When Judge James Boasberg ordered a plane in international airspace to turn around, I quipped that a D.C. judge was declaring jurisdiction over the entire planet, but my satire was only slightly ahead of reality.
Judge Keith P. Ellison in Texas ordered the Trump administration to restore and maintain communications with an illegal Venezuelan deported to El Salvador and District Judge Brian E. Murphy ordered the Trump administration to maintain custody of illegals deported to South Sudan.
It ought to go without saying that federal judges have no jurisdiction in either El Salvador or South Sudan (I’m not sure anyone technically has much jurisdiction in South Sudan) and since these are foreign countries where the United States is not in control, issuing orders to the administration demanding that they do things in other countries is entirely unworkable and outside the powers of the administration. Judges cannot dictate how presidents pursue relations with other countries. That’s setting very specific powers that are under presidential control and not subject to juridical control oversight, otherwise a judge could order an administration to end or restore relations with other countries or make specific demands of them.
But, to paraphrase Andrew Jackson, if Judge Ellison wants to issue such an order, he’s welcome to send it to El Salvador and ask them to enforce it. Likewise, Judge Murphy can issue an order to South Sudan and see if they’ll do something with it. But if federal judges really want to rule the planet, they’ll need to start issuing orders to the military instead.
