SCOOP: Top Republican Chuck Grassley sets prompt hearing on judges blocking Trump
FIRST ON FOX: Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, will hold a hearing next week on federal judges' use of nationwide orders to throttle the Trump administration's actions, which will take place back to back with an identical hearing in the lower chamber.
In an exclusive statement to Fox News Digital, Grassley said, "District judges’ abuse of nationwide injunctions has hobbled the executive branch and raised serious questions regarding the lower courts’ appropriate jurisdictional realm."
"Since the courts and the executive branch are on an unsustainable collision course, Congress must step in and provide clarity," he explained. "Our hearings will explore legislative solutions to bring the balance of power back in check."
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The hearing is slated to take place on April 2, one day after the House's hearing.
"We plan to have hearings starting next Tuesday on this broad subject," House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, told "Fox & Friends" on Wednesday morning.
It will be titled "Rule by District Judges II: Exploring Legislative Solutions to the Bipartisan Problem of Universal Injunctions."
Specifically, the committee will look at both the constitutional and policy issues that are raised by judges issuing nationwide injunctions, particularly the uptick brought on by the Trump administration. It will further examine what harm the wide-ranging orders have posed to each branch of government, and what kind of solutions are on the table for Congress.
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The Senate Judiciary Committee's Republican majority has invited witnesses Samuel Bray and Jesse Panuccio to testify at the hearing.
Bray is the John N. Matthews Professor of Law at Notre Dame and is an expert on nationwide injunctions. He has written and testified on the subject extensively. He notably penned a Harvard Law Review article, "Multiple Chancellors: Reforming the National Injunction."
Panuccio is a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner and was previously the acting associate attorney general at the Department of Justice (DOJ), as well as the chairman of the DOJ’s Regulatory Reform Task Force and vice chairman of the DOJ’s Task Force on Market Integrity and Consumer Fraud. He also spent time as Florida Gov. Rick Scott's general counsel.
This is not the first time lawmakers have expressed concerns over the ability of federal judges to stop actions nationwide in their tracks. At a hearing in 2020, led by former committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., it was discussed at length by bipartisan senators.
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Several Republicans have already introduced bills in the House and Senate aimed at restricting the ability of federal judges to kneecap the administration. The president has expressed interest in one such measure, led by Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., Fox News Digital reported last week.
According to two sources familiar with the discussions, top White House aides told senior Capitol Hill staff members last week, "the president wants this." They also said the White House felt that time was of the essence when it comes to the judicial issue and Trump wants Congress to expedite the matter.
While the hearings have been promptly scheduled for next week, there is no word on whether legislation on the issue will be brought to the Senate floor.
The office of Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., did not provide comment to Fox News Digital when asked if he had ideas for policy regarding the injunctions, or whether he believed Congress needed to act.
When asked by Fox News earlier this week about calls to impeach judges, Thune noted that Grassley was examining the issue and said, "At the end of the day, there is a process, and there's an appeals process. And, you know, I suspect that's ultimately how it's going to be ended."
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During a floor speech Tuesday, Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said, "When partisan, unelected district court judges try to micromanage the president of the United States, it isn’t judicial review. It isn’t checks and balances. It is purely partisan politics – and it is wrong."
But the No. 2 Republican didn't call for any specific legislation on the subject.
Critics of the GOP’s cautious approach toward federal judges' wide-ranging orders include Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., who asked why bills weren't already teed up at the start of the Congress.
"Congress has the authority to strip jurisdiction of the federal courts to decide these cases in the first place," the governor said on X earlier this month.
"The sabotaging of President Trump’s agenda by ‘resistance’ judges was predictable – why no jurisdiction-stripping bills tee’d up at the onset of this Congress?" he asked.