BALTIMORE — A judge on Wednesday expressed some skepticism about an unprecedented lawsuit in which the Trump administration sued all 15 Maryland-based federal judges over a standing order related to deportation cases.
The lawsuit is the latest escalation of the Trump administration's war on the judiciary, which has been marked by criticism of judges who have ruled against the government over President Donald Trump's bold and aggressive use of executive power.
At issue is a standing order issued by Chief Judge George Russell on May 21 and updated a week later that set rules for handling cases involving immigrants facing immediate risk of deportation. The order applies a temporary stay of deportation for two business days while the case is considered.
The Justice Department sued, saying Russell had no authority to issue such a blanket order that effectively acts as a broad injunction against government actions without any assessment of whether the individual immigrants have valid cases.
But U.S. District Judge Thomas Cullen, who normally sits in Virginia and was assigned the case because Maryland judges cannot participate, questioned whether the Justice Department took the correct approach in filing a lawsuit.
"You probably picked up that I don’t have a very good poker face,” he said, addressing Justice Department lawyer Elizabeth Hedges. “I have some skepticism,” he added.
There are other avenues the government has to challenge the order, he said, including by appealing in a case involving an individual immigrant in which the standing order is applied.
Noting that the Supreme Court in recent months has acted quickly on a flurry of cases involving the Trump administration, Cullen said the dispute may have been resolved by now if the government had filed a regular appeal.
"If recent precedent is any guide, you would already have a decision," he added.
Cullen did, however, appear more sympathetic to some of the government's arguments on the merits, noting that government lawyers made a "fair point" that even a two-day delay acts as a form of temporary injunction.
A former prosecutor, Cullen was appointed by Trump in 2020 with the backing of Virginia’s two Democratic senators. He said he plans to issue a ruling by Labor Day.
The standing order came in response to the flurry of actions taken by the Trump administration relating to immigration, including moves to deport people without due process. One of the most high-profile cases in the country, involving a Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported back to his native country before eventually being returned, arose in Maryland.
The order states that when an immigrant files a petition for habeas corpus in a federal court in Maryland, the government is temporarily prevented from deporting them until the claim can be adjudicated.
The automatic stay has been applied to at least 12 cases so far, the government says.
The standing order is intended in part to "preserve existing conditions and the potential jurisdiction of this court over pending matters," Russell wrote.
Hedges argued Wednesday that the order imposes restrictions on the government that courts in most immigration cases have no power to impose.
"We are seeing a huge problem," she said.
Hedges added that the lawsuit was not undertaken lightly and similar actions would not become commonplace.
"This is not an assault on the separation of powers," she said.
In response to the lawsuit, the Maryland judges hired a legal team that includes Paul Clement, who served as solicitor general under President George W. Bush, a Republican.
Clement warned in court that if the lawsuit was allowed to move forward toward a trial, it would create a "nightmare scenario" in which judges could be deposed and internal judiciary documents could be reviewed by the government.
"All of that is avoided if you go the ordinary route," he added, referring to the government filing an appeal in one of the cases rather than suing judges.
