The Trump administration’s agenda came to a screeching halt. They’re furious with the courts.
And now the U.S. Supreme Court is doing the unthinkable to President Trump.
The Supreme Court’s Inexcusable Delay in Tackling Trump’s Legal Battles
The Trump administration is locked in yet another courtroom clash, this time with James Boasberg, chief judge of the federal district court for the District of Columbia, over the deportation of Venezuelan gang members. This dispute is piling even more pressure on the U.S. Supreme Court, which seems content to sit on its hands while lower courts run roughshod over the Executive Branch. The justices’ sluggishness in addressing these mounting legal challenges—particularly the scope of lower court power and its clash with presidential authority—is nothing short of unacceptable.
The latest standoff stems from Trump’s push to deport members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. Boasberg’s courtroom has turned into a battleground, with the administration digging in its heels. On Tuesday, the government invoked state secrets privilege, refusing to hand over additional details about the deportations that Boasberg demanded.
“This is a case about the President’s plenary authority, derived from Article II and the mandate of the electorate, and reinforced by longstanding statute, to remove from the homeland designated terrorists participating in a state-sponsored invasion of, and predatory incursion into, the United States,” the administration argued in its filing.
“The Court has all of the facts it needs to address the compliance issues before it.Further intrusions on the Executive Branch would present dangerous and wholly unwarranted separation-of-powers harms with respect to diplomatic and national security concerns that the Court lacks competence to address.”
This case is just one of many piling up. Trump’s second term, not even 65 days old as of March 26, 2025, has already been hit with at least 15 nationwide injunctions—court orders from single judges that grind his agenda to a halt across the country. Compare that to the 64 injunctions during his entire first term, or the 14 that hampered Biden’s four years, and the pattern is clear: the judiciary is waging an all-out war on Trump’s policies.
An April 2024 Harvard Law Review study found that, since George W. Bush’s presidency, 96 nationwide injunctions have been issued, with 86.5% coming from judges appointed by the opposing party. Most of Trump’s current roadblocks originate in Maryland or D.C. courts, and their sweeping scope is begging for Supreme Court intervention. Yet the justices dawdle.
Trump’s team isn’t just fighting over Venezuelan gang members. They’re battling to freeze federal funding, deport foreign criminals, axe thousands of government jobs, rethink birthright citizenship, and push a laundry list of other priorities—all while judges slap injunctions on them left and right. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments on the Boasberg case Monday, but with no ruling yet, an appeal to the Supreme Court feels inevitable. And it should be. The justices can’t keep ducking these showdowns.
The administration has warned the Supreme Court that letting these nationwide injunctions run wild risks clogging its docket with emergency appeals. The court typically takes on 100 to 150 cases a year out of over 7,000 petitions, relying on a “certiorari” process where it picks and chooses what to hear. But the flood of injunctions—especially this term—is testing that system.
🚨NO COURT CAN REVIEW IT🚨
The Alien Enemies Act Cannot Be Reviewed Or Regulated By Any Court…
There is NO court including the highest court that has Jurisdiction over the Alien Enemies Act
“The Alien Enemy Act precludes Judicial Review” – US Supreme Court after the Alien… pic.twitter.com/IaVAswmyvB
— 𝕊𝕔𝕒𝕣𝕪 𝔼𝕝𝕖𝕔𝕥𝕚𝕠𝕟 𝔻𝕖𝕟𝕚𝕖𝕣 🇺🇸 (@nomandatesco) March 21, 2025
“District courts have issued more universal injunctions and TROs [Temporary Restraining Orders] during February 2025 alone than through the first three years of the Biden Administration,” acting Solicitor General Sarah Harris wrote, urging the court to rein in injunctions targeting Trump’s birthright citizenship order. “That sharp rise in universal injunctions stops the Executive Branch from performing its constitutional functions before any courts fully examine the merits of those actions, and threatens to swamp this Court’s emergency docket.” The Supreme Court’s refusal to act swiftly is letting lower courts choke the administration’s ability to govern.
Associate Justice Samuel Alito has had enough. Earlier this month, in a case over USAID fund distribution, he tore into the court’s inaction with a blistering dissent. “Does a single district-court judge who likely lacks jurisdiction have the unchecked power to compel the Government of the United States to pay out (and probably lose forever) 2 billion taxpayer dollars?” Alito wrote.
“The answer to that question should be an emphatic ‘No,’ but a majority of this Court apparently thinks otherwise. I am stunned.” He’s not alone in his frustration. Back in 2018, Justice Clarence Thomas warned that “[i]f their popularity continues, this court must address their legality,” as reported by CBS News. But Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Amy Coney Barrett sided with the liberal wing in the USAID case, leaving the conservative justices fuming—and the issue unresolved.
The Department of Justice has filed emergency appeals in several cases, begging the Supreme Court to limit these overreaching injunctions. Meanwhile, the administration scored a rare win Tuesday when the 9th Circuit partially lifted a block on Trump’s suspension of the United States Refugee Assistance Program.
The court ruled that Trump has “ample power to impose entry restrictions in addition to those elsewhere enumerated in the INA,” handing him a lifeline. But these small victories don’t erase the bigger problem: the Supreme Court’s maddening reluctance to step in and settle the chaos.
Lower courts shouldn’t have this much sway over national policy, especially when their injunctions derail the Executive Branch before the legal merits even get a fair shake. The Supreme Court’s job is to keep the system in check, not to let district judges play kingmaker. With Trump’s agenda—and the will of the voters who backed him—hanging in the balance, the justices’ lethargy is indefensible.
Stay tuned to the DC Daily Journal.
