I thought I'd end the week on a positive note. One about there being fewer judges in one area where the Trump administration actually has some say over who sits in a seat.
Acting (but hopefully soon-to-be the) Attorney General, Todd Blanche, has been ruthless in weeding through some of the obstructive judges in the immigration court system, which is not independent. It answers directly to the Department of Justice.
The number of judges losing their jobs was such that PBS was alarmed enough to do a story on it. Yes, they acknowledged - this is all well within the DOJ's purview.
But, dang it. It's just uncool.
A Google search for 'immigration judges fired' shows how widespread the recent carnage on the benches is. California to Chicago to Boston and in between.
One fired Chicago judge was hot under the robe collar, and calling for an investigation into the firings.
THIS IS WHAT I VOTED FOR 🚨 Immigration Judges in Chicago getting whacked
— Julian Assange™ (@Q_Assange001) August 7, 2026
The first Judge got her termination email while she was sitting on the bench
The Chief judge says since Trump took office Judges are being shown the door
We're living in the best of times folks... 🔥 pic.twitter.com/KwjNPXzEno
What it boils down to in the simplest terms is that these judges are not following immigration statutes and the policies of the administration for whom they work.
This naturally calls for another lawsuit that will have to reach SCOTUS.
The Supreme Court just over a month ago expanded presidential power when it struck down removal protections for members of the Federal Trade Commission, clearing the way for the president to fire members of certain independent boards and commissions at will.
But as the high court considered the legality of Congress' efforts to shield those officials from political pressure, legal fights arising from President Trump's attempts to fire an array of other federal workers — from Justice Department lawyers to immigration judges to FBI agents — have been moving through the federal courts.
The cases could pose the next test of presidential power and have significant implications for civil service protections that have been in place since the late 1970s and the federal workers covered by them, legal scholars say.
"The question of whether we can have a civil service staffed by individuals who are selected and retained based on their expertise, qualifications and employment performance, rather than the political ideology of the president is the entire foundation of our modern system of administrative governance," Nicholas Bednar, a University of Minnesota law professor who has studied the civil service, told CBS News.
...Mr. Trump's firings of those federal officials are now on a track headed for the Supreme Court, as a federal appeals court is poised to hear arguments this fall in a case brought by two former immigration judges, Megan Jackler and Brandon Jaroch, who were terminated in February 2025. While cases before appeals courts are typically heard first by three-judge panels, the Federal Circuit in June granted Jackler and Jaroch's request for its full slate of judges to consider their case from the outset — an indication that it recognizes the importance of the dispute.
"This is the case that is going to go to the Supreme Court to test this issue," Bednar said of whether the president has the power to remove federal employees without cause.
Jackler and Jaroch's case landed before the Federal Circuit after the Merit Systems Protection Board, which hears appeals from federal employees of adverse actions, ruled in favor of the Justice Department. In a little-noticed March decision, the board found that "no entity, including Congress or the Board, may place restrictions" on the president's removal authority, "for doing so would infringe upon the president's ability to faithfully execute the laws."
The Justice Department had argued that Article II invalidated removal protections for inferior officers under the Civil Service Reform Act, a landmark law enacted in 1978 that provides protections for federal workers, and the Merit Systems Protection Board agreed.
A Democratic immigration judge fired days before her position became permanent has sued the U.S. Department of Justice, saying the Constitution does not give the president authority to discriminate against civil service employees. https://t.co/UuJADFhZes
— Law360 (@Law360) August 6, 2026
Everybody employed by the federal government is a special flower.
One of the top officials in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) let rip on the obstruction and delays these judges have caused in the ongoing legal deportation process. It's nearly impossible to move illegal aliens, even the criminal ones, out of the country without an immigration judge jumping in from somewhere to throw a wrench in removal plans.
And it has to stop.
DHS General Counsel James Percival tore into the long list of activist left-wing judges who are acting in “open defiance” and trying to “run out the clock” as President Donald Trump executes his election mandate of mass deportation.
