ANNALS OF TRUMPI$TAN: Judge dismisses unprecedented DOJ lawsuit against Maryland federal court (Salvador Rizzo, WaPo, August 26, 2025)

Article III of our United States Constitution, judicial independence, and the genius of a free people are vindicated once again.  From The Washington Post:

Judge dismisses unprecedented DOJ lawsuit against Maryland federal court

Justice Department officials are expected to continue their legal challenge, either by appealing Cullen’s ruling or pursuing separate legal challenges..

August 26, 2025 at 11:10 a.m. EDT13 minutes ago

2 min

U.S. District Judge Thomas T. Cullen of Virginia, shown in 2019 when he was a federal prosecutor, dismissed an unusual lawsuit by the Justice Department against all the federal district judges in Maryland. (Jay Paul/for The Washington Post)

By Salvador Rizzo

A federal judge on Tuesday ruled to dismiss an unprecedented lawsuit filed by the Justice Department against all 15 federal district judges in Maryland, finding that the federal bench in that state legally adopted a standing order pausing all deportations for two business days so judges could evaluate migrants’ claims amid the Trump administration’s breakneck schedule of removals.

“In casting its wide net, the Executive ensnared an entire judicial body—a vital part of this coordinate branch of government—and its principal officers in novel and potentially calamitous litigation,” U.S. District Judge Thomas T. Cullen, who sits in Virginia and was specially assigned to preside over the dispute, wrote in an opinion dismissing the litigation. Cullen was nominated to the bench by President Donald Trump in 2020.

Justice Department officials are expected to continue their legal challenge, either by appealing Cullen’s ruling or pursuing separate legal challenges.

In dismissing the case, Cullen criticized the Justice Department’s lawsuit as an unprecedented effort to challenge the federal courts’ authority. He criticized Trump administration officials and spokespersons who “have described federal district judges across the country as ‘left-wing,’ ‘liberal,’ ‘activists,’ ‘radical,’ ‘politically minded,’ ‘rogue,’ ‘unhinged,’ ‘outrageous, overzealous, [and] unconstitutional,’ ‘[c]rooked,’ and worse.”

“Whatever the merits of its grievance with the judges of the United States District Court for the District of Maryland, the Executive must find a proper way to raise those concerns,” Cullen said. The judge found that Trump administration officials could have challenged the Maryland court’s orders pausing deportations for two business days by filing appeals in individual migrants’ cases or by petitioning a judicial body to change the rules.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

---