At today's Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) railed against "judicial tyranny" against President Trump.
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00:00...branch, District Judges v. Donald J. Trump.
00:04This hearing is a joint undertaking by the Subcommittee on the Constitution
00:08and the Subcommittee on Federal Courts, because our country is facing a constitutional crisis,
00:14a full-blown judicial assault on the separation of powers that strikes at the very foundation of the republic.
00:23What we're witnessing is the rise of judicial lawfare from the bench.
00:28One unelected district judge sitting in a courtroom in San Francisco or Boston or Baltimore
00:37can now issue a nationwide injunction that ties the hands of the President of the United States
00:45for all 330 million Americans.
00:48That's not law. That's judicial tyranny.
00:53President Donald Trump was elected by over 77 million Americans
00:57with a constitutional mandate to govern.
01:01These district judges, they were not elected.
01:04They were appointed by one individual and confirmed not to legislate, not to govern, but to apply the law.
01:13And yet, far too many of them have abandoned that role.
01:17They've stepped off the bench and into the political arena,
01:23issuing sweeping edicts that impose their policy preferences on 340 million Americans.
01:29Let's walk through just a few of the most egregious recent examples.
01:35Economic policy.
01:37In New York City, the Court of International Trade struck down all of President Trump's tariffs under IEPA,
01:43declaring that they exceeded executive authority.
01:47It was not judging.
01:49It was judges replacing the President's judgment on declaring a national emergency.
01:57And, of course, that ruling was almost immediately stayed by the Court of Appeals.
02:02Deportation policy.
02:05In Baltimore, the chief judge for the District Court of Maryland issued an order preventing the removal of illegal aliens detained anywhere in the country,
02:16granting two days of automatic protection to anyone who files a habeas petition in Maryland,
02:22all without a hearing or legal findings.
02:25This single Maryland judge dictated national deportation policy and then tried to claw back the damage by amending the order.
02:35As chairman of the Subcommittee on Federal Courts, I'm investigating this overreach,
02:41and I've sent a letter to the Judicial Conference of the United States.
02:45But the judges did not stop there.
02:47In D.C., a judge blocked the federal government from requiring proof of citizenship to vote,
02:57overriding election integrity laws across all 50 states.
03:01In Boston, a judge weighed in on birthright citizenship,
03:06deciding a question of nationwide consequence for millions of illegal aliens,
03:12despite the plaintiffs being solely one pregnant mother and two nonprofit organizations.
03:17That's absurd.
03:21That is policymaking and legislating.
03:23That is not adjudication.
03:26In Boston, a different judge blocked a Department of Energy rate cap,
03:33handcuffing efforts to lower taxpayer costs for energy research.
03:38In Rhode Island, a judge ordered the federal government to immediately disperse tens of millions of dollars
03:45under the Inflation Reduction Act and other programs.
03:47The Department of Energy alone was forced to release $50 million by judicial fiat.
03:55In San Francisco, a judge mandated that the Office of Personnel Management rehire all terminated federal workers
04:03and restricted future firings, effectively turning the judiciary into an HR department.
04:09Yet another Maryland judge halted orders intending to stop funding for institutions mutilating minors
04:18through so-called gender transitions.
04:22These deeply consequential decisions were blocked, not by voters, not by Congress,
04:27but in each instance by one unelected judge.
04:30And it doesn't stop there.
04:33Since President Trump returned to office in January, there have been over 40 universal injunctions issued against the federal government.
04:43That's in four months.
04:4535 of those 40 came from the same five judicial districts.
04:51Let's put this into context.
04:54In the first 150 years of the Republic, zero nationwide injunctions were issued.
05:03Zero.
05:04That's for 150 years.
05:06In the entirety of the 20th century, 27 nationwide injunctions were issued.
05:13That's over 100 years.
05:16Under Presidents Bush, Obama, and Biden combined, 32 nationwide injunctions.
05:27Under President Trump's first term, four years, 64 nationwide injunctions.
05:33And now in just four months, we're already over 40.
05:38In four months, the Trump administration has seen more nationwide injunctions than the entirety of the 20th century
05:45and more nationwide injunctions than Presidents George W. Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden combined.
05:54This is not normal.
05:57This is not justice.
05:59This is an orchestrated campaign of judicial obstruction.
06:02Joe Biden, when he was president, nominated to the bench radicals.
06:10I have said only slightly tongue-in-cheek that Joe Biden did something I used to think was impossible.
06:17He made me miss Barack Obama.
06:20But by comparison, the Biden judicial nominees were far more extreme and radical than they were under Obama.
06:28They sought out radicals who would implement policymaking from the bench.
06:33And they are doing precisely that.
06:37That is not democracy and that is not our Constitution.
06:42This hearing is to highlight the effects of this judicial tyranny,
06:50of single judges deciding they know better when it comes to policy
06:55than do the voters of America.
07:03We need to defend democracy.
07:05And with that, I recognize Senator Whitehouse.
07:08Thank you, Senator Cruz.
07:10When I chaired the subcommittee on federal courts, we held hearings.