SCOTUS Impatient With Anti-Trump Judges

In recent weeks the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly chided lower courts that issued rulings unfavorable to the Trump administration, suggesting at least some of the justices believe the judiciary is not treating the Trump administration fairly.

Though such a conclusion can only be reached by inference, the justices have issued several fairly extraordinary orders in cases involving the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and the latest iteration of the travel ban, which deals rather harshly with trial courts in California, Hawaii and Maryland.

The latest signal came in a Wednesday order concerning the number of documents the government must release in connection with a lawsuit challenging the termination of DACA, an Obama-era amnesty initiative that extends temporary legal status to foreign nationals who came to the United States as children. A federal court in California ordered the Trump administration to release all documents relating to its decision to terminate the program. The government counters that it need not publicize its sensitive internal deliberations.

The order appears to be the product of a compromise, as the justices split five to four along ideological lines on Dec. 8 over the same issue. This time, however, it appears all the justices agreed that the California court’s order was “overly broad,” and that the breadth of the order warrants a slight rapping on the knuckles.

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