Federal judges break out exclamation points to handle Trump’s BS

The last year has to have been deeply weird for lower court judges as they watch the administration just gleefully ignore court orders and trample the Constitution. They continue to hold the line, but by now, they’re a little weary and, honestly, a little goofy—and that’s meant in a good way.

Court opinions are, by and large, pretty staid, boring affairs, even when announcing big things. But judges are human too, and sometimes, they’ve had enough.

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Judge Richard J. Leon—a 76-year-old George W. Bush appointee who looks a bit like he could play Justice Antonin Scalia in a made-for-TV biopic—was so exasperated with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s attempt to censure Sen. Mark Kelly for the non-crime of reminding military personnel that they have a duty to refuse unconstitutional orders, that he rolled out a 29-page opinion with at least a dozen exclamation points. This banger grants Kelly a preliminary injunction blocking the efforts of Whiskey Pete.

Now, some judges probably go their whole careers without deploying a dozen exclamation points, but those judges were not dealing with this administration.

Part of Leon’s rage, besides that it is such a plain, objective violation of Kelly’s First Amendment rights to censure him, is that he has no time for Hegseth’s argument that the court is not allowed to decide the issue. Who knew courts would get tired of the administration telling them they had no power?

Leon was also not a fan of the extremely novel argument that the limitations on First Amendment protections for active-duty military members somehow apply to retired individuals like Kelly. Also, of course, the fact that Kelly is a sitting senator is kinda important: “Indeed, if legislators do not feel free to express their views and the views of their constituents without fear of reprisal by the Executive, our representative system of Government cannot function!”

See! Exclamation point! But wait! There’s more!

“Rather than trying to shrink the First Amendment liberties of retired servicemembers, Secretary Hegseth and his fellow Defendants might reflect and be grateful for the wisdom and expertise that retired servicemembers have brought to public discussions and debate on military matters in our Nation over the past 250 years. If so, they will more fully appreciate why the Founding Fathers made free speech the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights! Hopefully, this injunction will in some small way help bring about a course correction in the Defense Department’s approach to these issues.”

See? Leon is here to help! Exclamation point!

The administration, of course, also failed earlier this week at criminally indicting Kelly and five other former service members who are elected officials. Big hand to the grand jury for that one!

Also on Thursday, Judge James Boasberg dropped a banger. Boasberg has spent almost a year dealing with the fallout from the administration’s defiance of his order to turn planes bound for El Salvador’s CECOT prison around.

Seriously, can you believe that happened almost a year ago?? It seemed unimaginable that the administration would just ignore a court order, and now it is just routine.

Boasberg keeps trying to get to the bottom of things, and the administration keeps thwarting him or, as Boasberg put it, “Apparently not interested in participating in this process, the Government’s responses essentially told the Court to pound sand.”

Yeah, that’s a quote, not a paraphrase. 

Boasberg told the government that it must facilitate the return of 137 Venezuelans who were sent to CECOT and later to their home countries. The administration has to pick up the cost to fly back anyone who is not in Venezuela. Those in Venezuela cannot yet return, but must be allowed to challenge their deportation from there. 

You can expect the admin to tell Boasberg to pound sand some more, but you can expect him to keep fighting, along with all the other lower court judges holding the line. Or, perhaps asLeon would say, holding the line!!