“The American people hear about these terrible acts of judicial activism. I think what they don’t often understand is this is not some epidemic that sort of crosses the entire judiciary,” Percival told Fox News. “There are particular judges who are a problem in case after case after case.”
He pointed specifically to Biden-appointed Judge Brian Murphy in Boston who tried to stop the Trump administration from flying dangerous criminal illegals to South Sudan.
“I think we had eight aliens on this flight to South Sudan. One of them had raped a child. One of them had raped a mentally-disabled person. These were very bad people that should not be in our country. And this Judge Brian Murphy was stopping us from doing this,” he recalled.
Judge Murphy's on a mission, though, and has been key to blocking Trump's rescinding temporary protected status (TPS) for different groups.
A Biden-appointed federal judge on Friday became the second jurist in Massachusetts to block the Trump administration's effort to end temporary protected status for migrant groups, fueling a growing clash over whether lower courts are ignoring a recent Supreme Court ruling that narrowed their authority over such decisions.
U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy of the District of Massachusetts issued an administrative stay in African Communities Together v. Mullin, temporarily preserving TPS protections for Ethiopian nationals while the court considers whether plaintiffs may pursue constitutional claims in light of the Supreme Court's June ruling.
In a 6-3 decision in Mullin v. Doe, the Supreme Court significantly narrowed lower courts' authority to block DHS decisions designating or terminating TPS.
Murphy's ruling drew a swift response from DHS General Counsel James Percival, who accused him of "mutiny" against the Supreme Court and revived criticism of the judge's May 2025 order halting a deportation flight to South Sudan.
DHS blamed Murphy for leaving ICE officers stranded at a U.S. military base in Djibouti, where officials said they faced malaria exposure and the threat of rocket attacks from terrorist groups in neighboring Yemen.
There have been a dozen Massachusetts immigration judges let go so far. One of them is suing to get his job back.
And the DOJ just let another one go last week.
Longtime immigration Judge Brenda O’Malley is no longer working at the federal immigration court in Boston, according to a government website and a court staffer. People tracking the court's actions say she's the latest in a slew of departures amid the Trump administration's deportation crackdown.
As of Monday afternoon, O'Malley's name no longer appeared on the website of the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which oversees the nation's immigration courts. A spokesperson for the office declined to comment.
Her departure comes as more than a dozen immigration judges in Massachusetts have been fired since President Trump returned to office.
“Judge O’Malley is the latest immigration judge to be terminated without cause, explanation or due process,” said Jamie Horwitz, a spokesperson for the National Association of Immigration Judges.
Now, the Judges' Association can issue a comment full of umbrage over no explanation or cause given to the dismissed jurists, but they all know pretty damn well why they are no longer employed.
As the meme says, 'Oh, well.'
DHS Special Counsel Percevel is a pistol and a hoot, like so many in the administration.
Out of respect for the appellate courts, I will not be doing a Worst of the Worst, Appellate Judges. The appellate courts have been reasonably fair to us (except the 1st Circuit). If I were though, I would tweet about the 9th Circuit’s egregious, illegal, and indefensible…
— James Percival (@DHSGenCounsel) August 6, 2026
...Circuit’s egregious, illegal, and indefensible practice of granting automatic stays of removal in immigration cases. I’m not going to do it though!
Accomplishing anything and every last thing is a battle for this administration.
All I can say is that at least they give battles on all fronts and take the fight to the obstructionists in every way they can.
This is also why there's been what seems like so little progress - three million illegal aliens gone instead of five or 10, maybe even more. Those howling about 'doing nothing' or 'nothing happening' need to take into account what is happening to prevent any of it on the other side.
It's a constant upstream swim against Class IV rapids. Or should that be 'rabids'?
Sadly, they both work.
Editor's Note: Unelected federal judges are hijacking President Trump's agenda and insulting the will of the people.
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