Justice Department officials,” Davis added.
Davis also noted that Bastian’s first name was misspelled in the order, missing the “e” in Stanley.
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“The federal judge misspelled his own name in his order. That’s how you know this is quality legal work,” one user wrote.
“Now Judge Bastian has created an unnecessary constitutional crisis by essentially ordering a coup at the Justice Department, ordering the removal of the President’s pick, and setting up Bastian’s judicial puppet. The Ninth Circuit must resolve this problem. Or the Supreme Court will have to step in. Again,” Davis concluded.
“The president’s power to remove U.S. Attorneys must be unlimited, consistent with Article II of the Constitution. Judge Stanley Bastian is wrong here to order Rogoff reinstated. I predict that Judge Bastian will ultimately be overturned, whether by the Ninth Circuit or the Supreme Court,” said Jeff Clark, vice president of litigation at the Oversight Project.
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Justice Department lawyers asked a federal judge Friday to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the Gun Control Fund, arguing that Attorney General Todd Blanche officially ended it on Aug. 2. (Photo by Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
“Judicial overreach is pure and simple. The judiciary cannot direct the executive branch. Period,” said Holtzman Vogel partner Brian Nieves.
In Myers v. United States (1926), centering on President Woodrow Wilson’s firing of a postmaster without the consent of the Senate, the Supreme Court ruled that the president generally has the constitutional authority to remove executive branch leaders.
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More recently, the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel concluded in a 1979 opinion that the president’s statutory authority to remove “each United States Attorney” also extended to prosecutors appointed by federal judges.
The case is the latest in a series of legal disputes over President Trump’s U.S. attorney appointments, following similar litigation in New Jersey, Virginia and New York.
A similar dispute arose in New Jersey after the administration sought to keep Alina Habba as head of the U.S. attorney’s office after her interim term ended. Federal courts ultimately rejected the administration’s efforts to maintain its authority, even though the justices’ original appointee, Desiree Grace, did not simply take office.
Rogoff’s case goes further, directly testing whether a president can remove a U.S. attorney appointed by federal judges through the legal process to fill a vacancy.
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