In the recent Supreme Court case Trump v. CASA, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, in the opinion for the majority, wrote that “federal courts do not exercise general oversight of the Executive Branch; they resolve cases and controversies consistent with the authority Congress has given them.” This ruling explicitly determined that lower courts did not have carte blanche to block orders from the commander-in-chief.
Well, one rogue judge in Massachusetts didn’t get the memo (or, more than likely, just ignored the memo altogether). This week, District Judge Indira Talwani — a Barack Obama appointee — demanded that the executive and legislative branches defy the One Big Beautiful Bill Act by continuing to provide federal payments to Planned Parenthood, which OBBBA banned for a year.
OBBBA was enacted into law on Friday, July 4. By Monday, July 7, Talwani’s order was given.
The government, according to Talwani, still must provide Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood Federation of America and its members; Planned Parenthood League of Massachusetts; and Planned Parenthood Association of Utah. This order defies the SCOTUS ruling on the power of lower-court judges but also touches on the SCOTUS ruling regarding individual states not being forced to pay for the butcher mills.
“A single federal judge is ordering that public monies be spent after the Congress of the United States specifically passed a law declining to spend them,” National Review’s Dan McLaughlin articulates with contempt. “You can’t argue with the judge’s reasoning, because there isn’t any; the case was only filed today, and the order is not accompanied by an opinion. It’s just a raw exercise of power.”
Talwani’s order is likely to be struck down. She is defying what is now the law of the land. As McLaughlin further points out, Congress has the power to give or withhold money to any entity it so chooses. Attacking the motives of Congress is measured against a very high bar and should fail utterly.
The Left has elected to continue its campaign of chaos and lawfare against President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress via injunctions and lower-court judges usurping power. In the same opinion mentioned above, Trump v. CASA, Justice Barrett rebuked Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson for a similar line of thinking: “Justice Jackson decries an imperial Executive while embracing an imperial Judiciary,” she admonished.
An imperial judiciary — or centralizing power in the judicial branch — would negate the need for the other two branches. If Congress isn’t allowed to dictate how to spend taxpayer dollars or enact laws, what is its purpose? If the executive isn’t allowed to enforce those laws and exercise control over its own branch of government, the president is a puppet at best and impotent at worst.
Leftists are constantly attacking Trump and his administration for being “agents of chaos.” As usual, they are the pot calling the kettle black. Judge Talwani is causing chaos and attacking the other two branches of government by attempting to usurp their powers. This action cannot be allowed to stand. Furthermore, activist judges should face consequences for their unlawful actions.
